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Pushing a head too hard?
- Thread starter BernardBass
- Start date
Yeah I'm using hpf + my mids are well boosted
It's a barefaced big twin 2 + markbass little Marcus limited edition 1000watt.
OK, first, nice rig!
Second, they should be able to hear you in Scotland with that. Well, maybe not Scotland, but Isle of Man at least.
Add me to the "the problem is NOT that you're not loud enough" group.
Yep! My head/cab are new. Ireland was on lockdown for 2 years man and I'm only getting out gigging again in the last 5/6 weeks. Bought the head and cab in march 2020 and only got to start using them... The bass was ordered before lockdown ended (2 months ago) also so I can't afford any new kit... Plus this audiologist and hearing protection is probably going to cost me an arm and a leg so I might have to sell some gear to help fund it lol
Bernard, at the 650 person gig, was there a house system to di into? All gigs that big I have played were handled by the PA. Stage volume was quite low. Or are you all required to provide volume other than vocals?
Yeah, um, that's the 'small' rig lol... J/K
You sir have asked the right question! I've been with this band for, geez, this summer will make 18 years! We're a Christian Metal band, we play covers from Disturbed, FFDP, Avenged Sevenfold, Papa Roach (many others) but replace the lyrics with our positive message. Our church has always had bands and put on live productions so when we purchased our current building back in '99 we set up one area as a theater specifically for our live shows, so thankfully this rig doesn't move often (but occasionally we reuse this part of the stage for other things - so I get help moving it lol!)
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That was a couple years ago on NAS Jacksonville (Navy base). Just used the 400 and the fridge for that show.
Many moons ago I used a Trace Elliot 410 combo atop two fifteens; when we upgraded our equipment our pastor bought an SVT-6Pro and the four Hartke cabs (along with two full Marshall stacks - he was an old rock-n-roller and played bass in bands in the 70's and early 80's). The SVT fried because of some bad generator power, so he bought the Mesa 400 and fridge from me. So I just added it all together, including a spare power amp we had, so that I could drive the entire stack. Don't use it all 100% of the time but right now I am.
Fyi, my pastor's son is our assistant pastor - and also our lead singer. His younger brother is our drummer. We have a show this Saturday and are now scheduling more out later this year. It's good to be playing often again.
Eric
I'm running the same cabinet with a Genz Benz shuttle 9.0 , I have played festivals [ with PA support ] and large venues without and have never ever not been able to cut through in the mix. You need to have a serious discussion with your guitarist , with PA support playing at those stage volumes is crazy. They need to learn how FOH/Monitors support works with stage sound. Don't through another dime at the problem because it isn't your problem.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
There are three things I will never put up with, and one of them is a band that plays too loudly (the other two are people not being prepared, and being intoxicated/impaired when they play).
I'm 56, and have been playing in bands since high school. I still have all my hearing. Tinnitus is not a good thing.
It's a long story - planning on doing a video about "why" some day, but last night at practice I played through it (minus the PJB/GK rig) in our theater and it's just awesome. And when we were setting our stage volume a couple of days ago I was asked to turn down just a hair so I turned one of my knobs and was given the thumb's up. Later I realized it was the channel 2 volume on the Mesa 400 (which I'm not using) so I didn't actually change my volume at all (the power amp on the right is fed by the 400's DI so volume changes control it's output).No, I didn't tell anyone, either.
And I have been wearing hearing protection for years and can attest that it does save your hearing.
Raz
This reminds me of the "producer knob / button". I do VO as a side hustle and an engineer told me that sometimes when a producer or client asks for something to be changed, but cannot really define what it is, the engineer turns a useless knob or presses a button with no effect on sound, then says, "how about now?" and often the client or producer says, "YES! That's it!".
That said, I a have fake turned down many times in my life...but only when turning down would make me unable to hear myself.
Yeah so this was gig 5 of 5 weeks of gigs... I don't know why the lads wanted to go so loud!
Everyone was mic'd + I was mic + Di.
Each gig was a proper setup, full stage, backline, sound engineer, monitors... The works. This venue is a very well known venue in the heart of Dublin where many great bands play and for the life of me I don't know if there was something in the Guinness that night but even the sound engineer was like yeah it's not that loud lol
We normally go for kit on stage sets the vol for the rest of us.. get the levels and then when pa kicks in make small adjustments. I personally don't like having a complicated monitor setup just vocals and a bit of lead guitar. It's how I setup our gigs when we use our pa... Nice and simple.
Stage sound was a bit of a mess with an empty room but when we came out to play for and stage did clear up so it was all good bar me being terrified that my head was going to crap out.
No deffo don't need more cab man, barefaced big twin is a monster and the speakers are some mad science poopie. Honestly the best cabs I've ever used... By far.
No but you need more speaker cone area. Your guitarists with their 4x12 Marshalls has twice the cone area than you. They move more air so to speak. That`s what we trying to say, other than tell them to turn down.
I was going to ask how Christian metal works as it's a bit of an oxymoron but then you said "replace the lyrics with our positive message."
That's pretty cool, and to be honest id say any God would be proud of a rig like that man
We also have brothers in our band which is an acdc tribute so yeah we're very much still in the 70s vibe
Exactly, because this is TALK BASS, not ANSWER BASS. We love to keep talking about things, re-asking the same questions time and time again, etc. etc., injecting wit and sarcasm at every opportunity, and carrots. What did you expect?I've got THE solution :
- You know how TB works: soon you're going to reply "thanks guys, I've got my answer",
- Despite that answer, the thread is going to go on and on, you'll end up with 8 or 12 pages, the majority of answers will confirm your guitarists should turn their volume down
- As soon as you got enough answers, you print the whole thread and show it to the guitarists
And you buy ear protections before it's too late
Problem solved
I’m sure it is a great cab but if you are cranking your rig and not getting enough volume then it’s clearly not enough to compete with the rest of your mix. You have plenty of power so the only things left are speaker area and EQ (or telling everyone else to turn down).
Oh yeah, sorry I get that .. I only looked at this yesterday
Alex talks about how they don't need more speaker to move air because of their speaker design... I have no idea about any of this technically but I can definitely say the 2 barefaced speakers beat the crap out of my ampeg svt hlf 4x10...
It just seems excessive to need to go that loud, it's not like we are playing stadiums lol... In which case I'd have a few stacks and could afford it
Yes you should. But don’t use ear plugs. The protection is minimal and the sound is muffled. Get ear filters. You get much petter protection and the sound is much more natural. The last time I checked they are about $40 a pair at Guitar Center. Tip. Make sure they fit your ear canal. A good seal is important for protection.
Better yet, going to an audiologist and get a set of custom fit ear filters. Yup, they are pricey but offer the best possible protection, up to 25dB which would be adequate for playing with your band, working on jet engines, lawn mowers, power saws, and such. Keep in mind, you only have one set of ears, trust me, it’s well worth the investment.
