Too darn loud...

[Steadfastly]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

Loudness is actually a big consideration in restaurant design & operation.

Many people in the industry believe that loudness is a good thing. It makes a restaurant seem like a "happening place", a place where people want to be. And in loud restaurants, it may well be the case (you know the drill, "studies have shown") that people order more and eat faster, which are both great things if you own a restaurant.

There's a ton of stuff on the internet about this. A brief article from the New Statesman:

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture...etting-noisier

I understand that. My wife and I are fairly regular customers that have this as one of their standards. However, we never take other people there as conversation is more difficult and you should never take a person there who has hearing problems or uses hearing aids. I have also noticed that this particular chain has lowered the volume over the last few years.

It also depends on the type of restaurant. Casual dining may be loud; fine dining never is.

[beninma]

Always a relevant topic.

I think a true Pro can recognize when it's too loud.

2 Years ago I saw Buddy Guy and he came out after the opening act and made everyone turn down as he knew the opener was too loud.

It was still pretty loud, and everyone had bought a ticket to see the show, not to eat or talk to their friends. But it wasn't painfully loud.

This stuff is so problematic with drums, etc.. it takes a lot of skill.

One thing I have noticed, an electric bass player can easily turn down to a level to play with acoustic non/amped guitars and it can all sound good.

Electric guitar can too, but it's definitely harder without just the right amp as a lot of amps sound bad until the volume hits a certain level.

I use a dB meter at home a lot when I play electric. One problem with electric IMO is the amp kind of needs to be loud enough so you can't hear the acoustic sound of the guitar. You really don't want to hear the acoustic sound of a solid body guitar over the amp.

I keep the music specific earplugs in my electric guitars case after a few jam sessions/practice sessions with a drummer that pushed the volume up to painful levels. No audience to complain, if the drummer can't keep it down no one else can be heard and volumes just go up.

[The Kid!]

Originally Posted by bufflehead

My intent here is not to throw fellow musicians under the bus. [/url]

What you originally suggested does just that. We can't always hear what it sounds like out front. That's why I always ask.

...politely tip and ask the musician to bring it down, OR request a table further away or off axis from the speakers.

[bufflehead]

Originally Posted by The Kid!

...politely tip and ask the musician to bring it down, OR request a table further away or off axis from the speakers.

We disagree, and I'm glad that we can do so respectfully.

I always request a quiet table when I'm making reservations, and I don't feel I should have to tip performers so that I can hear conversations at my table. (Although I certainly understand where a professional musician such as yourself would want to encourage tipping. We should all tip when we enjoy the music, so at least let's agree on that.)

[Steadfastly]

Originally Posted by beninma

Always a relevant topic.

I think a true Pro can recognize when it's too loud.

2 Years ago I saw Buddy Guy and he came out after the opening act and made everyone turn down as he knew the opener was too loud.

It was still pretty loud, and everyone had bought a ticket to see the show, not to eat or talk to their friends. But it wasn't painfully loud.

This stuff is so problematic with drums, etc.. it takes a lot of skill.

One thing I have noticed, an electric bass player can easily turn down to a level to play with acoustic non/amped guitars and it can all sound good.

Electric guitar can too, but it's definitely harder without just the right amp as a lot of amps sound bad until the volume hits a certain level.

Let's all lobby to get rid of all electric guitars on a global scale and just have acoustics. Problem solved,........................................... . except I just put a new wider neck on my tele this morning and am dying to try it out.

[bufflehead]

Originally Posted by Steadfastly

Let's all lobby to get rid of all electric guitars on a global scale and just have acoustics. Problem solved,........................................... . except I just put a new wider neck on my tele this morning and am dying to try it out.

Compromise? Maybe just outlaw the drummers.

[guitar george]

Maybe just outlaw the bass guitarists.

[Steadfastly]

Originally Posted by Steadfastly

Let's all lobby to get rid of all electric guitars on a global scale and just have acoustics. Problem solved,........................................... . except I just put a new wider neck on my tele this morning and am dying to try it out.

Originally Posted by bufflehead

Compromise? Maybe just outlaw the drummers.

Originally Posted by guitar george

Maybe just outlaw the bass guitarists.

Uh-oh! It looks like I better not venture out of the acoustic forum. I could be in real trouble getting something like this started.

