Don't you hate it when....

Happens to me at every gig. The guitarist mumbles something about "adjusting the EQ" after every song, but is actually creeping his volume up.

 

...or just cranking up the EQ and forgetting (or omitting) to turn down the other EQ knobs. My advice...get a bigger rig or a better power/pre amp...and fully use them.

 

Turning up won't help. Talk to the guitar player about that "issue". If he plays stupid or gets defensive.....maybe time for a band with more mature members.

 

^Couldn't have said it better. If you just get a louder amp or turn yours up to compete with his, he'll do the same thing. After a few songs you'll both be at full volume and the audience will just get pissed and leave.
Talk to him and figure it out from there. If he's too much of a stereotype guitar player and won't compromise, then get a new guitar player......or just accidentally sabotage his amp.

 

Boobytrap his amp so that if he turns it up past ___ it'll just shut off....or dump spaghetti on him

 

Call him on it. Sit down with him and tell him that him constantly turning up ruins the mix, and makes it harder for you to play.

We used to have a lead guitarist who would constantly do that. He'd always blame it on the fact that his amp "is digital" (it was a Line 6 rig). We finally ended up kicking him out for that and a few other issues.

 

Couple things to think about regarding guitar volume. All of them help by making sure the guitar is the loudest thing HE hears, without necessarily being the loudest thing on stage.

Keep him on the other side of the drummer from you.

Make sure his amp is directly behind him, and get it up off the floor, or at least pointing towards his head.

Often guitarists want to be center stage, and the bass amp needs to be next to the drummer. The result? Guitar player in center of stage, closer to the bass amp than the guitar amp, and he doesn't hear himself well. That forces the bass player to stand in front of the guitar amp, so he hears that better than his own amp. Disaster inevitably follows. Like in Ghostbusters, NEVER CROSS THE BEAMS! If everyone is closer to their own amp than anyone else's, the odds are good they'll hear themselves just fine.

Always make sure everyone is in front of their own amp. IF 2 guys have volume war problems, get them seperated, not next to each other. Make sure the guitar amp is pointing at his ears, not his balls.

Sometimes it's not the guitarists fault, its physics.

If this doesn't help, and talking to him doesn't work (never does), he is just too loud. He can't play unless he's the only thing he hears. That means he can't hear the rest of the band well. Dump him. You'll never be tight if everyone is more interested in hearing themselves play than hearing everyone ELSE play.

Randy

 

i jam with some guys and I could barely hear myself. I asked them the turn down and to my suprise they did. The one guitarist even mentioned that he liked how you could hear the bass tone more. Guess I lucked out

 

Randy, I spent 3 years trying to convince a guitarist to stop pointing his two 212 Mesa cabs powered by a SimulClass 290 power amp & TriAxis preamp at his ANKLES.

EVERYTHING else on stage was TOO LOUD for him. And of course since the rest of us were further away from his rig, all we could hear was....HIM. Lotsa fun when you're a fretless player, lemme tell ya!

There were about 4 big reasons I left that band (which was actually somewhat successful), and that was definitely one of the primary ones.

Some guys just don't want to face reality.

 

great advice , great post ...

 

+1, I feel your pain. As many of you know from some of my posts lately. Pointbass knows what I mean. Dale, turn down please. "But I can't get my tone without a lot of gain"

 

+1 = Make sure his cab is pointing to his head!!

Quote from Thunderfunk Owner's manual

One other item: if you have guitar players in the band, ask them to follow the Les Paul rule (tell them who
created this rule to add credibility). Les Paul’s cardinal rule is this: point guitar speakers directly at the
guitar player’s ear. Between us bass players, everyone will be glad when that happens.

 

123

 

Our current guitar play has a similar problem but he wants to practice with his amp wide-open. I usually just pack my 1 12" Hartke combo amp to practice but with this new guy I've gotta pack my damn 212 cab and head... what a dumb ass. I said something about it last Friday but come Saturday **** was turned back up. I'm looking for a new band...

Trigg

 

Luckily, I use a 60 watt tube amp, and my guitarist uses a 50 watt tube amp. We keep both cranked, and we get a good balance of sound. We also use a 60 watt tube amp for the PA, and nothing ever gets drowned out. So luckily, we don't have this problem.

 

I've played with a number of bands, some longer than others, and when it's a volume issue like that, I will say something to them once and then thats it - no more playing, i'm out. I've found out from past experience that when people in the band are too loud, other things will start going wrong - i take it as personal rudeness if anyone plays inappropriately in any way - musicianship is the whole package - having a conversation, knowing the language, listening, contributing, correct volume for surroundings, judging personal ability accurately and honestly etc etc, (especially after someone has said something to them). I wouldn't have a conversation with someone at a party if they had no interest in finding a common language and carried on like that shouting at me and not listening. Coupled with the fact that jamming/rehearsing etc isn't fun at loud volumes and actually leaves people feeling stressed and nervous, not relaxed and confident like making good music should. You might have noticed, I really dislike people playing too loud.

 

I dont care how iy happens or who did it....I gotta button fo dat.


Mike

 

Weirdly enough, at hte first practise with a new band I thought I was too loud, but they all asked me to turn the volume up.

Ching!