It doesn’t really matter what sort of equipment you bring to a gig if you can’t hear it. So here’s a bit of advice on hearing your amp on stage. The crux of the matter is this: To hear your amp, it should be pointed at your ears. All of us have been on stages where we end up standing a foot or two in front of the guitar amp. If the amp is on the floor, the speakers are going to be blasting the back of your knees. You can’t hear it, so you turn the amp up — then folks in the audience (or the sound person) start yelling that you’re too loud. The whole event can become an exercise in frustration.
1 – Point It at Your Ears
There are a few solutions to this issue, though; if the best solution — standing 8-10 feet in front of the amp — isn’t feasible, the choices are to (A) get the amp up off the floor, or (B) leave it on the floor but tilt it back so that it’s pointing toward your head (and your ears). If you keep your amp in a road case, put your amp on top of it and you’ll not only get it off the floor, you’ll have a convenient place to put your road case during the gig. (The Gator G-Roto cases are designed specifically for this.) You can also put the amp on a chair, since most venues that have music also have chairs. There’s a potential downside, however; some guitarists feel that raising the amp (and losing the acoustic coupling with the stage) makes their amps sound thin and brittle. But since that’s what the amp actually sounds like — and what any microphone placed on the amp will pick up — it seems reasonable to consider this when setting up. The other method — leaving the amp on the floor but leaning it back (some amps even have built-in tilt-back legs for this purpose) — may retain some of the low end while still letting you hear the amp better than simply putting it on the floor. A far better solution than a chair is to use an amp stand — there are lots of great ones available.
2 – Know Your Amp
It’s probably obvious: get to know all the ins and outs of your amp. Learn what turning each knob does to the sound, and how the knobs interact with each other. Before the gig, you should dial in a great guitar tone at home or better yet in rehearsal, ahead of time. You may have to change the tone slightly to suit a particular stage or venue, but it’s quicker and easier to make minor tweaks than major ones given the chaos and noise of a band setup. Be familiar with the way your amp breaks up, when the low end changes from “beefy” to “muddy,” and at what point the highs become intolerable.
If you’re using a closed-backed cabinet (or combo amp), be aware that they can be highly directional. This may be part of the reason that you may not be able to hear yourself (even though the guitar is parting that guy’s hair in the front row), and is the best reason to point the amp at your ears. Open-backed cabinets have another issue; since sound is coming both from the front of the amp and from the back of the amp, it’s probable that your “amp sound” includes both the direct sound from the front of the speaker and reflected sound coming off of the amp and bouncing off the wall behind the amp. If your amp isn’t anywhere near a back wall, you may feel that the amp sounds quiet — or thin — when you play in certain venues. Some guitarists have solved this problem by carrying a piece of plexiglass or plywood to put a foot or two behind their open backed amp. Others will place an empty road case or other large surface in the same position.
3 – Have a Talk about Stage Volume
This is a tough one; if the band is too quiet (for the room and the style of music you play), you’ll likely end up with the same amount of energy as the background music at a pizza place. If the band is too loud, you can irritate the management and lose the gig. Since this is typically a group issue rather than one person’s issue, it might be worth having a conversation with the other musicians about stage volume. The goal is for everyone to work together to keep the stage volume to a comfortable level without making anyone feel like they can’t hear themselves. This, incidentially, includes vocalists; if the singer wants his voice to be deafeningly loud though the monitors, it makes it hard for everyone else to hear — themselves or anyone other than the singer. And though I’m all for every musician protecting their hearing, I would suggest that if you’re playing loud enough to need earplugs, you really should consider having that conversation with the other musicians.
4 – Consider What’s in Your Monitors
It might seem that the easiest way to hear yourself onstage is to put some of your guitar in the monitors, but it seldom works out that way, even when each person has their own mix. By turning yourself up in your monitor, you’re increasing the overall stage volume, so even if you hear yourself better, you’re going to make it harder for the others on stage to hear themselves. If you have a sound person, then each musican only needs to be loud enough to hear themselves; if there’s not a sound person (and instruments aren’t run through the PA), each person needs to be loud enough to be heard off the stage — and the volume necessary to be heard by the audience in a typical club is often a lot quieter than you might think. A wireless system or a long cable can be a big help here, allowing you to get out front and hear what things sound like in the house — it can be radically different than what you’re hearing onstage.
You have to hear yourself in order to play well. Take some time to figure out why you can’t hear yourself, then find a solution that will solve the problem for you without creating additional problems for everyone else — the band will sound better, the audience will appreciate the great sounds and music, and you’ll have a great gig!