Convincing my second guitarist to use a louder amp - suggestions?

[Adieu]

Re: Convincing my second guitarist to use a louder amp - suggestions?

You never told us what sort of bass combo he had. Are we talking Bassman 100, or are we talking First Act 10w?
If you've got an ABY switch, just put a practice combo on top of the amp, run the guitar into both the bass and guitar amp. You'll get the round bottom end out of bass amp, on which you need to cut the bass a bit and dime the mids and highs. Adjust the practice amp's EQs to suit the upper register. If the other guy is going to be chintzy about getting an amp setup for himself, might as well go with a time-tested way to get highs out of bass amps on a budget.
If you're having problems like this and he's not willing to take care of business, you need to take care of it for him. Buy a ZT amp and keep it around in case of stuff like this.

Extension cab with 1-4 guitar 12's. Pleasant bonus - most bass amps, for lack of tubes, can take a variety of ohms, even mismatched...well, unless it out-watts any guitar cab out there. But then why would it be quiet??

ALT POSSIBILITY: one or both of you have hearing damage. Affecting perceptions of different frequency ranges. Could even be that you both play equally loud or he is actually louder, but you two just dont hear each others EQ curves (tailored to compensate each players own hearing deficiencies) correctly/objectively

 

[Adieu]

Re: Convincing my second guitarist to use a louder amp - suggestions?

You're operating on a few asdumptions here.

1) You don't know how loud the OP's band plays. It could be that they are playing at a reasonable volume but the guitarist's amp is just not loud enough to let him be heard.

2) Not every venue has a soundman.

And some ppl manage to tell the soundman to gtfo and effectively kick him to the curb... Which might actually be a real good idea. Been to way to many clubs with horrid horrid crap for PAs and bad baaad sound guys, and Im not even much of a clubber, nor was I ever.

UnMic'd cabs with good speakers can be your friend too.

Heck, come to think of it...cant recall any places with GOOD pa's.

And the only soundman I knew well (from college, unrelated to his job) was a total doofus & the epitome of irresponsible, admitted to knowing nothing and just winging it halfarsedly himself...and I know for a fact he'd never take any job seriously, just that kind of person. yet clubs actually thought he was quite good...Lol.

 

[Morior]

Re: Convincing my second guitarist to use a louder amp - suggestions?

And about the loudness thing...I kept on reading how my favorite guitarist, Steve Howe, ran his twins at really high volumes. I also read about how Roy Buchanan and Albert Collins, also great players, ran their amps at full volume. That's where the idea that "Loud is great" came from, at least to me.

Here are my findings after having played in several progressive rock bands, a couple of death metal bands and a punk band:

1) Loud is definitely not better once you start getting really loud. Keeping a controlled volume actually makes you sound a lot tighter. Not constantly blasting your audience's ears also makes you a more enjoyable band to listen to.

2) Tinnitus is not awesome. At all.

3) Your favourite artist's volume settings are for the most part meant for studio work and big stages. Chances are you aren't playing studio work and big stages. Diming your amp on a small stage is usually a bad idea, unless it is a small-ish amp. And from experience, the Blues Jr. is much louder than you'd think, especially when you aren't standing right above it, but rather in the "line of fire".

4) Tinnitus sucks.

5) Tinnitus sucks donkey balls.

6) You do not want tinnitus.

7) The only useful application for tinnitus is having a constant reference note for tuning -one- string on your guitar. And despite that, it's not worth it. At all.

 

[howeguy]

Re: Convincing my second guitarist to use a louder amp - suggestions?

To be perfectly honest, I already have tinnitus. It's not bad tinnitus, and the ear doctor says that otherwise, my hearing is perfect.

The second guitarist has fairly reasonable EQing - a fair amount of mids and treble. But the volume that the amp puts out is just not satisfactory.