Guitar Amps Outside - Setting up for live show

Assuming there is a pro sound guy, I'd run it by him. The best of them say "Don't worry about how you sound out front, I'll make it right." And then you just make sure you can hear yourselves. If you have less confidence in them, your set up sounds like a good start. Try to keep your stage level as sane as possible.

Let us know where and when.

I'm no expert but your plan sounds good to me.

A soundman told me years ago to always aim for the center of the crowd. This can be different everywhere you play. Sometimes the crowd is right in front of the band and only extends back a hundred feet. So all speakers would be angled in quite a bit. Sometimes you get a huge crowd that extends many hundreds of feet from the stage. So in this instance you would have to pan all the amps and PA speakers out a bit. But my friend's advice was good, try to determine the rough center of the crowd and aim there.

If you don't have a soundman, find someone who is a player to give you sound advice. Get there early and do a sound check if possible. Have your friend stand out where the crowd is and give you advice about settings. Sometimes you think your amp is too loud because you are standing right in front of it, but it cannot be heard out front. Or more common, you don't think it loud enough, when it is really blasting. So pick someone who knows sound to give you advice. Or if you have a wireless, walk out front and listen to the whole band.

As always, don't be too loud. If you cannot hear the singer, then the instruments need to come down.

As for putting guitar speakers on both sides of the stage, that is a good idea that works. Always place your bass player next to the drums, it is vital that they both hear each other, very important.

Good luck at your show. I too have an outdoor gig for the 4th planned, always a great day to play. :D

Hey guys, I'm gonna be at a festival all week playing generator stages outside. Just wondering if you had any advice on how to set up guitar amps for the best sound. Right now we're planning on running two cabs on each side. the farthest one out will be the guitar that is on that side, and then the next one in will be the cab for the other guitar. The ones on the inside are angled in for the drummer. We liked the idea of having both guitars on each side, but is this the best thing to do outside? Any advice would be awesome. Thanks!

I'm assuming you'll be having a sound tech for FOH. If this is the case, don't even worry about the audience hearing the amps. Let the PA handle that. I'd set up so one cab is of each guitar is sidefill (aim across the stage) so all of the band can hear each other, make sure you hear what you need in the monitors, and rawk!

I took this advice from an interview with someone from Yes . No matter how large the stage they always set up the same way as when they practiced , approximately the same distance apart and same sides and everything . They also angled speaker cabinets in toward the the center of the stage so they could hear themselves . The reasoning behind this was that this was the way they were used to hearing themselves and therefore they would be more comfortable playing together . It makes a lot of sense especially when it comes to stage communication , very important when playing live .