Using A Small Amp On Stage

[Hank Linderman]

I'm in the middle of a mini-tour, playing 500 seater rooms. Thought I'd share how great it is to use a small amp (1-12 20 watt Victoriette) at very low volume, providing you have a good (in our case great) front-of-house guy. I can barely hear anything on stage, the amp is even turned around to cut down on stage volume, but it's in my ears and way out in front in the house mix. My tone is as good as it has ever been. Now all I need is a half stack to put in front of the Victoria....

Best...H

[Franklin]

Originally Posted by Logichead

Now all I need is a half stack to put in front of the Victoria....

LOL!! You wouldn't be the first that's for sure!! I have trouble getting an ideal tone/feel out of my Fender Deluxe Reverb RI unless it's at least up to 4 or so -which is still in the clean zone, but breaks up if pushed. I like it at 5.5 - 6 on the volume for the "sweet spot".

I agree though, a nice stage volume and a good sound person is awesome with a small amp!!

[pcutt]

Originally Posted by Logichead

Now all I need is a half stack to put in front of the Victoria....

And the half-stack could be a dummy that is actually your road case and luggage!

[The Kid]

I used a modded Ampeg J20 Jet 1X12 combo w/ a Celestion Blue all summer. It sounds great and takes pedals very well.

I was doing 6 gigs a week on outdoor stages and in various size places. It was incredibly easy for load ins, and almost as easy for load outs.

Now, I prefer my big rig, but sometimes when I'm gigging a lot and doing doubles... laziness prevails.

[Tbone135]

I use an AC15 for the same size rooms. I have no idea why I used stacks back in the day, so stupid.

[derekd]

I have 2 amps, a Ceriatone OTS head and Avatar 2x12 cab, then a Lil Dawg Tweed Deluxe. The Lil Dawg is 22 watts, and I love it for the 400 seat setting I play in. Hear it just fine, plays nice with my pedal board, and on an amp stand, no need to hump anything bigger.

[king-albert]

I just bought a Twin. Shit.

[germs]

OP - sounds like you and I have the same job!

Rig 1: Crate Powerblock into an Avatar 2x12 contemporary w/ Vintage 30's run @ 8ohm. Then feeding that with my POD XTLive.

Rig 2: For rooms with better PA/monitoring, just the XTLive with different settings for going direct in.

Yeah, you should definitely invest in a 4x12 shell...and I happen to know where you can get those fancy namebadges for cheap too...

[mcgriff420]

Yep with IEM's I can put my amp anywhere, don't have to worry about having it tilted and positioned in just such a way that I can hear it but it's not blowing out my bass player ears.

Been using progressively lower watt combos since selling my half-stack 8yrs ago.

Played a double bill last weekend to a 2k seat room with full production. The other bands guitar player was using a Marshall 412 with an original JMP MkII and a 59 Ri LP. pedals included an original Rat and TS808. These are considered holy grail tools and he was a good player.

But the sound guys, people in the crowd and even that guitar player all commented on how much better my set-up sounded -mainly beause I was able to get some sweat happening and he wasn't able to turn is amp up.

For the record I was using an EJ strat, king of tone OD, into a 30w Mark Sampson combo (112 with a 50w weber blue)

Ideally I'd like to use the single ended Goodsell combo I got earlier this year or the champ clone I picked up last year.

All hail low-watt amps! I know I'm a believer

..

[Telecaster62]

I will gig this weekend with a Fender Pro Junior. With me, you are preaching to the choir.

[shane88]

Originally Posted by Telecaster62

......you are preaching to the choir.

[Blues Rocker]

Originally Posted by king-albert

I just bought a Twin. Shit.

Gents, if I may offer a differing opinion, for those of us who grew up with powerful amps, I see nothing wrong with a Twin for 500 seats. There are some moderately higher powered amps like the Twin, not many, that sound great at almost any volume. I still use a Bassman on stage and at around Vol=4, it has beautiful tones and is not too loud at
all for our picky sound men. (1,000 seater). I've used my Music Man 112 Sixty Five (watt) just as successfully. I like loud rock as much as the next guy, but the tubes don't always have to approach melt-down all the time to sound luscioscious and rockaliscious!

[Guitar55]

I would love to, but I'm almost never in a situation where I can have my amp in the monitors. :-(

[BBender]

That's awesome...nice rig.

[Gretsch6136]

I use a Vox AC15 about 75% of the time. On a bigger gig I move up to my Marshall 2061x 20 watter with its 2x12 box. also got a 30 watt Tweed Super but its too loud most of the time.