The Steel Guitar Forum

Every stage is different, and I try to find the sweet spot, but don't always succeed.
I haven't been tilting my amp yet, but I may start soon. Just wondering what the rest of you do to hear yourselves clearly.

What I do is put my amp on a milk crate. I like my sound to be at my shoulder where I can hear my tone and at the same time, I'm not having the speaker blasting my ears. I've gotten a lot of compliments on my stage tone from musicians on stage and in the audience. Lately, I'm using a wedge type spkr cabinet and I set them back away from my head but I hear them clearly for
tone.

If the amp is miked, then you are only using it as a monitor, and you should tilt it at your head or do whatever else makes it easy to hear in the stage mix.

If the amp is not miked, then it should be pointed directly at the audience, so they can hear it, not tilted up at your head and the ceiling. Whenever I see a steeler with no mike, and their amp tilted up at their head, I know I will have trouble hearing the steel. I like to have my amp some distance from me, at the back of the stage with the drums, bass amp, and other guitar amps, so I can easily blend it in the mix.

I like to have my cabs on the floor.About 10 feet apart and tilted with old stomp boxes. Of course on small stages this is not possiable.

If you haven't tried this already.When your rig sounds really good to you.Change the angle of your cabs or cab. Just turn them to the right or left.Don't take much.And your great sound goes to crap. Also changing the angle of your stage monitor will make your tone appear to change.The louder the monitor the more you'll notice this.And of course if your amp sounds great in a chair or stand.It will sound like crap to you if you place it on the floor.And visa versa...

One thing about an amp on the floor,
it couples the bass notes to the floor like a baffle,

and it gets boomier in a lot of situations.
Lifting it up decouples the lower frequencies.

Tilting can give you a more accurate reproduction of your amps output at your listening position.
And do it at an over all lower stage volume,
great if you are mic'ed or direct out also.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 30 May 2005 at 10:04 PM.]</p></FONT>

I have mine elevated and slightly tilted back on an amp stand.

I like it elevated as the bass isn't "boomy" and at "ear level" I can get the correct volume. If it's sitting on the floor or even tilted sitting on the floor it can tend to get too loud since it's going "underneath" you.

I'm only using one amp for now and have it on the floor. I do carry a milk crate I've got all kinds of stuff in and will put the amp on it if I can't hear it. The milk crate is the right height as Ted said.

I used to use milk crates to set my amp up so I could hear it, the past 10 years I have been using a great little Adam fold up amp stand that lets the amp lean back with adjustable heights also. I have found that to be the best so far. I had a Peavey 400 'wedge' once, worked great but I had to hire two guys to carry it around for me!! So I am back to a Peavey Nashville with John LeMays mods in it.

Ernie Pollock http://www.hereintown.net/~shobud75
PS: Russ, your amp stand is here & you can pick it up anytime.

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What David and Jack said.

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Peavey amp stand for the NV400. Puts the amp at just the right height.

Anybody ever put their knee into the Black Widow whilst carting the amp back to the truck?

I tried tilting my amp for the first time a few weeks ago and didn't like it. It felt like the cone of sound was beaming directly into my head. Since I wasn't miked, It really threw me off.

bar chair for a long time, a folding chair WON'T work..milk crate is ok, but hard to tilt on one..i use an amp stand now..but man..just something else to tote..anyone figure out what those two flat chrome things on those Fender amps were for yet?

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Whitney Single 12 8FL & 5 KN,keyless, dual changers Extended C6th, Webb Amp, Line6 PodXT, Goodrich Curly Chalker Volume Pedal, Match Bro, BJS Bar..I was keyless....when keyless wasn't cool....

I like it on the floor because the audience tends to like it brighter than I do.

I installed Fender tilt-back "legs" (like on a Twin) on my NV400. I rarely use them though.

Jonathan,
I used a milk crate for a while, but just got this tilt back amp stand from Carter.
It runs about $30 but it folds up into nothing and actually holds up (tilts up)
my Nashville 1000 or 400. If I have the amp miked, I just set it up right next to me
and I can hear the tone pretty well as it
comes directly at me.
If you don't mike it, It's probably better
to face it straight out to the audience.
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bob miano

What color milk crate is the best??

Ron, green milk crates, just to be different. Actually, a guitar player I know uses a milk crate and covers it with a black sheet. (probably more like a pillow case)

I have Tilt legs on my twin and NV400, and ALWAYS use them. Couldn't live without. Will put them on the NV112 soon. Sometimes I wish I could tilt back my bass rig, but I'd probably need a tow truck.

Ron, desert storm.

Well, I tilted it last night and it worked out better for everyone -- me, the rest of the band and the audience. Much easier to control my dynamics and hear my tone.
In a small room especially I will continue to do so, and in rooms with low stages so I don't nail the folks in the front. On bigger stages where I can get some distance I might try a milk crate, and face it more outward if there is no mike.
Guess I might grab the tilt legs off the Fender I'm not using, at least until I can afford a nice wedge speaker with a separate head.
Thanks to all for your input.

Ron,

Black crates make your steel sound the best, of course.

I almost always set my amp on the floor behind me and then tilt it back a little.
I usually mike the amp also. Bottom line,I do whatever it takes to acheive a sound that myself and everyone else can live with,but I can't stand having an amp or speaker right behind my head like most steelers. Why do you guys do that,anyway??? My reasoning for doing it my way is that I want to hear it more like the audience hears it. If I didn't have to fiddle with the knobs from time to time,I would set the amp at least 6' behind me. DAVID DONALD'S comment about the floor enhancing low frequencies is correct. I often use an amp with a heavy duty 12" speaker and I find that setting the amp on the floor gives it more low end response,more like a 15" speaker and cabinet. You can probably tell that I have quit using the "Boo-Wah" pedal;p8.
~~W.C.~~<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Wayne Cox on 02 June 2005 at 09:13 AM.]</p></FONT>

Black always sounds best. I salute the desert camo!
On a tall stage, like 4 feet or more, straight away for me.
A room with no stage, I like the black milk crate idea.
I think the idea is to get the speakers about the level of the audience's ears.
What is the setup at ISG convention, or most steel shows?

Ron<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Ron Randall on 02 June 2005 at 12:09 PM.]</p></FONT>

Jonathan, I once heard a story that years back someone asked Jimmy Day if he used a 'Lil Izzy? He said he never did a gig without it; pulled the unit out of his seat, tilted his amp back and slipped it under the front edge of the amp! I can't swear that it's a true story but it sure is funny. JG