I'm cursed: demons prevent me from ever having good tone at a gig.

[Hollow body]

Craigv and ratthead: Are you happy with your stage sound? What are you using?

[Sordid1]

Originally posted by Craigv Well, way too many times the problem that causes "good practice bad gig" tone is forgetting that guitar is a midrange instrument, and having the lows and highs boosted way too much. This is effectively the dreaded "smiley face" EQ that sounds great alone and awful in a band.

 

 

That's a really good point and one that I have seen way too many guitarist ignore. We used to swap shows with a band that was great except the guitarist was running a Boss ME-30 into a {censored}ty SS amp and he had the mids gone, the highs cranked and the bass up way too high. We played about four shows with them and I don't think I could really tell what he was playing ever. I think at rehersal I have better tone simply because it's a controlled environment. I have never had any issues live really other than the typical not hearing myself on stage all that well.

[Timezarrow]

With a half-stack rig like that, if you are standing too close, you won't get the highs unless you are very short or you lift the cab somewhat. I think you need to maintain some distance from the amp to get your ears in the path of the high frequencies.

Another thing I would consider, since you have an issue with the distorted sounds, would be to cut back on the distortion - a little often goes a long way in a gig situation. In practice, you may, as suggested above, be getting the sound bounced back at you, allowing you to hear the full spectrum of what the amp is producing.

At the show, you may only be hearing part of it as the the sound is dispersed - and any heavy distortion may just muddy things up. Of course, it depends on your style of music how much distortion you need, but you may need less at higher volumes when you need to cut through the mix.

There have been some good suggestions in this thread as to how to deal with this type of issue, but only you can tell what is going to work for you. Getting the drummer's volume down should help quite a bit.

It's always difficult to get a good balance on stage for the whole band, and generally the lower you can keep the volume on stage, the better off you'll be. If the whole band is using stacks and high powered amps, it can be deafening.

[ratthedd]

Originally posted by Hollow body Craigv and ratthead: Are you happy with your stage sound? What are you using?

 

 

I love my stage sound. I have a Carvin Quad-X preamp and Carvin T-100 tube amp pushing a Marshall 4x10 cabinet.

 

If I'm set up on stage right, I'll move the amp right as far right as I can (probably about 10 feet further to the right and behind me) and angle it to the opposite front corner of the stage. By setting it up this way, my guitar amp fills the stage so the other musicians can hear it.

 

I use the Direct Out from the preamp into the mixing board and add a small amount of my guitar signal back through my monitor when needed; only enough so I can hear myself slightly louder than the rest of the band. I let the soundman mix the levels for FOH.

[ratthedd]

Originally posted by DonaldDemon I have a half stack 4x12 cab and head. There is no way to angle it at my head. I couldn't put my amp on the other side because then I would never be able to access it. I am always messing with it in between songs. Short of buying big $$$ ear monitors, I see no easy solution.

I don't know what your $ situation is, but you have to get that 4x12 off the floor. There are several companies that make road cases for amps that you could use. Here's one from SKB:




Here's a different one from Grundorf:




After you remove the top, set the top where you want your amp, then lift the amp/cabinet up on the case top. This will put it up about 2 1/2' or 3' higher off the ground and provide you with a more direct path from the speakers to your ears.

If you can't afford one of these (they do tend to be pretty pricey), work out some other way to either lift or angle the cabinet.

As timezarrow already mentioned, when the cabinet is on the floor only your calves get to hear the amp, and most of us don't keep our ears there.

[DonaldDemon]

Thanks for the great suggestions

[Craig Vecchione]

Originally posted by Hollow body Craigv and ratthead: Are you happy with your stage sound? What are you using?

 

 

I play bass. SVT-CL into PR410HLF. Before it sits a Boss GT-6B, basically used as a tuner, volume pedal, and DI, and as an emergency rig should the world actually end and the SVT fails.

 

I love my stage sound. Unless I have one of those bad days where everything sounds like ass. Then I just wait it out. It'll sound fine tomorrow.

[uitar9]

We have played 5 times outside of our practice space this year.

2 bar open jams, where we plugged into house systems, two parties where we used our own gear, in larger basement settings and once at a recording studio where we used our own gear except for the sound system.

In all 5 situations each of us whined afterwards about not hitting our tone yet feedback from the gusts/spectators or studio crew was great.

someone earlier summed it up (As long as your gear isn't {censored}e), Trust in your playing and trust the sound guy. It will work out.

[Carbophos]

1. What I need onstage is just to be able to hear what I play, I don't expect the tone be 'inspiring'. It should cut through and that's enough.

2. When you stand on a club stage the tone that you hear is a blend of straight tone, monitoring tone and a bleed from PA and room ambience. A lot of phase interference happes and random frequencies get boost or cut.

3. Mids are your friend. Soundman will appreciate them too. He can cut extra mids if needed, but he cannot get more of them if they are scooped out.

4. You will NEVER get your 'home' tone onstage, unless you play tiny venue and all the tone goes straight. But room ambience will affect it anyway.

[elbow]

Every different place you play will produce a different tone and overall sound. I think the place you practice in sounds best.... because that's where most of us spend the greatest amount of time playing. I too have played more gigs than I could count where I thought it sounded like crap, only to have someone tell me between sets or afterwards how good it sounded.

Two things that I have found useful:

1. Have someone that knows how the mix "should" sound, be out in the audience and make adjustments..or work with the house soundman to make the adjustments

2. Don't dwell on it and trust that it sounds good to the audience. If you're stressin' on the sound, you ain't gettin' into the music and it's coming across to the audience... hence the snowball effect. You think the sound sucks, you stress, then you *do* suck, you stress on that more.. and so it goes.

[KeysBear]

I think the main demon that ruins good stage sound is the cancellation effect from having speakers too close to each other. I play keyboards and have been seeking a way to get a good piano sound onstage for years. I just have to tell myself it sounds better through the PA and play my part. The smaller the stage the more impossible it is to get a sound that will cut through.