Glasto backlines diminish

ICBM

miserneil said:

I work for a band that played the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury this weekend and we had all our own backline as we have for every festival we've done this year. The amps used are all part of the bands sound (along with copious amounts of pedals!) and we also have our own monitor guy and desk with all band and crew on IEM's so the sound on a stage as large as that can be similar in feel to a smaller club gig. I would totally agree that at a smaller festival (like something I would do with my own, 'less popular' band! ;-)) where one is relying on the house monitor guy who has never heard of you or is 47 hours in to a 48 hour shift, the onstage sound can be a nightmare! In this situation, I would have my amp of choice turned up loud enough so I could hear it and not have to worry about it in the monitors...and ignore the FOH guy telling me to turn it down :-)

Hope it wasn't Lana Del Rey! Or if it was, that the sound on stage and out front was less crap than it was on TV… despite the guitarist having some sort of posh Marshall clone and a 4x12".

Must admit most of my festival experiences have been of the "turn up at the side of the stage and ask which amp do you want me to use" type . So I always relied on doing it from my pedalboard and not worrying too much about the onstage sound. The one time I took my own proper amp, the sound out-front bore no relation to what it was on stage - I know because one of the other bands borrowed it.

Slightly smaller festivals than Glastonbury though .

IvisonGuitars

ICBM said:

miserneil said:

I work for a band that played the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury this weekend and we had all our own backline as we have for every festival we've done this year. The amps used are all part of the bands sound (along with copious amounts of pedals!) and we also have our own monitor guy and desk with all band and crew on IEM's so the sound on a stage as large as that can be similar in feel to a smaller club gig. I would totally agree that at a smaller festival (like something I would do with my own, 'less popular' band! ;-)) where one is relying on the house monitor guy who has never heard of you or is 47 hours in to a 48 hour shift, the onstage sound can be a nightmare! In this situation, I would have my amp of choice turned up loud enough so I could hear it and not have to worry about it in the monitors...and ignore the FOH guy telling me to turn it down :-)

Hope it wasn't Lana Del Rey! Or if it was, that the sound on stage and out front was less crap than it was on TV… despite the guitarist having some sort of posh Marshall clone and a 4x12".

Must admit most of my festival experiences have been of the "turn up at the side of the stage and ask which amp do you want me to use" type . So I always relied on doing it from my pedalboard and not worrying too much about the onstage sound. The one time I took my own proper amp, the sound out-front bore no relation to what it was on stage - I know because one of the other bands borrowed it.

Slightly smaller festivals than Glastonbury though .

Luckily not! Although my old drummer is currently her guitar tech and definitely earns his money being subjected to that every night! I believe that amp is a MetroAmp clone - very tasty! Worth bearing in mind that with a lot of big televised gigs/festivals, the lines from the stage are spilt 3 ways, one to monitors, one to FOH and one to the broadcast truck so folks watching television are getting a mix that the broadcast sound guy is mixing and not what the bands FOH guy or what people at the gig are getting.

tbm

impmann said:

I thought Plant was incredible, and great to see a 1st year Les Paul being played on a Festival stage!!!

Who was that guying playing the old goldtop? He looked like he was having the time of his life! Loads of fun to watch.

not_the_dj

tbm said:

impmann said:

I thought Plant was incredible, and great to see a 1st year Les Paul being played on a Festival stage!!!

Who was that guying playing the old goldtop? He looked like he was having the time of his life! Loads of fun to watch.

Justin Adams, and the hairy guy is Liam "Skin" Tyson.

Great band, highlight of the TV viewing for me.

EricTheWeary

Still looking at bits on the I player - despite the Discussion title there might be a JC120 revival going on. Well The 1975 ( how annoying is his hair ?) and The Wailers so far.

not_the_dj

EricTheWeary said:

 The 1975 ( how annoying is his hair ?) 

Arrr, but the girls love his floppy hair ;-)

It'll be a shame if he follows his dad though...http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/images/2006/08/22/tim_healy_aufwiedersehen_pet_2_470x364.jpg

ICBM

miserneil said:

Worth bearing in mind that with a lot of big televised gigs/festivals, the lines from the stage are spilt 3 ways, one to monitors, one to FOH and one to the broadcast truck so folks watching television are getting a mix that the broadcast sound guy is mixing and not what the bands FOH guy or what people at the gig are getting.

