1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

[ApeDosMil]

Would a 1x12 be sufficient in a Live place? lets say its a

Fender Roc Pro 1000 head and a Crate Blue voodoo 1x12?

Will it be good enough miced and not miced?

I don't want to get a 1x12 only to see that it sucks live. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Thanks

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

Sure, one 1x12 can be enough if mic'd and thru a powerful enough PA. You have to take into consideration the size of the venue too.

I personally love 4x12's and never gigged without one. More is usually better than not enough in my book

[Offrampmotel]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

Plus, a 4x12 just looks so much cooler [img]/images/graemlins/band.gif[/img]

[Dew_Riffic]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

a local guy around here plays with a Mesa Mark IV combo (1x12) and he sounds great. although it is in a bar, but im sure it would still do well in a small club.

[metallicarocks]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

Size of the venue is important. If it's a club, you can put a practice amp through the PA for sufficient volume. Without a PA, don't get into something that will require the volume knob to go past half power, most SS amps will fart out and blow up at that pace.

[Ace]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

It also has to do with the other members in your band and how loud they are, and what style of music you play. If it's you and a stand-up bass player and a jazz drummer with a cocktail set playing some smooth jazz, a 1X12 should be fine.

If you play metal and you have a hard hitting drummer and your bass player is playing through an SVT and your other guitar player is rockin' a Dual Rectumfrier pushin' a 4x12, nobody in that venue is gonna hear you at all through a 1x12. A good 2x12 would work, but you would want to put it on a stand so that it throws at head level, and not just be sending all your VU to people's ankles.

[jtr]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

Always use at least a 2x12 is ok 4x12 better you have to move air the more speakers the fuller it 'll sound even at a low volume.

[thetroy]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

How do you guys take 4x12's anywhere? I kind of want one for the sound, but I don't have people to haul my shit around for me.

[jgcable]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

I have a 1,2 and a 4 x 12. For a bar, 1 x 12 is enough. For a small club, 2 x 12 is good. For a large venue with a big stage, 4 x 12 is the best.
With a good PA a stage cabinet isn't even necessary. I saw Rush at Madison Square Garden and Alex Lifeson had a GK ML250 (2 x 5" speakers) sitting on a stool with 2 mics in front of it. That is what he was using for amplification into the MASSIVE PA they had.

[Inazone]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

At an old practice space bigger than some bars I've played in, our drummer would trigger his kick drum and run it through our PA, while us lowly guitarists were just using whatever power our amps could provide. I would consider it to have been the same volume as in a bar or small club, and I was running through a 1x12 solidstate Peavey combo. The thing was a monster, 160W I believe. It didn't sound good as tone goes, but it was loud enough. However, depending on the monitor situation, more speakers or higher speaker elevation may be important. I've always felt that a 2x12 combo and a 2x12 cab (or a head and two cabs) together make the most versatile rig, and you can leave the extra cab at home if you don't need it.

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

[ QUOTE ]
How do you guys take 4x12's anywhere? I kind of want one for the sound, but I don't have people to haul my shit around for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

They have side handles and wheels [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] It is a bitch carrying them up or down steps by yourself tho. A 2x12 combo can weigh as much as a 4x12, hell a head with beefy trasformers can weigh almost as much as a cab [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I just like the sound playing through a 4x12, whether I needed it or not. I haven't gigged in some time but I still use 4x12's at home

[img]/images/graemlins/band.gif[/img]

[markD]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

i use 1x12 cabs live and have little trouble. but most of the time i also use a 4x12 too. it just makes it easier to hear everything, plus it looks cooler. a single 1x12 cab could be used in a small place like a house party, coffee house or a small bar/pizza place. any bigger than that there better be a good PA for you to be running through if you use a single 1x12. i use 2 of them with a stereo head putting out 120 watts. here's a picture of the basic rig i use.


i only use 1 of the heads with the 1x12 cabs. the other head is a slave head and it powers a 4x12 live. that 120 watt rivera is MEGA loud though, and the cabs have 200 watt EVM12L speakers so the sound stays really tight and clear.

[Ace]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

I know that a lot of you guys awnser questions about stage volume with "put it in the PA". Ideally that would be a good awnser, but in my practical experience, I have several problems with that:

1. Too many places I play have shitty PA's. I play fuckin' LOUD. My singer often needs just about all the juice the PA has to be heard over me. I also have a substantial amount of power-sucking bass freqs in my tone(the 2150 works WONDERS here!)

2. Most soundguys I work with suck. Not the ones when I am tech'ing on the pro level, but when my band plays a 200 capacity gig, the soundguy usually knows how to set up and mic everything, and that's about it. They have no idea how my band is supposed to be mixed or EQ'ed, and usually they don't care. I want control over my own tone/levels/etc...

3. PA speakers/amps don't sound nearly as good as my guitar rig.

4. Nothing looks/sounds better than a cranked monster of a guitar rig.

5. I rarely get my own monitor mix, so I rely on myself for comfortable levels of everyone.

[jgcable]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

[ QUOTE ]
I know that a lot of you guys awnser questions about stage volume with "put it in the PA". Ideally that would be a good awnser, but in my practical experience, I have several problems with that:

1. Too many places I play have shitty PA's. I play fuckin' LOUD. My singer often needs just about all the juice the PA has to be heard over me. I also have a substantial amount of power-sucking bass freqs in my tone(the 2150 works WONDERS here!)

2. Most soundguys I work with suck. Not the ones when I am tech'ing on the pro level, but when my band plays a 200 capacity gig, the soundguy usually knows how to set up and mic everything, and that's about it. They have no idea how my band is supposed to be mixed or EQ'ed, and usually they don't care. I want control over my own tone/levels/etc...

3. PA speakers/amps don't sound nearly as good as my guitar rig.

4. Nothing looks/sounds better than a cranked monster of a guitar rig.

5. I rarely get my own monitor mix, so I rely on myself for comfortable levels of everyone.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree 100% with everything above.

[Twisteramps]

Re: 1x12 vs 2x12 x 4x12 etc

1) Bring your own PA.

2) Bring your own soundman. Our drummer runs sound for us, works great. If the band I'm currently in played a place bigger than a bar or more juice than we have, then we'd hire a soundguy that we trust for the night to provide, setup and run sound. We can get guys out here for $100 or so a night... what do they run there?

3) Your guitar rig is only going to sound good to a few members of your audience. The rest of the people there are going to be split between "I can't hear the guitar well" and "Holy shit my ears are bleeding from that guitar"

4) I use a head and 4x12 live, have for 17 years for the most part, other than a few minor detours into Studio .22+ and Univalve use. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] I agree about the looks part, the cranked part... I don't know. I've seen too many bands with their amps cranked so loud that they had feedback (the uncontrollable kind) onstage, and the amps weren't controllable. For some folks it's a dick thing... look how loud I am! I'm rocking out really hard now!

5) Hey, we agree! I do the same thing... I turn my 4x12 so it's not hitting anyone else directly, put my pedalboard out about 10 feet if I have the room, and set it to how loud the drummer is. If I want more guitar, I adjust my position onstage. I get enough wash from the drummer's monitors that I can move between them and hear things just fine. I don't run a quiet amp and then have the PA cranked, but I'm in the PA to spread the sound around.

How large venues are you playing? Other than an outdoor festival gig and one I played as an opening act at a 'real' venue, the bars here would KILL me if I even cracked a 50 watt amp 1/2 of the way up. In my experience, if you play so loud they can't take drink orders easily and everyone is getting a headache, you won't be back.

Pete