Good practice/live performance amp
- Thread starter monkie
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Gear_Junky
New member
i'm sure they do. It just depends on stage size and possibly even appearance.
whenever I "notice", even rigs with "walls" of amps/cabs have microphones in front of them. Brian May had a wall of 12 Vox AC30's and you can see one of them being mic'ed.
I am merely an amateur/hobbyist, but I would venture to guess that even on the hugest stage in the biggest stadium, since there's already ample monitoring presence (whether wedge or in-ear), one could mic up a good little tube combo and get a good sound, stage and FOH. But it wouldn't look as cool as a wall of stacks
(this is only a guess).
whenever I "notice", even rigs with "walls" of amps/cabs have microphones in front of them. Brian May had a wall of 12 Vox AC30's and you can see one of them being mic'ed.
I am merely an amateur/hobbyist, but I would venture to guess that even on the hugest stage in the biggest stadium, since there's already ample monitoring presence (whether wedge or in-ear), one could mic up a good little tube combo and get a good sound, stage and FOH. But it wouldn't look as cool as a wall of stacks
(this is only a guess).So, let me get this straight; players who want high wattage on their amps are not going through the mains? Are their speakers going straight to the audiences? I just didn't think it will be as loud or as powerful as the mains. I ask because the guitarist in my band always goes through the mixer to the mains whether he uses a cab or not and I kinda got into the habit of getting everything through the mains. I mean, it does sound more even and better if everybody goes through the mains? That's why I just want to get a really nice tone low wattage amp because I'll just mic it up. When would you not go through the mains other than that because it's a small venue?
i'm sure they do. It just depends on stage size and possibly even appearance.
whenever I "notice", even rigs with "walls" of amps/cabs have microphones in front of them. Brian May had a wall of 12 Vox AC30's and you can see one of them being mic'ed.
I am merely an amateur/hobbyist, but I would venture to guess that even on the hugest stage in the biggest stadium, since there's already ample monitoring presence (whether wedge or in-ear), one could mic up a good little tube combo and get a good sound, stage and FOH. But it wouldn't look as cool as a wall of stacks
I worked as a stage hand for a Metallica show back in the 80's. The bass player and both guitar players each had a 3X3 array of Marshal 4 12's behind him with a 200w Marshall Major atop each three-stack. The middle cab in each array was real, miced, and powered by a 50w (or 100w in the case of the bass player) Marshall head hidden from view. All nine of the Marshall Majors and the other 24 of the 27 Marshall cabs were fake - empty boxes with Marshall logos on them. The PA did the heavy lifting.
monkie
New member
i'm sure they do. It just depends on stage size and possibly even appearance.
whenever I "notice", even rigs with "walls" of amps/cabs have microphones in front of them. Brian May had a wall of 12 Vox AC30's and you can see one of them being mic'ed.
I am merely an amateur/hobbyist, but I would venture to guess that even on the hugest stage in the biggest stadium, since there's already ample monitoring presence (whether wedge or in-ear), one could mic up a good little tube combo and get a good sound, stage and FOH. But it wouldn't look as cool as a wall of stacks
Depending on the size of the stage, I usually put on a good pair of earplugs to reduce the sounds of the drums and also so I can sleep better later in the night. To me, as long as I can hear everyone and myself clearly, I don't really like it to be louder than it should. I'm actually hearing pretty good even with earplugs on. I guess I got my ears used to it after doing this for a while now.
But talking about appearance, yes, I agreed it looks waaay cooler than with just one little mic'ed up amp, especially when it's only a combo. I think it looks really cheezy, but to me it's all about performance.
Gear_Junky
New member
and of course, the real cab, which gets mic'ed - the mic basically only hears 1 cone (mostly).
I think I'm going to go to Kinko's and order flat "full-size" photo-boards of marshall stacks, so I can have better appearance when I play on my deck
i wonder who came up with that fake cab thing? I did read that Brian May's rig of 12 Vox amps only used the bottom four (or three?). so it must go way back.
I dunno, I'll admit that a "wall of amps" looks cool, but I also liked the weird "no gear" look of TV appearances during british invasion. i dunno how it was possible then. but it's neat to see musicians, unobstructed. that's why i also like small drumkits.
I think I'm going to go to Kinko's and order flat "full-size" photo-boards of marshall stacks, so I can have better appearance when I play on my deck
i wonder who came up with that fake cab thing? I did read that Brian May's rig of 12 Vox amps only used the bottom four (or three?). so it must go way back.
I dunno, I'll admit that a "wall of amps" looks cool, but I also liked the weird "no gear" look of TV appearances during british invasion. i dunno how it was possible then. but it's neat to see musicians, unobstructed. that's why i also like small drumkits.
...players who want high wattage on their amps are not going through the mains? Are their speakers going straight to the audiences?...the guitarist in my band always goes through the mixer to the mains...and I kinda got into the habit of getting everything through the mains...That's why I just want to get a really nice tone low wattage amp because I'll just mic it up. When would you not go through the mains other than that because it's a small venue?
My own recent experience:
The group I am loosely leading (more like "herding cats") is big and mostly guitars. We can talk about the difficulties keeping that from becoming muddy another day, but today, I want to tell you about a recent concert: outside, on a stage, with a biggish area to project to. PA had 1500 watts pushing 4 speakers- two with 12's, two with 15's. It proved to be all the PA we needed- but we found ourselves limited to 16 input channels. One of the electric guitarist plays thru a Roland Jazz Chorus, and I brought my Fender Pro Reverb, so we both went direct- no mic on those two amps, no line out. We each had enough power, for sure, but we had to crank our amps to get there- as we were standing pretty much in front of them, we had trouble hearing everyone else thru the monitors.
Lesson learned: From now on, no matter how we have to do it, everybody's amp/acoustic instrument/mic goes thru the PA. Only exception will be very small venues where acoustic instruments can be heard without amplification at all.
One thing now concerns me about the SCXD: I wonder if the 12AX7 isn't really there just for show. I am no expert on this, but I was of the impression that tubes did best for pre-amplification and power amplification, whereas most if not all other duties (rectification, etc.) could be adequately handled by solid state electronics. IF that is true, than the only reason I can imagine putting that 12AX7 in the amp is so that the less knowledgable among us (and I seem to fall into that catagory, in this case) will go "Oooo, it's got THREE TUBES. Let's BUY IT!"
suprstar
It aint ez being green
Common practice, I saw that a buncha times.. The first time I was astounded, then I thought about it and figured - what sound guy would ever want 9+ 4x12's cranking and bleeding into every mic on the stage.. I've been told to turn my 2x12 down on stage, "I'll get you in the monitors, dont worry, it'll be great!" - and it never is...
Actually, it was 27 4X12's, and I'll tell you who else appreciated it - we poor bedraggled stage hands. Before I knew what was going on and when we opened that semi and saw all those Marshall cabs, all I could think was "Oh, my poor aching back and ears!" But the fake Marshall cabs only weighed about 10 pounds each, so hauling and stacking them was pretty easy, and their stage volume wasn't bad.
lpdeluxe
The Precision Bass Guy
On a local level, my band was notorious for low levels on stage. All the amps were combos and either mic'd or run direct into the board. Life is so much easier when you're not pounding the ears of the people playing the music. That's what subs and big PA amps are for.
It amazes me to go hear a band at a hall around here and not being able to distinguish the vocals or the bass line, nor being able to hold a conversation because it's too stupid loud.