I assumed that was the case given how bad the TV mixes have been a lot of the time… a sad state of affairs if the guys at the show can get it right!

redrighthand

miserneil;281377" said:

ICBM said:

To be honest I don't know why bands bother. The sound on stage at these things is usually iffy enough that it makes a fussy choice of gear a bit pointless. All you really need is an amp and/or cab to make things louder, and slave whatever portable rig you want to take into it. The sound out front is always different anyway.

That's what I've done at a big show where taking my own gear is too much of a faff. Or maybe I just haven't played a high enough class of festival .

I'd love to use my two Trem-o-verbs on stage at a big outdoor festival before I stop playing altogether, but realistically I probably never will now.













I would disagree here. I work for a band that played the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury this weekend and we had all our own backline as we have for every festival we've done this year. The amps used are all part of the bands sound (along with copious amounts of pedals!) and we also have our own monitor guy and desk with all band and crew on IEM's so the sound on a stage as large as that can be similar in feel to a smaller club gig.





I would totally agree that at a smaller festival (like something I would do with my own, 'less popular' band! ;-)) where one is relying on the house monitor guy who has never heard of you or is 47 hours in to a 48 hour shift, the onstage sound can be a nightmare! In this situation, I would have my amp of choice turned up loud enough so I could hear it and not have to worry about it in the monitors...and ignore the FOH guy telling me to turn it down :-)

Who is it then?!

hotpickups

not_the_dj said:

tbm said:

impmann said:

I thought Plant was incredible, and great to see a 1st year Les Paul being played on a Festival stage!!!

Who was that guying playing the old goldtop? He looked like he was having the time of his life! Loads of fun to watch.

Justin Adams, and the hairy guy is Liam "Skin" Tyson.

Great band, highlight of the TV viewing for me.

I know Justin. He lives just down the road to me. Lovely guy and yes he enjoyed every second of it

hotpickups

hotpickups

hotpickups

not_the_dj said:

tbm said:

impmann said:

I thought Plant was incredible, and great to see a 1st year Les Paul being played on a Festival stage!!!

Who was that guying playing the old goldtop? He looked like he was having the time of his life! Loads of fun to watch.

Justin Adams, and the hairy guy is Liam "Skin" Tyson.

Great band, highlight of the TV viewing for me.

I know Justin. He lives just down the road from me and yes he enjoyed every second of it. You wouldn't believe what he paid for that gold top. I can't remember the figure but it's worth a lot more now than what he paid for it

57Deluxe

...I don't know Justin....

not_the_dj

57Deluxe said:

...I don't know Justin....

Me neither, but I think @hotpickups does, maybe.

hotpickups

not_the_dj said:

57Deluxe said:

...I don't know Justin....

Me neither, but I think @hotpickups does, maybe.

LOL yes sorry about that. My posting was posted twice for some reason

RocknRollDave

Seems to me that the current vogue - for those that don't do away with amps altogether and go down the Axe FX-type route, amyway - is to use a small-ish combo mic-ed up, which of course doesn't take up a lot of real estate onstage compared to the walls of Marshalls that some people still expect to see.

Danny1969

RocknRollDave said:

Seems to me that the current vogue - for those that don't do away with amps altogether and go down the Axe FX-type route, amyway - is to use a small-ish combo mic-ed up, which of course doesn't take up a lot of real estate onstage compared to the walls of Marshalls that some people still expect to see.

Yes that's an easy and cheap solution that works really well. Here's my rig from last Sundays open air gig, not exactly Glasonbury but the fact it's mic'ed up and the band use's IEM's means it would work equally well whatever the size 

That thing is so small and light, and has the advantage of being open backed so the mic stand and copious beers are stored in the cab

Si_

nice little rig..

fretmeister

I love the idea of an Axe-FX set up.

But as I play guitar and bass I think I'd struggle with speakers. I've never heard a cab that sounds good on both, so that means I'd be looking at full range PA kit, and that starts to get big and heavy again.

guitarfishbay

Why not a good 2x12 for guitar and a 2x10/1x15 for bass rather than trying to do it all with one cab?