Need More Guitar in The Monitor

[roodyrocker]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try them next weekend. I will also try to stress bring all the levels down. If this does not work, I may seriously look into the IEM.

What about the sound dispersion of certain speakers? I have been looking for specifications/datasheets on the Mesa V30 with no luck. I have a 5150 half stack that I use at our practice place, I could bring it to the next show or maybe just the cabinet and see if that works any better.

But then you'd be switching speakers jut because you can't hear them on stage. If you like the sound of V30's you should be able to keep them.

[xenophobe]

Angled cab or 1/2 back are the quick and easier solutions. Adding a small powered wedge is more gear to carry. IEM's are a headache live and relying on stage monitors can be iffy from club to club...

[jgcable]

This is a really easy one.
You need more of your guitar in the monitor system. In ear monitors SUCK for guitar live. You will feel disconnected to the entire live experience.
Get yourself another monitor if your band doesn't have enough. Tell the sound guy.. or your sound guy.. to give you a nice hot mix in the monitors. I play live every weekend in a 2 guitar metal band. We have 3000 watts for the mains and 1000 watts for the monitors with 3 wedge monitors. The only things going through the monitors are vocals and guitars and both of them are hot.
I demand a hot monitor mix for my guitar tone for the exact reasons you mentioned.

[jgcable]

Another trick of the trade live is to set up a cross stage monitor mix. Basically, you set up to monitors on each side of the stage pointing towards each other and in the line of fire (in line with the musicians). We do that sometimes too using a spare set of mains and pointing one set out to the crowd and the other set across the stage.

[roodyrocker]

I will respectfully disagree about In Ear Monitors sucking for guitar live. While they don't sound like a cranked 4x12, they do allow you the exact mix of instruments and vocals you want to hear. And they do it equally well anywhere on stage. As I was saying before, you'd need to invest in good custom molded ear buds. The ones I have use dual drivers and I use a Sennheiser system. If you use the generic ear pieces supplied with every system from the factory then yes, the result will be less than optimal. The basic problem for most bands still remains that their stage volume is just too loud. When we run sound for other bands we hardly ever have to tell them to turn up. It's mostly having to turn them down. Then we turn it up from FOH.

[Robert Hendrix]

If you can get your cab off the floor, you'll hear it much better. I use a 2x12 combo on stage and always had trouble hearing myself until I got an amp stand for it. (best 30 bucks I ever spent)
Since yours is a 4x12, a stand isn't an option for you, but if you can bring it up on a short chair, it'll help a lot. Also, the suggestion about facing the cab across the stage is a good one as well. I do that a lot when space allows and not only can you ear it better, but the band members on the other side of the stage can hear you better as well.
When we're playing some larger venues, I bring my extra (old) main speakers and set them up as "side fill" monitors. That usually eliminates ANY hearing issues. But it's not always possible depending on the size of the stage.

[jgcable]

I will respectfully disagree about In Ear Monitors sucking for guitar live. While they don't sound like a cranked 4x12, they do allow you the exact mix of instruments and vocals you want to hear. And they do it equally well anywhere on stage. As I was saying before, you'd need to invest in good custom molded ear buds. The ones I have use dual drivers and I use a Sennheiser system. If you use the generic ear pieces supplied with every system from the factory then yes, the result will be less than optimal. The basic problem for most bands still remains that their stage volume is just too loud. When we run sound for other bands we hardly ever have to tell them to turn up. It's mostly having to turn them down. Then we turn it up from FOH.

Same here. We run a marginal stage volume. We run a HOT monitor and mains mix. I tried 2 different kinds of in ear monitors and didn't care for either but the ones I tried weren't super high end. They were run of the mill and they sucked ass. I also don't like having all that technology hooked on me live. I prefer a guitar and a cord. The other guys in my band all use wireless. I don't see the point because although we play almost every weekend somewhere.. we rarely play on a stage large enough to need a wireless!

[roodyrocker]

The problem I ran into using hot monitor mixes is that it got so loud that I'd have trouble distinguishing one instrument from another. In fact in some places I was setting up with no monitor in front of me. I was just sort of using the next monitor over from an angle. Your ear fatigues after a bit.
If you were using a low end In Ear System with just the generic ear buds that come with them then I can understand why you didn't like them. But a good system with custom molded ear pieces is hard to beat. The custom molded ones seal much better of course. With the generic ones what you heard on stage was really a mix of in ears and floor monitors plus your stage volume. It's hard to control what ratio of each you're getting like that.

[roodyrocker]

My band played out last night so I took a few shots of some of the gear. I used my In Ear Monitors and couldn't be happier. The rest of the band uses monitor wedges. I could hear everything I wanted and my ears were not ringing afterwards either.
This shot shows my small rack which holds a power strip, Audio Technica 3000 series guitar wireless, and Sennheiser In Ear Wireless:


The ear buds are custom molded dual drivers from Westone. Much better than the generic ear pieces supplied with the units:


Here are the monitor wedges for the rest of the band up front:


And the drummer has his monitor wedge:


Here are a couple shots from the front of the stage which show a bonus of some freed up room for my pedalboard since there is no monitor wedge in front of me:

[RacerX]

Rudy do you have any videos of your band in action?

[roodyrocker]

Rudy do you have any videos of your band in action?

Unfortunately not Ron. I've tried a couple times to set and leave my Zoom Q3HD recorder but don't have anything decent without myself or someone at the controls. In fact a couple times it simply froze and I had to pull the batteries out to even get it to shut down and re-start. Our next show is 6/1/13 and I'll attempt to get something recorded again.