Saddest show story.

T

TheEmoTheory

New member
Last night my band played at a mid-sized club. It was my first time playing out, but the other members of the band had done it many times. We dont know much at all about sound equipment or running the sound check or anything. The people running the mix were very apathetic about the whole thing as well.
Just so you know, I use a Marshall AVT150 head and 4x12 slant. (I know there will be mixed feelings about this at best. The clean channel is beautiful though.)
When I had the overdrive on, and cranked past half-way, i got this horrible piercing feedback that wouldn't stop even if I muted the strings. I think this could have had something to do with the monitors, because i crank the amp at practice and it never does that kind of feedback. the jerks at the club didnt help us either.

that brings me to something else, we had one of the celestions miced, and i couldnt hear myself very well at all in the monitor, even after asking several times if he could give me more guitar in the monitor. plenty of people said they could hear the guitar fine out in the crowd, but they wouldnt know a good guitar sound when they heard one.

was this just first show curse? or does my amp suck? if so what should i get for a pedal because the clean channel on the AVT's really is amazing (to me at least).

thanks,
stewart
 
First off, when your on stage the sound usually blows right by you and you may not hear yourself so well but may be killing the
crowd. Your crowd probably did hear the guitar quite well, and you really needed more in the monitor. The crowd may not be musically educated but they know what instruments they can hear. The next time you play take a long cord or a wireless system
and stroll out into the crowd, you mayl be suprised at what your hear. Maybe you need a hot spot right in your ear. Try getting your cabinet so it aims at you from behind. When you are right on top of it it has a tendency to blow by you. If that was your only problem first time on stage then it wasnt to bad.
 
I've got a better story....playing the 7th st. in Minneapolis for the first time...and by chance the other club in the building has Superchunk playing that night...and by chance they wrap up ten minutes before we play, so SC's crowd all piles in...we're playing to a full room of loyal indie music fans.

We screw up totally...I break a string 3rd song - pass it on to a friend who screwed with 4 tuners prior to replacing the string...so now I'm shaking and we never really recover...(I started a song without checking the other five strings...cause I'm a bastard and we have to stop it two verses in cause I'm so out of tune I can't stand it.) -

Real sad...we had a great opportunity, and we screwed up...ah well.

As far as your story goes...make sure they miked a cone. I saw a sound guy mike the center of the cab once - and in a 4x12 cabinet, that's a dead zone with no speaker under it... - pretty funny.

RB
 
Coulda been worse, Ruebarb!
Just read a thread about a drunkin' femanazi that launched a barstool at the stage taking out a Les Paul (or ES) in the process! MadCow victim, no doubt.:mad:

Anyway, like dragonworks said, get intimate with your sound check if you can.

Be awhole different show next time.:cool:

Good luck.
 
Use your cab as your monitor.

Like DW inferred, put it up on milk crates or something so the speakers are directed at your ears. Also, experiment with different positions of the cab, such as to the side or at the front of the stage facing across your spot on the stage.

If you are afraid of loosing the cool appeal of having a 4x12 Marshal behind you, get a 1x12 monitor style cab to place in front of you. Then you can adjust your sweet spot on the stage by adjusting your cab positions.

Matt
 
mic it yourself

or get a whirlwind director DI box and connect it to the amphead or output jack of your amp. i did a show in rock island, illinois. i don't know who the sound people were but they were amazing. other than them, i've always moved the mic after they place it and i usually carry a 57 in my gig bag just in case.

i've got a fender deville (2 cones) amp. i had a sound guy in culpepper, va mic the center of my amp also.
 
I have had that problem alot on stage. I could hear everybody else but I couldnt hear me and it was definatly because of my amp posistion. Like it was stated here, use your cabinet for a monitor. If that is not possible get a hotspot monitor, they mount on top of a mic stand and you can get that baby right in your ear if need be. They handle about 50 watts and that should be enough to hear yourself over anything if it is posistioned correctly.
And dont let this gig get you down, there are many worse ones to come.
 
dragonworks said:
If that is not possible get a hotspot monitor, they mount on top of a mic stand and you can get that baby right in your ear if need be. They handle about 50 watts and that should be enough to hear yourself over anything if it is posistioned correctly.
Click to expand...

That's a good idea. How's the tone on it?

And dont let this gig get you down, there are many worse ones to come.
Click to expand...

Definitely! :p :D
 
Stewart,

You will be surprised with the difference in tone coming through a mic'd stack. You will find that you have to add more midrange to that Marshall than you think to get it to sit properly in the mix. (Depending on the style of music you're playing)

If your sound crew is absolutely horrible (Always give them the benefit of the doubt first), you can try adjusting the mic position yourself. Put the mic as close to the speaker as possible and listen through the monitor as you move it. Closer to the center will provide a brighter sound, while moving it to the outside will produce a fatter but less defined sound.

PS... I'd need more info to guess at the feedback problem... a quick fix might be to step on your clean channel between songs.

Stuff like that can have odd causes. A friend of mine was doing sound in a large venue for a 1,500 person audience. He freaked out when he couldn't find the source of some feeback, until he noticed a guy shooting video footage on the stage... The mic on the camera was causing a feedback loop with the front wedges!

Brad
 
Let's get back on topic here. This happens every week. I always tinkle right before I play. And no matter how much you wiggle and dance the last drop always goes down your pants. So, you have to splash water all over yourself to make it look like it's the sinks fault.
 
I dont know if anyone makes hot spot monitors anymore. All the ones I have used are pretty old. They are almost like a three way
heavy duty car speaker (I dont really know whats in them) in a box shaped like a monitor, black and tan, with a mount on the bottom for screwing them to a mike stand. You can daisy chain them together. You could build your own with a really good car speaker(6x8 3 way type setup or two way) allthough the car speaker would be 4 ohms. You would have to find a mount with the thread for the mic stand but I dont think that would be to hard of a problem.
 
Yeah. It probably would be pretty easy.

It would be a toss up for me between the hot spot and the wedge because I prefer hearing the best tone possible when I am playing. Having a wedge 1x12 with a Celestion 30 pointed at my head really inspires a good performance.
 
Hot Spots are still around, and Peavy and Carvin both make knockoffs. The Peavys are available in 16 or 8 ohm. I have 2 pairs of 16ohm models on brackets that mount on mic stands and they put out plenty of level. They are very bright, however, so you'd need to EQ them if you didn't like the tone.
 
Update

We played again last night, this time to a crowd of about... 80-100.
Semi-large crowd for us. We had a few minor screw ups in our playing due to a broke double bass pedal, but other than that it was great.

Anyways, the sound guy actually cared about us. And I took your advice and used my cab as my monitor, and it worked out perfectly. First time I have ever had any trouble hearing the drums. And if i recall, the show last week that sucked, the guy DID indeed miced the middle of the cab. I'm so stupid.

Anyways thanks guys, you are the best.

Stewart.
.ps. the avt150h is working out great. haha tubeheads.
 
Sometimes you can get a high-pitched feedback if you are running too much gain in your signal....for example,a distortion pedal into an amp already set to maximum overdrive.
 
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