I've heard people say that they really want to cut the volume of their guitar amplifier, so they take out two tubes or they flip a switch which takes out two tubes via a switch. Well, guess what. These people are full of crap. If you can't take a 50 Watt amplifier with a 4x12 cabinet and blow everyone's ears all to hell, then something is wrong with your amp. 50 Watt guitar amplifiers are incredibly loud. Theoritically, a 100 watt tube guitar amp should only be about 3dB louder. 3DB is certainly louder, but it's not like going from a whisper to a scream...not even close!!! It's more like going from “really painfully loud” to “painfully loud”.

Actually the real reason that people prefer 50 watt or 100 watt amplifiers has a lot more to do with tone. 50 watt guitar amplifiers typically sound quite a bit different than 100 watt guitar amplifiers. 100 watt guitar amps tend to be thicker, but possibly duller sounding. 50 watt amps tend to be brighter and possibly a tad thinner. Enough about guitar tone, that's a whole other article.