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Decent monitor mix is hard to get at most festivals when all you get is a quick line check. Cranking the amp up onstage just makes hearing the monitors harder. Tempting though it can be when your in a big field
Simple.
At least that's my theorey anyway.
a 50w 2 12 combo is fine cranked in a pub with loads of people and no stage and no mic'ing up.
Big stage where engineer is right out front, small combo Mic'd or DI'd makes it so much easier for engineer to get a good mix.
The real problem I've found playing on big stages and especially outdoors is not volume, it's that small amps can sound *very* small and boxy on stage and make it hard to get into the 'this sounds right' zone, even if it's actually fine through the PA and the monitors.
"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
I don’t play massive festivals with huge stages though, so that may be a different experience again!
I should say my experience has only been very low down the bill at mega-multi-band festivals, not exactly as a major act headliner . And once when I accidentally played to 150,000 people and live national TV for about thirty seconds while stage tech'ing .
"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
No it was a serious question. At festivals there is 10 mins to set up and start playing, no sound check and I was curious what the feeling was for volume.
Now get back to stretching out your g string
We did a marquee wedding about 10 years ago without micing the backline and I played the second half with my 50w JCM900 on 9. The sound just kept on going until it hit the next village.
At a small gig with no reinforcement, you have no choice as to the volume - you have to be heard over the snare and cymbals, and enough for the whole pub to hear it.
At a festival, on a big stage, you can set the volume to exactly what's needed to make the right sound and nothing more. You're not even relying on your amp for on-stage sound - there's no way it's going to fill it, so don't even try and just rely on monitors.