I just did an experiment with the two amps I have in my bedroom right now.
I plugged into the Bassbreaker 15 with the same setup I used for lead guitars on the April music projects. I had the free decibel meter app on my phone running. I hit the mid 90’s a couple of times. The average was in the high 80’s.
I then switched to the Bassbreaker 18/30 with no pedals. I started on the 18 watt channel, which I used for the February music. I lowered the volume all the way and then slowly raised it until I actually got a steady, consistent sound out of it. The decibel meter was showing high 90’s and low 100’s. It peaked at 103.
Well, there goes that idea. I did the same thing on the 30 watt channel and it was averaging higher but the peak was only 104. Regardless, With all the headroom that amp has, when I plugged in my pedal board the volume level was absolutely going to go up. I could try to set everything at unity gain, but why bother. I shut the 18/30 off and went back to the 15. This time with all the pedals. There is a distinct possibility that I might do this whole month with just the Klon KTR for gain. I’ll have the Fulltone OCD and the Wren and Cuff Tri Pi 70 there if I need it, but that KTR is just perfect all by it’s lonesome.
One thing I might do different though is I might put the small amp on top of the big amp. with it sitting on the floor I can’t quite get the mic stand low enough to get the mic in front of a good place on the speaker. If I put the 15 on top of the 18/30 I won’t have that problem.
We’ll see.
Inside the Red Head's Head 