Down to the wire Amps and stuff

[Kip Carter]

Dog gone I should have thought of this sooner.

About ready to head to town and think I have to buy some stuff in a hurry.

Tomorrow I will be playing on stage and I have NO WAY of hearing what i'm playing to know what is going on.. I will be lost! So I'm wondering If I can't find an inexpensive stage amp with pass though that I can use as a stage monitor can is just pick up a 1/4" Y spliter and drive a inexpensive stage amp so I can hear the electric directly outside of the house mix on the PA system and still feed the PA on the other side of the Y Splitter?

Would that work?

Dag gum it!

[ElCamino]

Sorry, I am zero help on your PA and string questions, etc., but I did wanna say good luck or break a leg or whatever is the going accepted sentiment before a performance. You've gotta be psyched. Go get 'em! (And please recount your experience here after the fact.)

[Steve DeRosa]

Hope I got to you in time...

There are plenty of inexpensive solid-state amps in the 25-50W range - enough to let you hear yourself in a full-band situation as well as provide some front-fill for the house - that have either a preamp out or dedicated line output; in some cases the latter are speaker-emulated and/or XLR - either or both of which make things easier for both you and your soundbooth crew...

Having done hired-gun work for a few P&W teams over the years I had several ways of approaching this problem, in ascending order of preference:

1. DI direct to board - good for acoustic, not so hot for electric unless you have a pedalboard (Line 6 Pod, Vox Tonelab, etc.) to give it some tone; no ability to control your own tone/mix vis-a-vis the rest of the band
2. DI in front of amp input (guitar-box-amp) - same deal except you have the ability to regulate your own tone/volume within the band
3. Mic your amp - old-school but IMO the most reliable way to duplicate your tone in the house with volunteer/inexperienced sound people (of whom I've met many), since their sole function will be to ride gain in the overall mix
4. Preamp/line out to board - the default setup unless you're playing one of those 15,000-seat megachurches with a cutting-edge sound system (and to date I've yet to be so blessed); find out if your amp's output is pre- or post-EQ - in my experience the latter is preferable for guitar (I also like it for bass, some guys differ) since it allows you control over your guitar's tone shaping, and the house system essentially becomes an extension of your amp
5. A/B/Y split-channel - if your board/sound crew has the capability this is probably the way you'll want to go with your Variax, running one output direct-to-board from the guitar and a second output from the amp (as in #4 above) in another channel; done correctly you should be able to hear your acoustic tones in the monitors, electric tones from the amp (as well as the monitors), and switch/blend them at will from the stompbox; done right it'll give you everything you seem to be looking for - done wrong it's a trainwreck in the making, so you might want to hold off on this one until you and your crew have some time to dial it in at rehearsals

Your local GC should have something either new or used, so my suggestion is to get out there and see what works for you...

[Kip Carter]

Way I'm going...

(Steve, got your note late but as luck would have about dead on where i'm going in parallel to your advice)

I have my Venue Preamp / DI and I'm going to use that to split my signal and shape my sound because it will do two things. Allow me to give myself feed back though the inexpensive $60 used Marshall amp i just bought at a local guitar shop on stage via it's 1/4" out and feed the house on the XLR. Second it does give me lots of control over my sound before it hits the house sound board and what they do with it after that is their problem, so to me this looks like the best of all worlds.

The Marshall amp i picked up looks brand new is a lil 15 watter that runs clean and has great tone for a small rig, so it is a nice add to my gear inventory without a lot of cash outlay. so I think i'm ready for bear tomorrow.

I also now that i have a NON-Modeling amp found the D-28-12 string mode on the Variax along with sitar, national tri-cone, D-28 banjo and a host of other things... Gosh I'm having fun! I picked up a set of strings but don't' think i'm going to have the time to put them on before church tomorrow. I don't want to cut into my play time.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Kip Carter

...give myself feedback though the inexpensive $60 used Marshall amp I just bought at a local guitar shop...

For the sake of the congregation, I hope you don't mean this literally...

[Kip Carter]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

For the sake of the congregation, I hope you don't mean this literally...

LOL ...no not in the sense of squealing electronics.. but in being able to hear what my guitar is putting out. LOL