If you can't hear yourself with a 200W amp, you have other problems other than volume. Simply throwing power and volume at it is likely only going to make things worse (and make you deaf). Probably either your EQ or room acoustics are completely wrong (like dialing out all your mids, which can sound good in isolation but makes you vanish in a mix.

What is your exact setup? Band, PA, room, tuning, etc.?

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: If you can't hear yourself with a 200W amp, you have other problems other than volume. Simply throwing power and volume at it is likely only going to make things worse (and make you deaf). Probably either your EQ or room acoustics are completely wrong (like dialing out all your mids, which can sound good in isolation but makes you vanish in a mix.

What is your exact setup? Band, PA, room, tuning, etc.?

1) +1, Not hearing yourself in the mix is often not volume. Too much gain or too little mids may be the problem.

2) I have used a cube 30 as a stage monitor. At lowish volumes it should work fine.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
What is your exact setup? Band, PA, room, tuning, etc.?

It's a punk and metal kind of setup, the only thing going through the PA are vocals and 2 drum mics, the guitars are not. I have a Randall RG200G3 (Volume at 7) which is a hybrid 2 x 12 and the lead guitarist is using a Peavey head on top of a Marshall cabinet. The PA is a Berringer with 2 JBL bins and 2 B3 bins. Tuning is Standard, Drop D, D Standard and Drop C.

The room we played was quite big and my amp was up at about head height behind me on a counter. Thinking about it now, I am always in front of the drummer, could that kill my sound? After the show I asked some friends if they could hear both guitars and they said yes, it's just me that can't hear myself while playing.

Brendon "BluJu" Neuhaus wrote:

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: If you can't hear yourself with a 200W amp, you have other problems other than volume. Simply throwing power and volume at it is likely only going to make things worse (and make you deaf). Probably either your EQ or room acoustics are completely wrong (like dialing out all your mids, which can sound good in isolation but makes you vanish in a mix.

What is your exact setup? Band, PA, room, tuning, etc.?

2) I have used a cube 30 as a stage monitor. At lowish volumes it should work fine.

Ok cool, thanks!

In a two guitarist band, EQing is real important - If you both EQ the same then neither will stand out. See what the other player is doing - if he's scooping mids, boost yours and cut both highs and lows - might not sound as good in isolation, but will sound far better in the mix. Think of it like jigsaw pieces - to fit together, one guitar must have bumps and dips that relate to the bumps and dips in the other.

With down-tuned guitars another problem can be you are living in the bassist's frequency range, try easing off on the lows with both guitars and get the bass player to dial out some of his highs. It's the first thing an engineer will do - lowpass filters on everything but the bass and kick (and there is a reason they call it "clearing the mix").

Multi-speaker cabs can often take some distance for the sound to develop (particularly the low end). Try set your amp further back on the stage or standing further forwards.

Metal muso on stage?LOL
Unless you hit the big time,youll never hear yourself clearly
Learn to follow the drums and/or bass
If youre a tight outfit,know your songs and leads backwards..it'll all be in sync
Any amp as a monitor is better than nothing,but i found the smaller ones are useless
And id be careful on the volume,just make sure the trebs are high,
you only want an idea of what youre playing,the audience arent gonna judge you on that awful sound youre monitoring..LOL
In my day in ear monitors werent even an option..LOL
I probably try get a cheapo wireless receiver with headphone socket and play around with ipod headphones for best results if I was broke