I am beginning to play out a bit - some jams and even a couple of songs here and there with a friend's band.  I have a Brugera V5 (5 watts) tube amp that I really like (and a Pignose Hog 30).  I'd like to be able to use the Brugera for louder jams, etc., and have been exploring ideas of how to do this. I really don't want to get another amp at this point, but I am thinking of finding a used powered PA speaker.  My friend is going to loan me a spare Mackie SRM 450 PA speaker to play around with.  I'm sure he will explain how to use it, but thought I'd see what people here thought.  Since my goal is to retain the gritty sound I can get from the Brugera but get more volume, would the best way to achieve this be to mic the Brugera to the Mackie?  If so, forgive my ignorance, but does this mean I run a mic from the line out jack on the Brugera and place it in front of the Mackie?  Also, at this point I don't want to buy any more mics while I experiment, so would my Shure PE585 work for the mic in front of the Mackie (I usually play through an Astatic 200)? Another alternative, I assume, is to run a cable from the Brugera to the Mackie instead of a mic.  Would this setup lose the tone that the Brugera produces?  Thanks.  Rich

You're in luck because the Bugera's have a great built in feature, which is a line out to additional speaker cabinet on the back panel.  You just have to make sure the impedance matches - for that I would check your manual.  So you do not need to change any inputs. But for the speaker cabinet I would suggest acquiring a used high quality cabinet designed for this purpose that has the right impedance.  You can power a 4x12 speaker cabinet with this amp and it will be very effective.  Check the upper right hand corner of the rear panel you will see this line out next to the power attenuator.  I think your external speaker has to be minimum 4 ohms.  Good used speaker cabinets are readily available through guitar center, as big setups usually use "heads" and "speaker cabinets" instead of combos.  This is a great feature of this brand and all these tube varieties have this capacity.  It is not a good idea to just grab any kind of pa speaker, you will not be happy and you won't save any money either because good used speaker cabinets are so readily available.  

Thanks for your input, Vinny.  I was aware of the line out jack on the Brugera, and will check the manual for impedance matching (I think you are right about the 4 ohms).  I guess what I don't understand is the how you get volume.  That is, the Brugera (I assume) is limited because of it's max of 5 watts.  So to use it with a loud band I need to boost the volume.  I know that one option is to mic it to the PA but then I am relying on a sound man which at a jam might not be a viable option.  If I simply run the Brugera to an unpowered speaker cab will I get more volume?  Or does the speaker need to be powered?  At this point, I am just playing around, but if I were to buy something to implement this strategy I would certainly look for a good quality speaker. 

Well I would not worry about volume until you run  a test putting that through a good speaker cabinet -- believe me five watts of that tube through a bigger speaker cabinet is going to be very loud, and most likely you can power at least two  12 inch speakers.  Of course you can mic the amp, but why mic an 8 inch speaker when you can mic a much better quality speaker array.  Remember this  is a tube amp, not a digital amp.  I think the speakers need to be at least 4 ohms minimum.  But I would definitely run some tests.  That amp way overpowers the 8 inch speaker that's built in.  Yes the speaker cabinet needs power.   Probably good to start with a 2x12 and see what it sounds like.  Bugera makes both a 2x12 and a 4x12 and they are made to use with all their amps. I have read reviews that people are getting great results with the V5 and these speaker cabinets.  And they are 200 watts.  What you can do is, if there is a guitar center in your area, you can actually take your V5 and your guitar in there, check it in, tell them you want to test speaker cabinets and they will let you do it.  You run that through a 200 watt 2x12 you are most likely going to get all the volume you need.  Remember, that speaker jack is for the internal speaker too, so it's designed for that amp to be used with larger speaker configurations.  Actually, Guitar Center usually has these in stock, if they do you can just use their stuff, but tell them you need to hear how the cabinets sound using the Bugera V5, and just grab one of their guitars.  

Okay -- here's a vid I found on you tube -- using a Bugera V5 and a 4x12 speaker cabinet -- technically a 2x12 or 4x12 gives you much more "head room" - which means a much bigger sound.  There are technical differences between volume and head room but as far as cutting through in a group this should give you what you need.  This is not even being played at full gain or full volume and it's quite a big sound.  Even a good quality 1x12 cabinet will be a big improvement over the 8 inch speaker in the amp. And there is a ample used market in speaker cabinets.