[The Kid!]

Originally Posted by bufflehead

I always request a quiet table when I'm making reservations

That's a start.

Originally Posted by bufflehead

I don't feel I should have to tip performers so that I can hear conversations at my table.

I never said that you had to. I gave two mutually exclusive suggestions. That's a strawman at best, Sir.

Originally Posted by bufflehead

(Although I certainly understand where a professional musician such as yourself would want to encourage tipping.)

It doesn't matter what I do for a living or not. It was more about courtesy and being an ice breaker. That’s why I said politely tip,

OR

request a table out of harms way.

I’m saying that because even a dollar shows some level of appreciation when you’re asking for them to keep levels down. You could always just be polite, save a buck, and ask if they’d turn down. Or... get a table away from the performance.

Some restaurants are crazy noisy even without entertainment. Sometimes bar chatter on a busy night can be deafening.

Registering a complaint against an establishment because I it was too loud for one individual hurts the whole scene. I’ll stand by that.

Now, if they get repeated complaints about noise and do nothing to comply, that’s a different story. It seems like you want a quiet dining experience, and that’s cool.

Maybe pick a spot without live entertainment instead of trying to ruin the reputation of an establishment that supports it. Yelp reviews could be a positive thing, but so many people use them to bash local spots that are trying to make it nice for the majority of customers and not cater to just one.

If you have certain “requirements,” ask the musician or host(was) to seat you where you’ll be comfortable before you decide to bash the place with a bad yelp review. Give them a chance to make you happy.

Some folks go out to have a good time, some folks go out for a quiet evening. Some are reasonable, some aren't. I play some really nice places, and I've seen some pretty entitled customers that expect the world to cater to only them.

I don't know you, so I don't know where you fall on the spectrum, and don't claim to know. I'm just saying that there are more proactive ways to go about getting what you want without Yelping to hurt people who are trying to make a living.

[varmonter]

Ill have to say when i play out in restaurants
I try to just listen to the crowd. If they are
yelling at each other thats my clue.
If they are yelling I turn down.. sometimes
it?takes a couple of songs for them to quiet
down. If they dont ...i turn it down some more.
I dont bother as a customer to ask or take it on myself to ask ..
...I just go elsewhere.

[Geof S.]

The last time I was in Nashville (about 14 months ago) I spent a couple of nights walking around sampling the live music. I ended up walking out of about half of the places I walked into because the music was too loud.

Really annoying, because some of the bands/acts were very good. But none of them were good enough for me to risk hearing damage.

I spent some time in New Orleans on the same trip, and did not encounter the same problem. Some places the music was loud, but not ear-splittingly so.

[The Kid!]

Originally Posted by varmonter

Ill have to say when i play out in restaurants
I try to just listen to the crowd. If they are
yelling at each other thats my clue.
If they are yelling I turn down.. sometimes
it?takes a couple of songs for them to quiet
down. If they dont ...i turn it down some more.
I dont bother as a customer to ask or take it on myself to ask ..
...I just go elsewhere.

All of this works too.

[stephenT]

I play in an electric four piece band every Sunday, it's a two guitar band and even tho I play a 17w amp and the slide player has a 22w amp, we can get loud,.. it's a struggle to maintain a reasonable stage volume. Luckily the place fills up with bodies and dancers and it's appropriate. The drummer and bass player will let us know if we're over the line.

I've been standing in front of guitar amps and drums all my life, I do love the acoustic gigs.

[The Kid!]

Originally Posted by stephenT

I play in an electric four piece band every Sunday, it's a two guitar band and even tho I play a 17w amp and the slide player has a 22w amp, we can get loud,.. it's a struggle to maintain a reasonable stage volume. Luckily the place fills up with bodies and dancers and it's appropriate. The drummer and bass player will let us know if we're over the line.

I've been standing in front of guitar amps and drums all my life, I do love the acoustic gigs.

A 17W tube amp is pretty loud.

[Mr. Jelly]

Originally Posted by The Kid!

A 17W tube amp is pretty loud.

FYI
The perceptible increase in volume is 3db for humans. To get a 3db increase in volume more than a 17W amp you would need a 34W amp. To get 3db more volume you would need to go to a 68W amp. And so on.