Amp facing the wall

[Wayne27]

Is bad to put your amp facing the wall while you play electric guitar? Does it matter weather their tube or solid state?

[dystrust]

Re: Amp facing the wall

It won't sound the best, but I can't think of any reason it should hurt anything.

[Dave Locher]

Re: Amp facing the wall

As long as it is not shoved tight against the wall it does not matter at all.
I am not sure it would even matter if it IS shoved up tight to a wall except it could maybe harm the speakers.

[ehdwuld]

Re: Amp facing the wall

Hard paneled wall will give a nice reverb
Sheet rock maybe not so much
A metal garage door will do really good for reverb
Back off about 3 feet

[Adieu]

Re: Amp facing the wall

It won't sound the best, but I can't think of any reason it should hurt anything.

Only the wall and the neighbors beyond it

[dave74]

Re: Amp facing the wall

I wonder if that dance was rehearsed? Surely not.

[Chickenwings]

Re: Amp facing the wall

If you are doing this because you want to crank your amp have a look at the eminence reignmaker and maverick speakers.

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Amp facing the wall

It makes a huge difference whether the amp is open-back or sealed. What's the amp?

[Mincer]

Re: Amp facing the wall

I would have to ask what you want to accomplish with this.

[Dave Locher]

Re: Amp facing the wall

It makes a huge difference whether the amp is open-back or sealed. What's the amp?

Good point! I assumed closed back. An open-back amp will sound a bit odd facing backwards.

[IM4Tone]

Re: Amp facing the wall

I did this on a couple of occasions when on-stage volume was an issue at a small venue. Worked OK, and no, shouldn't be any harmful issues so long as air can still circulate.

[Wayne27]

Re: Amp facing the wall

I would have to ask what you want to accomplish with this.

Just so the amp doesn’t face me.

[Wayne27]

Re: Amp facing the wall

I did this on a couple of occasions when on-stage volume was an issue at a small venue. Worked OK, and no, shouldn't be any harmful issues so long as air can still circulate.

Did you face the amp to the wall because it was too loud?

[Chickenwings]

Re: Amp facing the wall

pro tip:
a lot of pros tilt their amp back so it is facing right at their heads.
Multiple benefits: you can hear yourself clear as a bell, the eq settings you use because of this mean that if the amp is miced up you will get a better FOH sound. You wont piss off your bandmates. You wont piss off your sound engineer. You wont piss off your audience. You will play better because you can hear all your nuances better.
If you are a singer, you can set the amp so you can be out of its beam where your mic is, but take a step to the left or the right for those times (like playing leads) that you want to bump yourself up in your "monitor mix".
Further benefits are that your amp does not acoustically resonate the floor as much, creating a better sound for band situations (leaving some room for the bass and kick drum) and also in the studio.
it won't feel comfortable to you initially and you will find that you will eq your amp different to what you have been used to, but there is literally no downside apart from it being a little difficult with the old head and quadbox scenario. Back when I used big amps like that, we all used to put them on milk crates to get them off the floor and more directional towards our ears. Just throw a black sheet over the crates for onstage aesthetics.

If your amp in this situation is too loud for you, then you are simply too loud for the rest of your band. If you find you need to crank your amp to get the overdrive and sensitivity you crave then the best solution is to use less efficient speakers to reduce stage volume. There are a ton of choices out there these days to suit the style of music and the tone you are after.

[JMP/HBE]

Re: Amp facing the wall

Pointless.
Try off axis.