play louder!!??

[macmanmatty]

I was at an open mic last night with my offset soundhole guitar that has an lr baggs element pick up in it that was turned all the way up. The sound guy had my guitar with the mixer fader all the way up and the gain as high it could go with out feeding back. I am finger picker using my three fingers and thumb and afterwards the sound guy told me i needed to play louder we can't hear you! And that playing live is different than playing your living room!? It was just me and my guitar playing and sometimes me singing. I do not have this problem at other places. Are there some venues or sound guys that you deal with where playing with thumb / finger picks is a must? Or should I learn to play louder? Is this a common problem for finger pickers?

[Todd Tipton]

I don't pretend to know what the problem was. However, with 99% confidence I can say that it was not your playing. My 1% doubt is allowing for the very small possibility that you always play with an unusually quiet and whispy sound as if you didn't want to wake someone up in the middle of the night in a tiny apartment...LOL ;-)

[Mr. Jelly]

Really? You are not having the problem other places but you are with this guy and you're questioning anything other than him? There are an awful lot of sound men that don't know what they are doing, period. Then there are those that just plain made a mistake. But those know better than to blame something like this on the performer. I for one don't have allot of confidence in sound men's abilities. Though they may be really great guys. As a performer I try to make things as simple and strait forward as possible for them. I do that for me the performer.

During George Thorogood's prime years I was on hand to help the opening band have a good sound. Big festival with thousands of people and a big name sound company running sound. Which means I can only suggest or mention some helpful hints to the sound guy as I can't touch anything. And you don't want to piss him off. Well you couldn't hear the main guitar, much. You could tell something was drastically wrong. I tried and tried to get him to stick to trying to solve it without totally embarrassing him. I think he figured out on the last song that he was running the wrong mic channel. And that was a trained experienced sound man.

[mr. beaumont]

Did you have a monitor? Could you hear yourself?

Agreed, sounds like a soundman problem...not that uncommon, really.

[macmanmatty]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

Really? You are not having the problem other places but you are with this guy and you're questioning anything other than him? There are an awful lot of sound men that don't know what they are doing, period. Then there are those that just plain made a mistake. But those know better than to blame something like this on the performer. I for one don't have allot of confidence in sound men's abilities. Though they may be really great guys. As a performer I try to make things as simple and strait forward as possible for them. I do that for me the performer.

During George Thorogood's prime years I was on hand to help the opening band have a good sound. Big festival with thousands of people and a big name sound company running sound. Which means I can only suggest or mention some helpful hints to the sound guy as I can't touch anything. And you don't want to piss him off. Well you couldn't hear the main guitar, much. You could tell something was drastically wrong. I tried and tried to get him to stick to trying to solve it without totally embarrassing him. I think he figured out on the last song that he was running the wrong mic channel. And that was a trained experienced sound man.

My list of other places I play is small but they all say my guitar makes alot of feedback so they can't turn me up that loud. Some of them can EQ it out or do other things but it seems like this guy had only two tools in his belt the fader and input gain. But the comment that really got me is he said "now you see that playing live is not like playing your living room"? I don't understand that? What should I be doing live that I don't do in my living room? Assuming I'm playing the song 100% correctly and am singing in key and trying to eat the mic ( as bad as it may taste)?

[DupleMeter]

Yeah - it happens. Could have been that the sound guy messed up, had equipment issues he may not have been aware of (sometimes you get a faulty DI or cable or even a channel on the board goes south), or he simply didn't know what he was doing.

It also could have been a dying battery in your pickup system (if it has one). I would definitely check that if it's been a while since the last change. IME when those suckers die it's all at once. You're good one night then the next it's not.

[macmanmatty]

I could hear my guitar in the monitor, I could hear my voice in the monitor I though both sounded good. Yet he claimed hat neither was loud enough.

[JonPR]

Feedback from an acoustic can usually be fixed - or at least minimized - with an EQ cut at the offending frequency. Assuming a soundman who knows what he's doing....

Alternatively, get yourself a pre-amp/EQ so you can go through that - to give you some more volume, as well as tweak the EQ.
Should be some good tips here: https://reverb.com/uk/news/how-to-fi...dback-using-eq

Of course, I assume you're positioning yourself behind the speakers?

As for the monitor, being able to hear yourself in that is no guide as to how loud it is out front. (Monitors can also be a source of feedback, if too loud.)

It sounds to me like this venue is a very noisy one! Bar? Noisy conversation? Lots of people at the back not really listening? Too many drunks? Bummer...

[BFD]

If your guitar feeds back easily and, especially if you're only going direct anyway, cover your soundhole and make everyone's life easier.