Marshall amp issues

[Stinsok]

It's tough practicing in a small room with a Marshall half stack. Because of the size of the room and the different angles where stand it's is tough to get vocals loud enough without feed back. The Marshall is waaaay too loud for this situation. To top it off, he wears earplugs! I try not to add to the mess by keeping a decent volume-then they tell me "I can't hear the bass." When I drive home, I can't hear my car running!

I remind them constantly that we are going to have volume problems when we start to gig. It doesn't seem to phase them. I guess when we get told by a club manager to pack it up it might make sense.

[metalmariachi]

I sympathize, in the ‘70s I played with a guy who had an Ampeg V4 full stack; I couldn’t even hear the drummer.

Try to get the vocalist and drummer on your side and have a real band meeting to discuss the problem.

Ok I know that a cranked Marshal has that sound, so maybe getting him to check out
either an 18 watt Marshal or an Orange Tiny Terror, that would allow him to keep his sound and make every body’s life easier. He’d still play loud so even that may not help.

Good luck

MM

[anderbass]

Your guitarist really needs a 1x12 or even a 1x10 cab. He'll get nearly the same tone at a much lower volume. That 4x12 cab should work great if you ever play really big rooms or outdoor shows w/o PA support.

PA's in small rooms are definitely prone to feedback issues and you really need to try placing the speakers/vocalist in every conceivable location. (try different tilt angles on the vocal mics too) I've had best results with floor level PA speaker placement on one or each side of the vocalist in problem rooms. (side-fills) In the rehearsal studio, your first concern should be letting the vocalist hear himself well and only then concentrate on speaker (and band member) placements that will let the rest of you guys hear the vocals. You'll also find that reduced reverb/effects levels, lower gain knob/ higher master positions and using centered eq settings with certain eq frequencies reduced on the vocalists mixer channel helps the feedback issue a bunch too. (some vocal mics are much more prone to feedback than others)

Short of expensive sonic room treatments, you may find that padding the rooms walls/ceiling/corners with thick blankets, carpet installation or anything else available might help tame the PA's vocals that are reflecting right back into his mic further compounding your PA's feedback issues.

[Parabolic Box]

Maybe what they need is a power soak/attenuator, if they're unwilling to turn it down...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_attenuator_(guitar)
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navig...=100001+338508

[Jim Carr]

Originally Posted by Stinsok

It's tough practicing in a small room with a Marshall half stack...waaaay too loud for this situation. To top it off, he wears earplugs! I try not to add to the mess by keeping a decent volume-then they tell me "I can't hear the bass." When I drive home, I can't hear my car running!

I can not believe you are tolerating this! OK, sure, you are complaining on TB. Wow.

Do nothing but complain on TB, and soon YOU won't hear the bass--or
anything else!

Stop destroying your only set of ears. Fire this guitarist or quit, and take as many of the musicians
with you as you can. I'll bet the one who owns the PA will go with you, as well as the drummer.

It is particularly infuriating that this "musician" with the half stack is
protecting himself while permanently damaging the hearing of his band
mates. Why are YOU putting up with this?

After installing my own ear plugs, I'd take his ear plugs and flush them!

[Petethebassman]

+10000 on what JimCarr said; if the guitarist still cannot grasp the idea of how important it is to have a professional, balanced band sound and insists to crank the hell out of his Marshall "to get his tone", fire him! There are so many guitarists out there, find the guy who plays for the band as a team player with appropriate volume for the situation.

[Stinsok]

I didn't give an ultimatum, but explained that I seriously couldn't go on like that. We took an evening, rearranged our setup and turned down. I left a marathon practice on Friday with no ringing and no noise hangover the next day.