I am about to pull the trigger on a Reaper for my Marshall 18 Watt clone and got to thinking abut wattage ratings. It will be installed in a 1X12 open back combo. I am sure the 30 Watt Reaper will be fine for the amp it will be mounted in, but I occasionally would want to plug another amp into it, potentially up to 50 watts, for testing or short term use. Am I asking for trouble or would I be better off with a Reaper HP?
Wattage Selection Help
06/15/2011 9:34am
I'd definitely recommend the Reaper HP for an 18 watt Marshall. Those things are surprisingly loud.
As a (very) general rule, it's a good idea to have speakers rated for twice the wattage of the amp. Amps always put out quite a bit more than their rated power because we drive them into distortion and by law they have to be rated when clean.
WGS speakers are rated the old-fashioned way. A 30 watt rating means they can handle 30 honest-to-goodness tube watts! Having said that, the HP model is a little beefier on the bottom end and would have absolutely no compression or saturation with the 18 watter - so, if that's what you're going for then go for the HP!