Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I have a Marshall Valvestate VS100R combo, and very rarely do I have to turn it up past 3. I steadfastly believe that the more controlled your onstage volume is, the easier time your sound guy will have making you sound good at mix position. One thing to consider is sidewashing your guitar amps, leaving the bass amps back by the drums. You can also consider getting an amp stand that angles the sound up.

I agree generally with the comments about not needing the volume at those levels for practice, and also about cabinet separation and maybe angling the cab up at you, or raising it closer to head height. Also agree about perceived volume of valve versus sold-state amps.

That being said, your problem with feedback may very well be due to your pickups. Try testing to see if the feedback problem seems to be related to particular instruments and/or pickup(s). I'm shocked at how many stock pickups on Gibson and Fender and other supposedly high quality guitars are microphonic and/or poorly shielded from picking up stray induction fields from amps, etc. especially in this age of ultra-gain amps and uber-distortion pedals.

I'd suggest either replacing the pickups with high-quality aftermarket pickups, or having a tech "pot" your pickups. The most common cause of microphonic pickups is the windings of the pickup being loose, which happens with age or from poor quality control during the pickup-winding process. Potting corrects this by soaking the windings in either wax or an epoxy compound to prevent the windings from vibrating at high volume levels.

You can also improve shielding by wiring with high quality teflon-sleeved shielded mini cable, and also using copper-foil shielding material which has adhesive on one side to shield the pickup and control cavities. Make sure the foil is tied to ground. If the foil isn't grounded, it won't help.

Hope that helps.

Strat

Try two marshall amps. One on the right side of the drums and one on the left. Setup in with a ABY pedal line ToneBone. You don't need more volume added. You need more sound in the mix at the same time.

Dude, I haven't played that loud since I was 15. Try adding a PA and mic each amp at a moderate level. Then each player can turn their own monitor up to hear their own playing. Muffle the drums as well if need be, but I hope by now you've turned that ear ruining volume down. A 100 watt Marshall turned up and you CAN'T hear it? Damn!

All excellent suggestions. The only one I didn't see suggested is a very simple one......boost your mids. Scooped mids sound cool when you are playing at home alone but you will get lost in the mix if you don't add some mids in a band setting. Try that first because it doesn't cost you a dime. Write back and tell us what you are using so we can help. It's hard to come up with a viable solution when we are guessing at what you're signal chain is.

This thread is 2 yrs old so the original poster probably cant hear you at this point.