To all of you who play: how loud is your amp?

[catzodellamarina]

When I played live, in small clubs I only ran out of 1 channel on my VHT 2902 - and at low power setting which I believe is rated at 60w. 12-o'clock was pretty normal by the end of the night. I also used Weber Beam blockers on my 412 to tame the piercing and keep the ladies dancing up front. I didn't mind not being a little buried at times but I always made sure solos were boosted. When I played extremely scooped songs (ie: Pantera) I had to crank it to 1-o'clock.
In larger clubs I ran stereo into (2) 412's still using low power settings @ 12-o'clock.
Outdoors I ran stereo into (2) cabs but I'd switch it to High power - 90+ watts p/ch. @ 12-o'clock.

[Spivonious]

Found a nice article about this: http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/...-/aug-09/99019

[Endrik]

I play with my 180W amp everywhere because I can. It doesn't matter that it sounds good at every volume level, it's just that I don't give a fuck what the others think. This friday I'm gonna play in an international jazz festival.. do I plug into some Roland combo? Fuck no! I'm gonna crank my motherfucking amp and use a lot of fucking gain, fuck those other pussies!

[khabibissell]

I usually bring my Stiletto Ace to shows, and run the master at about 3.5 - 4. If I'm too loud, I usually turn my mids down a bit until I find a good compromise. I find that your mids (especially on Boogies) have a dramatic effect on how loud your rig is perceived.

[catzodellamarina]

Mids

I agree. Mids carry the sound better. If I used extremely scooped mids on songs (ie: Pantera) I have to turn my amp up a hair to compensate. I guess it's safe to say if your style of playing is scooped, then you need an amp with balls to be heard with the band.

[Spivonious]

Yes, scooping the mids takes out the primary guitar frequencies. You'll have to boost overall volume to get the same perceived loudness.

[Racerx2k]

I usually run my setup at around 4, onstage. If I think I'm gonna need more oomph, I'll put it as a side fill (facing across the front of the stage, from left to right), instead of out to the audience.

[BenoA]

Interesting reading guys! Thanks for sharing.

[Robert Hendrix]

My Vox has an attenuator built in so I usually just find the sweet spot, then turn it down to match the mix. If I need any more volume personally, I'll have the sound guy bring my guitar up in my monitor and it's usually sufficient. That said, alot of it depends on the room. If you're playing a small bar, and you're not micing your amp, then you have to mess with it to get a good level/mix. If your sound guy is worth his salt, and you trust him, don't pay attention to what people in the crowd tell you because, if you ARE in a small bar, it's going to depend on where they are standing. If they're standing in front of the stage, they're going to hear whoever they're standing in front of. In that case, watch your sound guy, if he's moving around the room, checking the mix (as he should in a small room) then he's doing his job.

[Spivonious]

My Vox has an attenuator built in so I usually just find the sweet spot, then turn it down to match the mix. If I need any more volume personally, I'll have the sound guy bring my guitar up in my monitor and it's usually sufficient. That said, alot of it depends on the room. If you're playing a small bar, and you're not micing your amp, then you have to mess with it to get a good level/mix. If your sound guy is worth his salt, and you trust him, don't pay attention to what people in the crowd tell you because, if you ARE in a small bar, it's going to depend on where they are standing. If they're standing in front of the stage, they're going to hear whoever they're standing in front of. In that case, watch your sound guy, if he's moving around the room, checking the mix (as he should in a small room) then he's doing his job.

Good stuff. I try to walk out in front during the soundcheck (if possible) to make sure things are balanced.

[markD]

i am so glad i never have to worry about this. most of the gigs my band plays are theater-sized gigs opening for national acts. we always have a good sound guy and a good monitor guy off to the side of the stage.

when we do play bars the in house sound guys are excellent. most of the original music venues around the bay area are well established and often have low level international bands that come through, so the sound guys are great.

having a great monitor mix that blends with the stage sound is glorious. there is one venue where the stage is very deep, and the backline is about 8 feet from the monitors. often i can get away with more stage volume there, but i usually don't push it because the monitors are awesome.

again, as far as the "volume" of the amp, i only go as loud as needed. the show we played on april 30 i had my amp a bit louder than usual. it was a theater gig and the stage is 5 feet off the ground, 25 feet across and about 15 feet deep. it has six wedges across the front and a sweet side-fill on the left side (where i stand). i had no guitars in the wedges and only a little bit in the side fill. most of my stage sound was coming from the amp. it was great. the bassist had guitar in the monitors, as did the vocalist. the FOH sound was perfectly balanced. it was sweet. of course, we can't check the FOH sound ourselves, but everyone afterward said the balance was sweet.

for that show i had my gain channel master at 5 and the clean master at 10.

