Master volume on 9 or 10 - Harmful for my little Mesa DC-2?

[Number Of The Priest]

I recently joined a new band and we rent studio space for rehearsals. I've never played so friggin' loud before and I'm not sure my amp is meant to be pushed so hard.

My setup is my guitar into my Boss GT-6 as a preamp. Its left/mono output goes into the effects return of my Mesa DC-2 combo as recommended by Jgcable. This bypasses all the amp's preamp controls, so basically I control my overall volume with the amp's master volume ("Output Level" control), effects loop volume at the back of the amp ("FX Mix" control), and the output level knob on the back of the GT-6. I also hook up the amp to a 4x12" Marshall cab provided by the rehearsal room, and we typically mic my cab and the drummer's drums and put those through a PA and monitors. The bass amp is SUPER loud on its own.

To get a volume where it's balanced with the drummer and bassist, the amp's master volume is very close to 10, the effects loop volume is definitely close to the limit, and same with the GT-6's output level. Is this because the amp is only 25W? Sorry, I don't really understand a lot of technical things when it comes to sound... I just play the damn instrument.

I actually have no problem cutting through the drummer and bassist... I received a bunch of compliments on my sound today. It's surprisingly consistent whether I'm playing at low volumes at home or jamming at insane volumes with the band. (If only I were as consistent a guitarist, then I'm halfway there.)

Here are some pics of the three controls to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

[VitaminG]

sounds you're running almost exactly the same setup as me. Except I'm doing the poor man's version Korg AX1500G into a cheapo Chinese 30w tube combo into a Seymour Duncan 4X12. Also I'm running the board into the front of my clean channel.

I never have to run my amp that hot. The clean channel is around 6 and the master around 7. That's not miced through the PA though. If we play somewhere that requires it, I can mic up

If you're worried about driving everything so hard, and since you are running into the PA, why not lower your levels and boost your channel on the PA?

[Number Of The Priest]

Duncan makes cabs? Got pics?

The rehearsal room is pretty small and prone to microphonic feedback when any of the mic channels are turned up. Don't even get me started on today's battle with vocal mic placement for our singer/guitarist. But I'll try that next time... most of the PA's levels were pretty low except for the vocal mic.

I also should look at my GT-6 itself and the various patches I programmed into them... I can probably boost some of their levels or boost the overall global volume somewhere. I remember I had to keep my clean sound's gain setting relatively low to prevent it from clipping and then I applied a limiter to it, and that particular patch's volume was already set at its maximum afterward.

[Robert Burns]

Stupid question, but isnt the reference point at straight up "Noon"?
I looked at the pics and the "Master" seems to be at 5 to me?
Unless these knobs turn "Counter-clockwise? "Output" level
at 3' ?

[Shawn Lutz]

Try to set the individual channels masters for the volume difference between the two channels that you want but use the OUTPUT level knob to adjust your overall volume. You may need both cranked to get the desired volume level

Not sure what type of music you play or if you'll mic you cab or not but imho 22 watts isn't going to be enough for me although it can get fairly loud but if you have a drummer who punds the skins hard (and you should ) then it probably wont cut it live...sure you'llhear otherwise but for rock and metal I like it LOUD.

Also you wont hurt the amp running i any volume levels, it goes to 10 for a reason

[jgcable]

Its because of the 22w power section. I would suggest at least 50w for that scenario.

[yard dawg]

I would suggest working on the PA system. Run some pink noise thru it and ring out the monitors. You can also suggest a feedback suppression system like the DBX drive rack or similar. I decent Sound engineer can fix the PA issues.

[Number Of The Priest]

Stupid question, but isnt the reference point at straight up "Noon"?
I looked at the pics and the "Master" seems to be at 5 to me?
Unless these knobs turn "Counter-clockwise? "Output" level
at 3' ?

Those are old pics I took of my gear just to give people an idea of the control layout and are not meant to represent jamming volume settings!

Try to set the individual channels masters for the volume difference between the two channels that you want but use the OUTPUT level knob to adjust your overall volume. You may need both cranked to get the desired volume level

Not sure what type of music you play or if you'll mic you cab or not but imho 22 watts isn't going to be enough for me although it can get fairly loud but if you have a drummer who punds the skins hard (and you should ) then it probably wont cut it live...sure you'llhear otherwise but for rock and metal I like it LOUD.

Also you wont hurt the amp running i any volume levels, it goes to 10 for a reason

The individual channel masters do nothing when I'm doing the Jgcable setup I described in my first post. The amp's preamp is disabled and bypassed with the GT-6 going straight into the effects return and my GT-6 becomes the preamp instead. Thus, my amp is really just used as a poweramp.

Not sure how long I'm going to be in this band for... not sure if I'm too keen on buying an amp head with higher wattage just for weekly rehearsals. I'll definitely be playing around with the mic/PA/monitors a bit more next time. The bass amp is LOUD and my drummer hits HARD.

My amp is 25W, not 22W. It's a DC-2, not the Studio .22 or whatever that one was. Not that it makes one bit of difference... hehe.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[Shawn Lutz]

22w, 25w, whatever its not enough