Never sounds right on the night!

erky32

Does anybody else share this problem,?....you set up your guitar, pedals and amp at home ( for example....Gibby SG p90s, into TC Dark Matter, and into Tech21 TM60 + PE60) to give that nice sound that you've invested in, ....then take it out to gig and it sounds nothing like that warm growl that you had at home, ....more of a thin farty-raspy sound. (Partly downgraded by the fact that , at home you maybe set your volume quite loud for satisfaction, but often at a gig theres always somebody who has a volume problem so the umph immediately dissappears !). It happens too often, and I get home slightly miffed ...like tonight !!

digitalscream

Nope. Not had this problem with my Jet City amps or my Kraken - if anything, they always sound better at gigs

The key point is that you need to set them up completely differently when you're playing with a band (sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but I don't know your history here). Usually a bit less gain, a bit more mid and treble for me.

viz

Yes, the scooped high distortion sound that is so lovely in the house is terrible on stage. More bass, more mid, less treble and less distortion works best. I think it might be because the power valves are doing a lot more of the work, not the pre-amp stage.@ICBM will put me right on that. And of course it souns almost clean from the stage but really rocks out front. Anyway you need a proper soundcheck with a long cable.

monquixote

Agree with all this.

Less gain and let the volume do the work.

Grunfeld

+1 
I've gigged with the Tech21 TM60 + PE60 set up too.  For live work it's what's been said:  reduce the gain.  And probably adjust the EQ too -- although that depends a lot on the guitar.  E.g. my Jazzmaster is much brighter than my Sheraton.  Really have to use your ears to decide what's needed.

I've been rediscovering all this with a change of amps over the last few gigs, going from valves to SS, i.e. it's a new amp which responds quite differently to my old one.  I'm almost happy now but it's been a difficult month!

ICBM

erky32 said:

Does anybody else share this problem,?....you set up your guitar, pedals and amp at home ( for example....Gibby SG p90s, into TC Dark Matter, and into Tech21 TM60 + PE60) to give that nice sound that you've invested in, ....then take it out to gig and it sounds nothing like that warm growl that you had at home, ....more of a thin farty-raspy sound. (Partly downgraded by the fact that , at home you maybe set your volume quite loud for satisfaction, but often at a gig theres always somebody who has a volume problem so the umph immediately dissappears !). It happens too often, and I get home slightly miffed ...like tonight !!

You need to set your gig sound up at band practice, not at home. In a mix the sound will end up quite different even if you thought you were playing quite loud at home. And make sure you can hear the amp properly on stage - you almost always need to raise it up off the floor [/stuck record], or at the very least tilt it up towards you.

For what it's worth I've never liked the Tech21 amps either, I've always found they sound odd and farty-raspy, so that doesn't surprise me!

viz said:

Yes, the scooped high distortion sound that is so lovely in the house is terrible on stage. More bass, more mid, less treble and less distortion works best. I think it might be because the power valves are doing a lot more of the work, not the pre-amp stage.@ICBM will put me right on that. And of course it souns almost clean from the stage but really rocks out front. Anyway you need a proper soundcheck with a long cable.

Yes, the power amp turned up a bit with less preamp drive tends to be more dynamic so it sits in a mix better. I'm not so keen on the turn-the-mids-up thing - I *like* scooped sounds, not middy sounds, and they can work just as well in a mix provided your amp has enough power and dynamics. Where it goes wrong is when the amp is too small or thin-sounding to reproduce it properly, then the sound just disappears.

simonk

The Trademark 60 is crying out for a speaker swap - it improves it no end. The stock speaker really doesn't hold together well at volume.