[Rsmacker]

trust me, pissing the sound man off is the worst thing you can do for your band.

Absolutely. As a professional sound engineer, I get to work with great bands....and some total twats too. I don't do shitty little pub gigs (long past all that nonsense), have looked after my hearing and am yet to hit the age where all my top end register begins to sheer off.
It's what I do for a living, a respectable living too, which allows me to buy things like my Jaguar and Discovery, not to mention a nice house; I am never short of work, and this Summer will be flown around Europe again looking after FOH for some bands who WANT me to make sure their 45 minute festival sets go as smoothly as possible. I'm reasonably confident/arrogant enough to say that I'm good at my job!
If however, someone told me that I was "too old" and turned up as soon as they get onstage, well, that's fine. I will take great pleasure in telling them that the show was shit, that some cunt decided they know best, and that all anyone could hear was guitar. If I've told someone to turn down, it's not because I've suddenly turned into a pussy, there will be a good reason for it, like maybe to compensate, the rest of the band have to be turned up so loud as to pin the audience to the back wall.

Similarly, whilst I do pay attention to people who know the band and their sound well, and will adjust accordingly, I will also drop the cans in their hand and tell them to get on with it while I go for a kip if they think they can do better. At the end of the day, I wouldn't go to their work and sit there criticising, so I don't expect, or accept, being second-guessed by some cunt who has finished work in a factory then driven to a gig in his noisy car, wind whistling through the window, has a few drinks and then comes and tell me where I'm going wrong. I don't expect the band to pay too much attention to him either, they are paying me fucking good money to do my job, I demand that they trust me. If I don't know the band, I perhaps expect less total blind faith, but hope they will realise that it's in all of our interests to make them sound as good as possible. I'm not there with a beer in my hand having a laugh, I'm working, it's serious stuff.
I used to have a sign made that said "Shit In = Shit Out" which I would prop up at the desk when the band decided they would alter drastically stuff we set up during soundcheck. Once or twice I did gigs where I was told to turn it down, only to tell the complainant that I only had a bit of kit and vocals coming through FOH, the deafening roar was coming from 3 fuck-off stacks onstage.

In conclusion, you can get a decent sound without winding everything to No 11. If you can't hear yourself, speak to the monitor engineer, and don't assume that you can tell what it sounds like out front - you can't.

Oh, and get your Mrs to suck the soundman off.

[Spivonious]

Okay, who are you, and what have done with Rsmacker?

[Riffmeister]

I too had the sound guy at every show saying turn it down! I also had a DSL 50 when playing out. I had totally moded and found a certain set of tubes for it that sounded better at low volumes.

I figure if I'm not louder than the drummer, then I'm not to lound and the sound guy can go piss up a rope!

When the sound guy tells you you can't have your guitar in the monitor mix, I figure he doesn't really know what he is doing in the first place.

[Robert Hendrix]

In conclusion, you can get a decent sound without winding everything to No 11. If you can't hear yourself, speak to the monitor engineer, and don't assume that you can tell what it sounds like out front - you can't.

Oh, and get your Mrs to suck the soundman off.

+10000
Absolutely! I don't know how many times I get some Singer/guitarist complaining that they can't hear shit, assuming it sounds just as bad out front. The only way I know what the monitor mix sounds like, or if there is an issue with the monitor mix is if you tell me. I don't go walking across your stage to make sure you can hear yourself, I expect you to communicate with me. Or the guitarist that comes into a 200 seat club with a full triple rec stack expecting to be able to crank the hell out of it.
Fortunately, most of the bands I run sound for these days, I know pretty well and have a level of maturity that is above all that horseshit. But I remember those days pretty well, and I do still get a stage newb on occasion that I have to school.