Live Performance Setup
OnlineJoined: 06/09/2013
Posting this here hoping my fellow players can help.
I'm playing; a 1976 Princeton Reverb with a Boss 59 Bassman Pedal. I've learned to adjust this rig to different situations and am happy now with the sound it produces. I can dial in or dial out the dirt, bass response etc. I've even learned to hear the difference between distortion that comes from the Drive knob, and that which comes from the Level knob (or my amp's Volume knob for that matter). I prefer the latter.
The question is about micing up for a gig. At 12 or 15 watts, whatever the PR puts out, it can't compete with my band. I mic at the edge of the speaker cone. The struggles I encounter are these;
1. Feedback from stage monitors - I try to dial this out by taking my harp out of the stage monitor circuit (I run the board at our gigs too), but I'm not sure if I'm still getting feedback from the other vocal mics on stage picking up my amp.
2. A booming sort of reverb sound. This is kind of puzzling as I have the reverb on the amp turned off. Again, the only thing I can think of is the amp is getting picked up by the vocal mics, which have reverb on them through the board.
The live performance results are kind of disappointing, as I can get a nice crisp and appropriately distorted tone from the amp itself, but I seem to have a muddy mess when we're playing out.
Hear for yourself.
Any tips for me? I appreciate your help
The mic that you use on your amp is bound to pick up stray stuff from the other amps on stage, and is a definite feedback source. A "line out" eliminates this feedback source at least, and gives you a cleaner input into the PA.
Some amps come with a "line out" jack. Some of these send signal from the PRE-AMP of your amp to the PA (you get pre-amp sounds, but you don't get the quality of the power portion of your amp through the PA).
Others use "speaker side of the output transformer" line outs, which send a signal that has been fully "treated" by your favorite amp, to the PA (much preferred for harp). One of these can be added to your amp by an amp tech, or you can use an external device. The guy who sells the "Squeal Killer" ant-feedback pedal also makes such a device. It has two alligator clips, that you clip on to your speaker terminals (You ALWAYS want to have your speaker(s) connected to your amp, to prevent amp damage!!). The alligator clips go to little box, which is basically a voltage divider that sends the signal ("stepped down" from th speaker output) to a 1/4" jack. You then run a 1/4" cable from the box to a PA line-in, and there you are. Note that changes that you make with the volume control of your amp will also change the volume through the PA.
One nice thing about this is that it doesn't permanently alter your amp. It's also easy to take off and on, so you can use it on any amp (if you can get to the speaker terminals).
You can find the box here. It's about $40. http://thesquealkiller.com/the-piggy-back/
Mark H.