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Full volume
- Thread starter Bubonic420
- Start date
D
Well... if you keep blowing your speakers at the volume you need there's really just one solution here, isn't it?'
You need a cab (or cabs) with a higher total wattage rating. At those volumes, and for that style of music, I would be looking at a cab (or cabs) with a total wattage rating of AT LEAST twice the wattage of the amp. Make sure you understand how to work out the total impedance if you use multiple cabs, or you may end up frying your amp as well.
All the comments about turning down the volume are good advice too of course (particularly with regards to permanent hearing damage and debilitating tinnitus) but I totally get why you want to play loud. I LOVE playing loud and feel the air pressure from the amp in my back. But there's loud and then there's INSANE. And if you can't get enough volume out of a PF800 you're getting pretty close to "insane"... even for a doom band.
Adjusting your eq for more mids and less lows might give you more perceived volume without blowing your speakers of course but I have a feeling you will end up with a tone you won't like very much. For doom you need BOOM!
You need a cab (or cabs) with a higher total wattage rating. At those volumes, and for that style of music, I would be looking at a cab (or cabs) with a total wattage rating of AT LEAST twice the wattage of the amp. Make sure you understand how to work out the total impedance if you use multiple cabs, or you may end up frying your amp as well.
All the comments about turning down the volume are good advice too of course (particularly with regards to permanent hearing damage and debilitating tinnitus) but I totally get why you want to play loud. I LOVE playing loud and feel the air pressure from the amp in my back. But there's loud and then there's INSANE. And if you can't get enough volume out of a PF800 you're getting pretty close to "insane"... even for a doom band.
Adjusting your eq for more mids and less lows might give you more perceived volume without blowing your speakers of course but I have a feeling you will end up with a tone you won't like very much. For doom you need BOOM!
If he persists practicing at that volume “speaking quietly and mumbling will be for real”!!!
From bitter experience, guitarists who do this have issues...either at home, with themselves, girlfriends you name it.....Walk, do not compete, leave him to destroy hinself, dont go down with him.
You say "you started the band". So are you the BL? Seems to me that should be the case. Your band your game. You don't quit your own band. Either he comes down to a respectable volume or, he is gone. You will not succeed as a band blowing a crowds ears out. You are done before you start.
Holy Jesus.
This guy is cranking a 120watt amp at practice? Sometimes 2? Are you for real? I didn't play much after high school, picked my bass up again 3 years ago, been playing with bands now for 2 years. In my first search for a band, I got really lucky. Went to audition. I could hear these guys out at the street (they practice in a basement). I brought a Fender Rumble 350 combo, which I normally can only turn to 2 at home. At 3, it interferes with the family tv and at 5 it shakes windows and doors. The guitarists were playing through 100 watt heads, I don't know how much they were turned up, but I had my rumble cranked to 10 and could barely hear myself. I didn't know any better, and was disappointed that I didn't get the spot. A few months more experience, I count myself lucky I didn't get it. In my current bands, we can still get a bit too loud at practice, but we try to keep it manageable and don't complain when asked to turn down. We're definitely amateurs but have professional attitudes.
Most of the time, a 40 watt head is all the guitarist needs, especially at practice. If they are mic'ing the guitar or going DI (using the amp for stage sound) a 25 watt head will do. And will result in a much better mix, as long as you have a competent sound tech. "My tone", they say, "my Marshall!". I say, save your tone for the record, practice is about getting the arrangements down. The show is about entertaining and selling drinks. If the staff can't hear to take orders and the audience can't talk with each other....
I also missed the part when you said you started the band. I'd say it's band meeting time. The options are: we turn down, the guitarist goes, or I go.
Haha, I kind of assume you're pointing at me (thread starter of "competing with a Marshall full stack" )I'm beginning to suspect some of these new guys with similar issues are trolls.
I was in a sort of similar situation, also doom and death with a loud guitar player and blew up a 15" speaker. I got me an Ampeg SVT stack, 300 watt tube head with a matching 800watt 8x10. Preamp full, power around 5 or 6, it's enough for me. I do second the question about the drums, can you hear those at all? Because after my power move, we really had trouble hearing the kick drum. So we toned down a tiny bit and carved our eq to let it come through more (and told the drummer to get new skins).
