Can't hear myself onstage.

Danny1969

A cheap IEM option is  

Get a little mixer, like a 4 channel Alto

Mic up you cab and plug that into chan 1
Run a left and right from FOH into chan 2 and 3 
Get a boundry mic and run that into chan 4

Then tape a headphone extension cable to you guitar lead and run that from the little mixers headphone out. Plug you IEM's into the female end. Shure 215's are a good buy. 

Now you have independent control of your guitar level, FOH level and the amount of ambience you want in your IEM's without getting into the expense of digital mixer and wireless transmitters etc. 
Plus you won't need any batteries and the sound quality will be better. 

I built my own version of this into a pedal but a small mixer will achieve the same thing

Flanging_Fred

You need to turn up the volume of your guitar so that it’s louder than all the others in your band.



  

PrecisionGuided

Play a Telecaster, bridge pickup   ;-)

Barney

Get a Deeflexx very good for what you describe...you will hear yourself and everyone else will hear you as well 

p90fool

One of the most reliable onstage mixes I ever had was running a 12w Princeton behind me miced into my own powered wedge in front of me. 

The mic filters the nasty stuff you get when pointing an amp directly at your head. 

Lestratcaster

Danny1969 said:

A cheap IEM option is  

Get a little mixer, like a 4 channel Alto

Mic up you cab and plug that into chan 1
Run a left and right from FOH into chan 2 and 3 
Get a boundry mic and run that into chan 4

Then tape a headphone extension cable to you guitar lead and run that from the little mixers headphone out. Plug you IEM's into the female end. Shure 215's are a good buy. 

Now you have independent control of your guitar level, FOH level and the amount of ambience you want in your IEM's without getting into the expense of digital mixer and wireless transmitters etc. 
Plus you won't need any batteries and the sound quality will be better. 

I built my own version of this into a pedal but a small mixer will achieve the same thing

I may have to do something like this if my band can't get our IEM system working and sounding good for our show in just over a week. Only exception is I won't have a cab on stage I'll just be using my Kemper direct to FOH and I'm guessing using the monitor output into a channel in my own mixer to hear myself? Everything else is essentially the same though and I pretty much already have all the stuff.

Kevinaston1

Played keyboards for a great many years in the North of England, very rare I could hear anything I played; why would I need to hear myself? I knew what I was playing.

CaseOfAce

You could always go the Paul Gilbert route - current Mr. Big touring rig - Fender Twin pointed up at him for a monitor.
(though I'm surprised he's doing this due to hearing issues / need for headphone protection in the past?).

Personally - 3 guitar band... yeah...that's gonna be tricky to make work. I have enough trouble with just me and a bass player at times!

Emiel

This might be all too obvious.. but have you talked with your bandmates about this and have the three of you ever spent some time listening to each others rig and set each volume and EQ accordingly? Do you all use similar (sized) amps?

Like @Modulus_Amps stated before, you guys really need to be EQ'd very differently and play very different parts. But yeah, having the amp & cab on a flightcase, a pair of beer crates etc. is properly what you need. Raise those speakers to ear level.

AntonHunter

Danny1969 said:

A cheap IEM option is  

Get a little mixer, like a 4 channel Alto

Mic up you cab and plug that into chan 1
Run a left and right from FOH into chan 2 and 3 
Get a boundry mic and run that into chan 4

Then tape a headphone extension cable to you guitar lead and run that from the little mixers headphone out. Plug you IEM's into the female end. Shure 215's are a good buy. 

Now you have independent control of your guitar level, FOH level and the amount of ambience you want in your IEM's without getting into the expense of digital mixer and wireless transmitters etc. 
Plus you won't need any batteries and the sound quality will be better. 

I built my own version of this into a pedal but a small mixer will achieve the same thing

Any plans to sell these? I feel like there would be a market. I'm not doing any IEM type gigs but if I was...

Hoof

MaximumZargon said:

Thanks! Maybe I'm looking for a solution that doesn't exist.

Putting an amp on a crate isn't any higher than a vertical 2x12, so that doesn't work.

EQ-wise, it's fine. We're 3 albums in. It's all fine in that regard.

The issue is simply my amp is aimed at my knees.

a vertical 2x12 spreads sound left and right. A horizontal one raised up would definitely help here. And raise it up to the level it would be if it was on top of another 4x12 cab, unless you have ears in your arsecheeks.

PolarityMan

Flanging_Fred said:

You need to turn up the volume of your guitar so that it’s louder than all the others in your band.



  

2nd best post of the year.

Danny1969

AntonHunter said:

Danny1969 said:

A cheap IEM option is  

Get a little mixer, like a 4 channel Alto

Mic up you cab and plug that into chan 1
Run a left and right from FOH into chan 2 and 3 
Get a boundry mic and run that into chan 4

Then tape a headphone extension cable to you guitar lead and run that from the little mixers headphone out. Plug you IEM's into the female end. Shure 215's are a good buy. 

Now you have independent control of your guitar level, FOH level and the amount of ambience you want in your IEM's without getting into the expense of digital mixer and wireless transmitters etc. 
Plus you won't need any batteries and the sound quality will be better. 

I built my own version of this into a pedal but a small mixer will achieve the same thing

Any plans to sell these? I feel like there would be a market. I'm not doing any IEM type gigs but if I was...

I did get a company in Southampton to agree to manufacture these as making them myself was too time consuming. However that fizzled out due to me not pursuing the project, mind was elsewhere making other gadgets. I did do an update on the design which featured a redesigned mic pre amp with variable gain, dedicated stereo input for things like Helix / Kemper  and a better built in ambience system. This is the system I still use myself if I don't think I can trust the monitoring. 



As clever as I thought it was though, on reflection it's actually just a basic mixer built into a guitar pedal format. Like I said you can actually achieve the same thing pretty much with a little mixer. 

bloodandtears

I gotta say I am a recent convert to IEMs.. tried a few times with wireless packs etc but wasn't keen on the belt pack and the RF interference..

For background, I use a Helix so I'm not a tone snob, I have a backline cab on stage and as a 3 piece (drums, bass, guitar) there was only the drummer that was using IEMs anyway.

I never struggled to hear myself but I was concerned my hearing on my left side (cymbals and drums) was at risk... we also use click tracks occasionally.. so I thought rather just using an ear plug for protection, why not try and put it to good use with the IEMs again..

I only use the left ear plug, our mixer has has an app which I can control my own mix (rarely needed once set up), but the game changer for me was @Danny1969 guitar/headphone combo lead... a simple but effective premise; clean signal with minimal fuss.

TLDR; if you wanna hear yourself onstage IEMs wins hands-down.. turning the volume up or pointing speakers at your head is far from ideal.

Stratavarious

IEMs or a decent wedge with your own monitor mix are best options.

 I still suffer from the past silliness of pointing loud amps at my ears to get to hear myself over drums (Mesa cabs with tilted back top 12”s was the ear killer)

Wired IEMs do not need to be expensive.  Even for large stages we run dual cables or have the IEM unit on mic stand if singing and plug in the IEMs