Ok I realise this is ridiculously subjective, and there could have been other factors but, here goes my thoughts.
Last night I was asked to play electric for an event. It was a fairly small room but we had the opportunity to play fairly loudly. I had the amp behind me (no in ears or monitors so hearing myself wasn't always the easiest - that's ok though).
I was playing my Duesenberg which I always feel very free on, but I felt I played really well last night - was nothing fancy, but just seemed to have a good gig. It got me thinking, I was playing louder than I normally do at church - does increased volume somehow have an effect on your playing? It might have been pure coincidence I realise, but it got my mind pondering. Does anyone else feel they play 'better' the louder they play?
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simples - squeak
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
If by playing in a normal band or gig, you've turned the amp up its hitting the sweet spot. I've got multiple amps with various amounts of watts/loudness. I'm old with no mortgage. I can get the amp working at most volumes I,m ever going to play at.
A lot of overdrive work better in a band with the amp turned up.
Using in ears or headphones gives you the amp but not in a room. I used to record a clean amp tone with a zvex nano. I needed earphones to hear it. It was a great clean sound but not what that amp does best which volume knobs on full.
Nowadays I've moved to Kemper playing and usually with IEM's, so I can turn it up as loud as I can to really feel the guitar sound, but the response is different, to say, it coming out of speaker as its moving through air before it hits your ears.
which he then translated as “get some dynamics out of your guitar”
My band, Red For Dissent
On most amps there is a sweet spot where the amp is most sensitive to playing dynamics, and it generally needs a fair chunk of volume to get there.
(Generalisation, not intended as a criticism of the OP.)
Being able to hear yourself properly = playing better.
At church I normally have someone let me know if the amp volume is too much
Although...it has to sit in the mix. Nothing worse than a guitar that is way too loud vs the rest of the instruments (which sometimes you may not even know unless you can catch the front of house sound).