In the end, loud playing is fun, but it's a group effort to make it sound good. It seems you have the right tools, but maybe need to discuss EQ settings with the rest (down tuned guitars can easily get in your way).
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In England it’s called wanking.
Of all the dimensions of music taking priority from the volume is akin to enjoying $8@ in front of a computer monitor.
Why am I assuming the practice space is less than 20,000 sq feet?
It’s truly embarrassing and awe inspiring to hear a guitarist just kill through a Fender Deluxe.
Ear plugs of course. Yet after certain decibels the vibrations are passing through your cheek bones and doing all the same damage to your delicate ear parts.
Look up “Music.” Be sure you are hearing and expressing all of its components.
Just for receipts. I’ve drowned out 100w Marshall stacks with an Acoustic 360/361 cranked to 8. My gosh 3 was enough in most situations. I was a youth once. Now in studio I have a way of controlling my own headphone volume and mix. Live I control my volume by who I choose to play with.
Of all the dimensions of music taking priority from the volume is akin to enjoying $8@ in front of a computer monitor.
Why am I assuming the practice space is less than 20,000 sq feet?
It’s truly embarrassing and awe inspiring to hear a guitarist just kill through a Fender Deluxe.
Ear plugs of course. Yet after certain decibels the vibrations are passing through your cheek bones and doing all the same damage to your delicate ear parts.
Look up “Music.” Be sure you are hearing and expressing all of its components.
Just for receipts. I’ve drowned out 100w Marshall stacks with an Acoustic 360/361 cranked to 8. My gosh 3 was enough in most situations.
I was a youth once. Now in studio I have a way of controlling my own headphone volume and mix. Live I control my volume by who I choose to play with.
A band is not the army or prison. You can leave whenever you choose.
Good luck with that!
After all, it's YOU who turned up your amp
Volume wars... some people can be educated and respond well. I've met a few. Some people just won't and keep playing way too loud... and then it's either you get rid off them or you leave the band, I've done both.
D
You make some good points and GENERALLY I would agree with most of what you're saying but the OP is playing in a doom/stoner/death metal band. The things you're suggesting aren't very realistic for those genres of music unfortunately.
Nothing more needs to be said. That's the OP's problem right there.
No one EVER wins a volume war. Besides any professional guitarist can get that genre of tone from a 5 watt tube head and a single 12. I've jammed with someone who can so I KNOW it's possible. He put that little 5 watt rig through the PA and he was untouchable FOH. I used a 100 watt Fender Showman with a single 15 and it was plenty. OP, move on and find some players who can get a tone without killing everyone in the first 10 rows.
I don't play the style of music you play and I'm pretty sure I don't play in the kinds of venues you do to the kinds of fans you have, so my suggestion probably won't help. But either the guitar player goes or I go.
Sorry, there's no gentle way to put this. Playing at that volume level, ESPECIALLY in rehearsal, is just plain stupid. I've got some hearing loss already and would not risk the remainder for any band.
Sorry, there's no gentle way to put this. Playing at that volume level, ESPECIALLY in rehearsal, is just plain stupid. I've got some hearing loss already and would not risk the remainder for any band.
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Seriously, take it from someone who is struggling with tinnitus All. DAY. AND. NIGHT. LONG.
Forget about the repair bills, they are NOTHING.. protect your hearing.. if anything, get some custom-molded musicians' plugs. Best couple hundred bucks you can EVER SPEND (yes, I meant to yell
)https://www.westone.com/downloads/hhc/marketing_materials/Etymotic_Musicians_Earplugs.pdf
Regards
Mark
Do they actually do that?
Like, would blood have to be pouring out of his ears, or something (his brain, perhaps)? 
JeezyMcNuggles
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- Feb 23, 2018
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If you need to be louder than you can get, you either need to buy a sub for your PA, or run another 810 slaved into another pf800
FWIW, earlier in my playing career, I almost certainly lost out on some good gigs because of my relentless pursuit of higher and higher volume levels. It is paramount to remember that the purpose of your amp isn’t to dime it out every time you turn it on. That’s when you become a true musician instead of a street-level consumer of music equipment.
