The Steel Guitar Forum

It never fails,
I'm at home learning licks, playing with backtracks, my amp setting sound beautiful,
then I go do a show with a band and those settings are WAY off when it comes to
mixing with the live band. I end up cranking highs, pulling in more Mids, etc.
Then I bring my amp home, play thru the settings I used on stage and it sounds like hell.
Any of you guys have this problem?

Any of you have NV400 settings that work both at home and at the shows?

JB

Do you practice at stage volume?
Do you practice with your amp the same height off the floor?
The type of walls and the number of people will also change the tone, as will temperature and humidity.
It's a perpetually moving target.

Good points Lane.
No, at home I face the amp, out there it's behind and lower
I rarely have room to tilt my amp up toward me. That could be a major part of the p oblem I guess

Indeed. I bet it sounds great to yer seat.
Possibly get a Cawby stand?

I've had a Session 500, Factory modded Nashville 400, a Nashville 1000 and a Nashville 112. I used a D-10 Emmons PP with stock single coil pickups and then the D-10 Franklin (with Lawrence pickups) on the Session 500 and the Franklin on all the others.

I wound up using the same EQ settings on all of them.
Bass +9, Mid -2 and 800Hz, High and Presence 0 to +1.

I think it just comes with the territory. At home, you have a nice even track to play along with. On stage, with drums, bass and a loud guitar in your ears, if you want to hear yourself, you need less bass, more mids and treble. You need to be in a different frequency range then the other instruments. Lots of bassists and guitars don't get this, they will set their amp with much bass and cut the mids too much. That just muddies up the sound, and makes it harder for everyone to hear themselves.

Jack Stoner wrote:I

I wound up using the same EQ settings on all of them.
Bass +9, Mid -2 and 800Hz, High and Presence 0 to +1.

Jack, I just tried these setting and it does sound great with the amp aimed at me.
I guess I need to get my amp off the floor at the shows so I'm not playing directly at my ass.

Remember the old days when you had more stage room to work with? I miss that.
JB

I've always found I get my best onstage sound by having my amp against the back wall and sitting on the floor rather than being elevated. It seems to enhance projection while retaining more lows. I find amps sound thinner when elevated.

Dick Sexton wrote:

Danger ! Danger! Earthquake! Power suck! Speaker replacement!

Try that bright pull switch, John, I've found it useful in some stage situations, giving some edge to cut through the mix.

John Peay wrote:Try that bright pull switch, John, I've found it useful in some stage situations, giving some edge to cut through the mix.

That's one of the things I did, and it did help. But when I got the amp home it was uncomfortably bright. I have to wonder if I was hurtin people's ears all night.

I think aiming it better will help some, and the bright switch does cut thru the mix better, speciall since the drummer thinks he needs his drums mic'd in these small clubs. Or maybe I'm just becoming an old fogey

Thanks guys
JB

i'd leave your bright switch off and play out with a band alot more. learn how to set your tone for the live stage. that's where it matters.
eventually you won't have to change it.

I always play, practice or show, with my amp behind me. it's always elevated. Lately, I tilt it back enough not to offend the front row. My two gains, pre and post, are both on 3. The rest are set on +3, including the reverb. I use the Carbon Copy delay for a little "slap back." My amp is always in arm reach and the venue seldom effects my tone. The amp is a later model NV with the Peavey mod. Oh yea, all this for my Sho-Bud Super Pro. (black) I hardly ever play with volumn over 3.

my gains are always split. around 3-4 on the pre and about 7 on the post. that gives you more usable
clean power.
my treble is way low.
low around 3 o:clock.
not going too heavy on the bass gives a cleaner low end and mid.

I use a stand and aim the amp up to my ears. I rarely change the controls. What I am hearing is what I want hear. It's not necessarily the sound that should used for the audience. All of the bands I have played with in the last 5 or 6 years, always wants to mic me, because I don't want turn up louder that the rest of the band to really be heard in the audience. Mic'ing helps with that. But I would rather have my amp aimed straight at my head, at head level pointing straight out to the audience. In places that have those small cocktail tables, I will set my amp on one, directly behind. I really wish I could find something portable that would get my amp up and facing straight out. Any ideas????

My NV 400 settings are usually:

Pre: However loud I need to play.
Post: Again adjusted for volume, but normally around 1 o'clock.
Bass: 3 - 4 o'clock
Mid: About 10 o'clock
Shift: around 800
Treble: around 3'oclock
Presence: 1 - 2 o'clock

Subject to variation.

My problem has got to be these small stages I've had to play on with no room to elevate
my steel amp. I've played for years with lots of room and could always hear my steel on bigger stages.
Guess I'll start putting the NV400 on TOP of my telecaster amp (old Princeton reverb) instead of the he other way around when space is this tight.
Gotta get that sucker where I can hear it. They always mic me anyway
Thanks fellas
JB

One of the gigs I plyed once a month, set up my stand and amp, and it blocked the bass player's upper left 1/4 of his speaker cabinet. It worked out OK.