The eternal struggle: The guitarist whose amp doesn't sound good unless it's turned up loud vs. the sound guy who wants him to turn the amp down so he can run it through the monitors

My playing ability may not be up to this. Is there any way I could use my actual dick to compensate for my lack of amp size?

I've been struggling to get the sound I want out of a Hot Rod Deluxe (which I lovingly refer to as the "Shitbox"). One show in ten, it sounds like a dream, but most of the time, I can't wind the thing up to 4.5/5 to get it on the verge of break-up. The band I play in plays lots of small rooms. So because I can't get that warm break-up, due to the sizable amount of headroom, my tone suffers.

I tried my ancient Gibson amp from the 40s, and it didn't have the presence I needed. And the inverse occured, of course. Too much break up at the volume I needed to run it at.

I tried the Vox AC-15s, both of the reissue models, and they sounded TERRIBLE! Did I run into some lemons, or do these things just sound like ass? The last Vox I played was a mid-90s AC-30. It sounded great.

I eventually settled on one of the tweed Blues Jr's with the Jensen speaker. Great sounding amp, but a smidge boxy for the sound I'm after. I guess I should really be looking at an A/B situation. The Hot Rod Deluxe for clean tone, and the Blues Jr. for leads.

I've only run into one instance where a soundperson complained about small amps, but I kindly pointed out that Neil Young uses vintage 50s Deluxes on stage, and listen to that sound.

More often than not, egos and ignorance cause these amp issues. Mostly on the part of others. Thankfully, I play with a bunch of guys that relish low stage volume.

Depends on the audience, really.
-- nabisco (--...), August 11th, 2006 2:59 PM.

This thread has gone totally right.

I think it depends on the rest of your rig. Don't know about the old reissue, but the new AC15CC is effectively an AC30CC's Top Boost channel minus the AC30CC's valuable, treble-slaying cut control. An EQ pedal, a dark GTR, or a really really long cable (curly Vox style?) might help to smooth things out, but who wants to fight their own amp?

I eventually settled on one of the tweed Blues Jr's with the Jensen speaker. Great sounding amp, but a smidge boxy for the sound I'm after.

Great looking amp too - 15 watts of sex0r! There are those who say that the legendary billm Blues Junior Tone Stack Mod helps with the boxiness, but I've never heard a billm-modded Tweed BJ to say yea or nay.

You could probably come up with something similar just by tweaking the EQ (scoop, scoop, scoop!), but it would be a unique sweet spot rather than a base tone, just as sparkly cleans become more of a sweet spot you need to chase post-mod.

i have a dumb stoned question about guitarists that play live with like 9 stacks of amps behind them.. is this a super pain in the ass to deal with from a soundtech's perspective? are most of the cabs and heads empty (just for show)?

for the musician, it must be an insanely intense psychedelic experience to be playing directly in front of like 8 cranked marshall stacks every night..

how does shit work

I saw Dino Jr do a small venue show a few years back and J had three cranked Twin Reverbs stacked atop each other FACING HIM as his guitar monitor.

Sounds like workplace related hearing loss to me. I SAID SOUNDS LIKE... you get the idea.

sometimes guys would have you "sidewash", point the amp sideways across the stage instead of pointing it at the audience

Just don't put the amp through the PA if it's too loud

I'm always on the side of the guitarists with this, but then I would be