Hey folks
I played my first live gig last weekend, so my first experience with a PA.
I've only got a small amp, so was concerned it wasn't going to be good enough. It's this one from Cornell:
https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Cornell-Romany-10-1x10-Guitar-Combo/1R66Specifications
- Power:10 Watts
- Speaker:'Jensen CH1070' x 10 inch Blue Label speaker
- Valve: ECC83 x 1, 6L6GT x 1
- Input Impedance: Input Hi 2.2 MegOhm
- Controls: Pre-amp Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble
- Output: 10 Watts RMS, Class ‘A’
- Cabinet: Plywood-shell and baffle
However, I was told that it wouldn't be a problem because the amps would be mic'd up.
Anyway, as I feared, the amp was hopeless and I had to borrow someone else's.
My question is: why does it matter what power your amp is if it's going to be mic'd up?
In my ignorant head, it doesn't make sense. Because you can mic up a harmonica to the volume you want, can't you? Why did my amp not work? Is there something obvious I'm missing?
Really appreciate your advice, as I've got another gig coming up and wondering if I just need to buy a new amp.
Cheers,
Jon
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
Comments
My Trading Feedback | You Bring The Band
Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after youIt should have been fine if it's mic'd but that generally refers to the front of house sound.
I'm guessing your problem was you couldn't hear it, in which case you should have had it loud in your monitor, obviously I don't know what the monitor situation was for your gig.
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
Band I was doing sound for last week had his ac30 stop working and he had a tiny little vox deacy amp as a backup. I ran him into all the monitors and everyone was happy - well they got through the gig.
As a general rule though you want an amp that you can hear in rehearsals over your drummer - 10W will be cutting it fine unless you have a very quiet drummer.
You technically don't need anything that makes any sort of volume to get a decent FOH sound provided your monitors are good. Hence why so many people use modellers straight into the desk, not to mention DI'd keyboards, Electric drums, vocals, acoustic, all a lot quieter than what your amp was kicking out.
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
R.
Eqd Speaker Cranker clone
Monte Allums TR-2 Plus mod kit
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/60602/
That said i wouldn't have thought any 10w amp up loudish would suffer that problem. If sound man had a min spare I would have asked him (say you were trying to get right amp for gigging and would appreciate advice on what was wrong with what you had).
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
*Any* guitar amp that's louder than a human voice - which is probably all of them - will work for a gig, if you like the sound of it and you can hear it in the monitors.
I've gigged with a 5W Fender Tweed Champ with an 8" speaker a few times, both mic'ed and in some cases - small bars - unmic'ed, and the only problem I ever had with it was once being told it was too loud!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
" headroom is word used meaning that if you have more power on hand you can produce more sound with ease and thus have more flexibility through a sound scape! Valves produce more! But aren't always practical.. So many guitar amps out there but also when playing outside sound gets lost! So I think 40w to 60w amp is enough a good make it will last! Valve will be louder! If the wattage is to low you will lose that clean sound at volume.. Plus most of the time you will not be micing your amp, gigs in the pub! So to get over the drums you need a bit of power 12" speaker or a 2x12 is a better spread of sound.. Try some and talk to the guys in the shops then shop around I use a 60w fender transistor and it kicks it out £60 on eBay!"
Not sure that's cleared anything up though. My amp is a valve amp.
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
got a feeling he looked a size of it and assumed small solid state and wouldnt be powerful enough to play over background sound.
tbh reckon he just made a mistake on night. yeah 30-50w would probs cover all based but a majority of soundmen these days want smaller amps to reduce stage volume and make it easier to mic and mix cleanly.
Do what you wish yourself as tbh can't see any reason you couldn't have used the amp
Yeah, that's what I thought. We had a reasonably long sound-check so he had an opportunity to hear what my amp could do, and it's surprisingly loud for such a small unit. As I think I mentioned, in rehearsal, it's definitely loud enough to play over a drummer at about 7 on the dial, and our drummer really wallops them!
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly