Using your acoustic amp as a guitar monitor at gigs with PA
 

Hey guys,

I'm a solo singer/songwriter playing out a lot at the moment - most of the time I'm playing in low volume situations (sometimes completely unplugged) but every now and then I play at a venue that's a bit louder.

One of these was last night and the sound I had onstage was pretty bad - the monitor mix was really bright and uninspiring and I found it really hard to get into my playing and, subsequently, into my singing and I felt my performance suffered as a result of this - plus it wasn't very pleasant listening to that tone for 45 minutes!

I have an AER Compact 60 which I use for guitar and vocals at coffeehouse style gigs and it occurred to me I could use the tuner out on my DI to feed the AER my guitar signal onstage, and then only use the monitor for vocals - that way I can adjust the guitar sound onstage to my liking and not have to worry about it sounding rubbish through the monitor.

I'd still be sending a pre AER signal to the FOH so I could adjust things without annoying the soundperson.

Does anyone one else use their amp in this way?

I have also in the past run my signal through my Fender Princeton reverb which does fill out the sound a bit, but I'm trying to take as little gear to gigs as possible (two guitars, a pedalboard, and a box of cables and CDs) and the AEr is pretty light and small, and the Princeton is heavier and also is a very different sound (which I do like on occasion!)

To me it's the way to go. I know allot of people that run an acoustic amp on stage as a guitar monitor. Usually you plug into the amp and run an out signal to the board. You can face the amp right at yourself as it will be ran at low volume. In this way you can control your guitar sound in any way you want. The sound guy can do whatever he's gonna do god forbid. Have the sound guy keep the guitar out of the monitors.

I do all the time. This week I will be doing at least 6 Sundance Film Festival gigs this next week on a variety of stages with totally different PA Setups. I would go crazy if I didn't have a consistent stage sound So I will send the XLR out of my Grace Alix to the house sound-man and the 1/4" out to one my my Schertler amps, either a Jam 400 or a Jam 200 depending how loud I want to be on stage. And for my vocal, I will send an aux out of the Schertler to the sound-man without any guitar getting into that output.

My standard stage rig is Renaissance RS6 >> AER Compact 60 >> DI out to house. I see lots of other folks with a similar arrangement.

So, yes, you can certainly do this!

I sometimes use my AER that way. You do have to be able to set up though. Let the sound guy put vocals through the monitors and keep the guitar in the AER.

I've used my AER Compact as a mini-PA, replete with vocals and guitars adjusted the way I want to hear them... and then sent a line-out or the DI out to a remote mixer to be ran through the "house" PA... works great! And I KNOW that the balance and sound quality is what I want to represent me...

Good, I'm glad that other people are doing this and it's working for them.

I don't think I'd use the DI on the AER as I think it's post everything and I'd like to be able to adjust my onstage sound without changing the front of house - normally I find it's best just to let the soundperson get on with it and trust that they know what they're doing, although occasionally I have to step in and ask for the reverb to be a little less cavernous!

How are people positioning their amps? In front like a normal monitor or behind or off to the side?

i've done it both ways. in small clubs with
limited space i have used an Aux send to feed
the aer and used it like a regular stage monitor.
i have also used it like you plan. as a guitar
amp. i've micd it and also used the di out for FOH.
All depends on the room.

LOL ...... Boy that's a good one!

On my new Elite Acoustics D6-8, there are two XLR outputs. There is full featured mixer with four mono and one stereo channels. A switch will let me choose between the XLRs being channels one and two out or a stereo mix. I can either send the house a mix or my guitar and vocals separately depending on the quality of the sound man.

As you can see, this is a standard way to do things. And you're right, in the case of the AER, that it's best to split the signal before the amp so you can adjust things on stage without messing around with the house sound.

One thing: I don't know what DI or DI/preamp unit you're using, but there's probably a pass-through or "amp out" option that might be better than the tuner out--especially if it's controlled by a mute switch (as tuner out usually are not for obvious reasons).

Louis

I'm using an Orchid acoustic DI - the tuner out is just a through from the input so not affected by the eq controls on the preamp. It doesn't mute when the DI is muted but I have a boss tuner first in my chain for muting and tuning so it doesn't bother me...

I Know. But you have to have faith sometime ;-))

When I do this kind of thing (and vocals are going to a sound desk) I use a Headway EDB2. An XLR our can go to the PA and the 1/4 line out to the AER.

Or, you can send the XLR out to the AER and then out from there to the PA.

In small venues I live the Compact. So long as you are not using long lengths I’m happy sending my vocal mic to the AER XLR in and the Headway 1/4 out to the 1/4 in on the AER.

Occasionally I’ve used a small mixer to send a single XLR out to the AER and that works well. Indeed I’ve had a guitar, mandolin and two vocals going through the AER and it has sounded fine to me.

We do with with a duo, each with a Fishman Loudbox (mini and Artist) and run the DI out to our Alto Troupers on a stand. We don't play any venues big enough to have their own PA but this set up works great for us. We've used it in situations where we're indoors but the venue wants some music outside as well. Additionally we played an outdoor gig with this arrangement last summer and had plenty of headroom and a good sound all around. Good luck!