Rog wrote:My Fender Bassman combo has a 200W amp with a standard 150W speaker.
I'm told by people who know far more that me, that this is a good thing as far as driving the speaker nicely.
Not AFAICS, but they might be assuming with bass that you're never going to run the amp at max.
The Bassman is also solid-state, and obviously a bass amp. A tube guitar amp when pushed will peak significantly higher than it's rated for.
Rog wrote:we always rated the speakers greater than the amp. Apparently, modern thinking is at variance with that.
I really think it depends what you want to achieve.
If you want to benefit from alnico compression, you need to push the speaker hard. If you want the speaker to break-up, depending on the speaker, you may need to push it hard.
It also very much depends on the speakers. Some speakers are readily blown, like Greenbacks. Others, like Alnico Blues are conservatively rated.
The Blues are an old-school example of the speakers being rated the same as the amp they're best known to be installed in, the AC30, which peaks significantly higher than its rating, and the combined rating of its speakers.
However, AFAICS, it is still considered normal to rate a speaker at least 50% higher than the amp's rated output, especially for tube amps. And you will find that some manufacturers rate their speakers differently for tube and solid-state amps. A Brown Soun (Tone Tubby) does.
