Ok, we are a small band playing in Atlanta, we started at 2 acoustic guitars... we have now added a full kit and our acoustics have turned electric for the most part... we originally played our acoustics through our PA which is two 15'' yamaha's with a 1500 watt amp and a 10 channel yamaha mixer, we also daisy chain 2 x 10'' carvins for monitors... we dont really get the sound we want playing our electrics through it so we have found a 2 x12'' cab we are powering with a carvin powered mixer... i know..i know.. but its the best with what we have... whats a good next investment? should we commit to getting a nice stack? maybe 4 x10" or 4 x 12"s, do we need one for each guitar or can we both go through the same one? would we need a snake eventually to run our monitors? basically i need some help....
"my choice is what i choose to do
and if i'm causing no harm
it shouldn't bother you
your choice is who you choose to be
and if your causin' no harm
then you're alright with me"
~Ben Harper
It's a little hard to say without you indicating what aspect of your sound isn't working.
At some point, you may want to get guitar amps for the guitars, even if you play with very little distortion, this may help.
Otherwise, it seems like you have all the necessary components. Do you have decent mics? Does the mixer have an EQ and reverb?
Laz
yea the carvin mixer for guitar amp but no reverb and also has an EQ not that i know how to set it up. we have some nice shure mics as well. would you suggest one rig for both guitars ie 4 x 12'' or maybe two smaller ones 2 x10'' or 12'' but one for each guitar..thanks for the suggestions
"my choice is what i choose to do
and if i'm causing no harm
it shouldn't bother you
your choice is who you choose to be
and if your causin' no harm
then you're alright with me"
~Ben Harper
The problem is that you are running your guitars alone through a PA. PA's are designed to reproduce a very clean and undistorted sound. While this is great for vocals and reproducing mic'd instruments, an electric guitar will sound pretty drab.
You could either purchase a multi-efx unit for each guitar and run it into your PA, but really, I would invest in a guitar amp each and then mic this into the PA. You don't need big powerful guitar amps at all, you could go with a little 5-15 watt amp. You already have a nice PA that will provide all the volume you need.
Electric guitar amps, even on "clean" settings are designed to slightly distort. This is the electric guitar sound, and probably what you sense is missing.
You do not say what kind of budget you have, or what type of guitar sounds you are after. This would help a lot.
Whether you go with a solid state amp or tube, great tone is what you want.
So, what kind of music do you play, and what type of tones are you after?
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
so since im new to all this... we'd be better off mic'ing an amp going through the PA to get our volume instead of jsut straight from the amp?
we play rock. country. some blues. not a lot of distortion generally, just a nice clean sound with some reverb does us best.
"my choice is what i choose to do
and if i'm causing no harm
it shouldn't bother you
your choice is who you choose to be
and if your causin' no harm
then you're alright with me"
~Ben Harper
Hoop71
It depends. At a small venue you could simply use your guitar amps alone. At a large venue or big crowd it would probably be best to mic the amps.
With PAs, less is better. Sure it looks great to have mics all over the stage. But every mic introduces more chance of feedback and muddy sound. So it is best to go with a minimum of mics on stage.
In my band at small venues I mic only the vocals (myself and drummer) and the kick drum. Sometimes I will mic Lane the other guitarist and put a little in the monitor so Dom our bass player can hear him. He sets up on the opposite side from Lane. I am inbetween Dom and the drummer, so sometimes Dom has a little trouble hearing Lane. So I put Lane in the monitor.
At a large venue I will put mics on everything except Dom's bass and push it through the PA. I keep the instruments down in the monitors except Lane for the reason described before. I don't need to hear my own guitar or the drums in the monitors, we can hear that easily on stage. So, I send everything out through the mains, but keep it to vocals and Lane's guitar only in the monitors.
But this is what works for me. You have to experiment. Keeping the volume down on stage as much as possible, keeping all unnecessary instruments out of the monitors, this will get you a good clear mix without problems with feedback.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
I am the sole guitarist in a three piece band . I have found that it is necessary to mic my amp and send it through the front end because of the directional nature of my amp . Before I started going through the front end I was always getting comments that the guitar wasn't loud enough from some listeners . These people were usually on one side or the other and therefore not directly in front of the guitar amp . The other instruments , bass and drums , can be heard from any direction whereas the guitar amp is a lot louder directly in front of the speakers but falls off a lot to the sides . So , I put a microphone on the amp and re-inforce the sound just enough to have complete coverage through the front end . This accomplishes several important things . The mix is a lot better in the front , the stage volume doesn't get out of control and my bass player is happy . Plus , I'm sure that everybody is now able to hear my excellent playing (and mistakes , oh well !) . This also gives the sound tech , if you have one , the ability to control your sound as he's the one standing out in the audience taking it all in .
If I claim to be a wise man , it surely means that I don't know .
