fishman soloamp

[eyesore]

is it possible to plug in earbuds or headphones to my soloamp while i'm playing at some of these winiers? some of them get so crowded and loud that i can't even hear myself sitting right in front of this thing....any ideas?

[Vancebo]

My early morning smart-*** answer is "Turn the darn thing up".

But really, Give us some more information if you can. I assume you are getting some sort of feedback. If so, then positioning is the next best thing. You said you are sitting right in front of it. That is the problem. Position it slightly behind and to one side or another. Experiment with the angle of dispersion. One of your ears needs to catch just enough of it. Distance away from you will help as well. The next best thing is to comprise your tone by dialing out some of the offending frequencies. You should be able to use the notch filter to dial it out. Do that for your guitar and mic. First, get it your guitar to ring out (Feedback) then slowly turn the dial until it goes away. Then do the same for your mic.
Lastly, let us know what guitar/pickup combo you are using. That would help us help you better. Good luck.

[jomaynor]

Originally Posted by Vancebo

My early morning smart-*** answer is "Turn the darn thing up".

I don't see this as being smart-alecky at all.

If the OP is already directly in front of the Fish stick (assuming that he's at ear level to at least some of the speakers) and he still can't hear himself over the drinking chatter, then turning up would be the logical first thing to try. Headphones would look far too goofy: DJ city.

[pipedwho]

Do not just turn up.

The problem with turning up in a chatty/noisy reverberant environment is that the reason for the noise (chatter) will go up in proportion to your volume so people can hear their own conversations. You can't win in this situation, unless you have an enormous overkill PA system, and then people will just leave and you'll be told to turn back down.

Get the volume to a usable background level. Make sure your head is ear level with the tweeter in the middle. And if that doesn't work, use a small personal monitor speaker or a headphone amp into some IEMs.

[cotten]

Pipedwho's caution is well founded. Better positioning should probably be your first option, if it is an option. If not, yes, turn it up, but be aware that there is a point where this begins to be counter productive. If you reach the point where turning it up louder is not a good option, that's when I'd be looking for a small personal monitor, such as a Behringer EUROLIVE B205D Active PA/Monitor Speaker ($200?), or even a Kustom Kustom KPC4P Powered Monitor Speaker ($90?). No, I'd probably use my Ultrasound AGF50 amp as a stage monitor. It has a feature no new piece of equipment has: it's already paid for!

cotten

[pipedwho]

At these kinds of gigs, you're pretty much there for background ambience. You don't actually need to be heard over the crowd, and in fact it would be detrimental if you were. They don't have an acoustically and socially appropriate environment for a recital or concert, and that's not why you're there.

Sometimes it quietens down and people will sit back and listen, but while its crowded, no one can hear you properly anyway. And you can't force them to with more volume. They just start shouting at each other to be heard.

I know it's annoying as a performer, and also annoying for the people that do want to listen to you.

Depending on the space itself, you may have a better result with a conventional speaker that doesn't fall off as evenly as distance increases. That gives you a local 'hot' zone that is louder than other areas of the room. Line arrays tend to throw the sound fairly evenly around the room making it sound about the same everywhere. So turning up a line array gives people nowhere in the room to go if they want to have a conversation without shouting over the music. Whereas turning up a conventional speaker will have a louder zone right in front, falling away in volume more quickly to the sides and with distance.

[dcameron]

I have found that using a small monitor (TC Helicon FX150) connected to the monitor out jack on the back of the Fishman works perfectly.