It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Overdrives especially. Live, an amp can breath and chime.
One of my best live sounds was a Redplate/Supersonic with the humbler MP Sweet Honey as the only pedal !
I tend to use a small amount of delay and no verb on the amp but verb and delay added at the desk. as the guy running the desk can tap tempo it to the drummer
One of the most common criticisms of MFX/modelling amp manufacturers is that the factory pre-sets in their units are over-processed. This is because they want to demonstrate the units capabilities and effects, & they know most customers are probably going to play the unit at lower volumes in a store and/or at home or even through headphones so the patches are often over-processed to make sure they can hear the effects.
But when playing live, you often need to wind down everything or it can just become a muddy over-processed mess. Its really all about just getting a sensible balance and appreciating that effect/amp/MFX etc settings need to be quite different for live gigging in a band mix at volume.
Distortions will also sometimes need some adjustment for live gigging - that great saturated distortion with scooped mids you love at home might get completely lost in a band mix. And even the basic amp/MFX EQ needs to be set a little differently. That's because at volume our ears are more sensitive to hearing the mid frequencies and so upping the mids is often needed to help your overall sound punch through the mix. For this reason, with a conventional amp & pedal-board set-up and even with MFX units that have no built in EQ effect, adding a simple external 7-band EQ can make a world of difference to your live tone and can give you way more control than just the built in EQ on your amp. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that for gigging players especially, an EQ pedal is arguably the single most important weapon in your effects armoury on your pedal-board!
And if you are using a regular combo guitar amp that isn't miked up through the PA, the other piece of advice I'd offer is - get it off the floor. By which I mean get your amp off the ground by at least 12 inches and/or angle it so that your sound projects better out to the audience. This is because depending on what the floor is made of or has covering it (eg carpet, rugs etc), some of your tone and volume could be getting absorbed and lost.
Wis'd.
The turning point for me was getting a much simpler amp and ditching the FX loop. (There's nothing wrong with FX loops but this is what started my "rein it in" thinking.)
Biggest discovery for me was getting the amp to do the basic sound I wanted, like a just-about-cruncy amount of gain, and then having OD set to unity-plus-a-smidgeon-extra (rather than "11"). Massive, massive difference: set OD just above unity on an already good base sound.
It's a whole new world. Back the guitar volume off of a bit and it is clean; open it up and add OD and I'm hearing what I wanted all along. I know this was discovered about 100 years ago but for me it has only been in the last year that I've switched from using pedals to amp for getting the base sound as above.
The only FX that's mostly on the go is echo. And it's way more subtle than ever before.
I'll use spot FX but literally just that: in and out for a couple of bars.
FX 4EVA!!
But if you're using the amp as pure backline ie what you and the audience hear is solely from your amp, then what you hear depends whether you're standing in front of, to the side, or behind your amp. Most players will tend to stand in front of their amp or to the side, but there are many (as was done in the 'old days' eg Beatles, Shadows etc) who prefer standing behind the amp (that's the reason classic amps like the Vox AC30 have the control labels 'reversed', so you can read them from behind the amp).
Each 'position' has pros & cons. If you stand in front of the amp, and you're playing at volume, it's potentially damaging to your ears and you're best advised to wear ear-plugs to protect them. If you're too close to your amp you might not easily hear what the rest of your band are doing. So, from your perspective, you might well prefer to keep your amp on the floor and get a better stage balance. The problem is that it may not be best for your audience who are further away from the amp than you are and whilst you might think you're getting a great sound and are plenty loud, you could be getting lost to the audience further back.
If you stand to the side of or behind your amp, having the amp raised is better for both your audience and for you because your ears are not being subjected to as much direct volume. The downside is that you won't seem as loud and you may have trouble hearing yourself in the band mix - this can be particularly problematical if your amp is closed-back with less 'surround' volume behind and at the sides of the amp.
So, backline with no other monitoring is manageable at lower volumes with a quieter drummer but it can be harder to manage at volume in a full mix.
Around 3 years back I got caught out at an open-air gig. I was told the amps would be miked up so I just took my Marshall DSL401 1x12" with my Cub 12R as a backup but with no extension cab. When we got there, there was a problem with the PA and it couldn't take the 'load' of both mikes and amps. So I had to go pure backline which was entirely unintended but from experience I knew how best to set the amp up so it would be a good sound for both the audience and me & the band. On the floor it was fine for me and the band but it was getting lost out to the audience, so I raised the amp off the floor but positioned it back & well to the side of me. This had the added advantage that the better, clearer sound projection meant I could actually turn down the amp a bit. I was using a conventional simple pedal-board with an EQ.
Had I been able to go miked-up, the sound would have been much fuller but in the circumstances and considering this was a little 40w 1x12" amp, I think it projected pretty well. Here's a couple of clips from that very gig - and on Mustang Sally (bit of a fun free for all where other singers & a sax player joined us) you'll hear the vocals cut out and the sound guy doing his best to keep everything going!!
(Mustang Sally)
(Bad Company, Rock steady)
I never really care about the audience, i only play a gig for a change of location. Audiences are uneducated shit heads, who think that salads, chinos and Levi Roots are good ideas.
- You're in good company! Chuck Berry only cared about how he sounded to him & he didn't give a fig about what the audience heard!
I read a lot about guitarists going for natural break up and no effects but at pub levels I can never get to that.
And I always raise up my amp, though never tilt it - I don't like it blasting at my ears at short range. It just sounds better in the mix like that - it naturally rolls off the fundamentals so they don't fight with the bass. (The bass cab should always be on the floor.) That way you get a better, clearer mix without having to EQ anything.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein