TomCat wrote:
Hey Alan...Sounds like you've had some experiences here....LOL
Aye - I've been going direct for a long time and you are completely at the mercy of whoever is on the desk and the monitor system at your disposal (sometimes more suited to be shelf speakers in the back of a Ford Cortina than used for monitoring, but I digress...). It's fine if you have a decent system and a competent guy running it, but that's not always a given. Churches in particular often have multiple services with different volume requirements and often different guys on the desk, some with little to no experience.
Unbelievable tone with the amp cranked. Sunday morning used the same amp turned down and the tone sucked.
I think that's the crux of the biscuit right there. You're 100% In that kind of setup, you go direct or use the amp best suited to the lowest volume situation and mic up for the bigger shows.
kayDUB wrote:
i use only my 5W valve at church and find it is plenty for the environment we play in.
You are blessed with one of those ultra rare (almost mythical) drummers with "control" then. ?
(the church guys will know how the rest of the team/leader can get with a loud amp... and somehow telling them you are sacrificing tone doesn't really hit home lol! - hopefully this is not only me!)
You're lucky to be in that kind of a situation. In the battle 'twixt good and evil (tone and low volume in a church), the low volume
always wins. I've been on the other end of the deal, engineering where some prima donna guitarist cranks his 100W Marshall in a 5 X 5m room over a small PA that can't compete, and when people complain to the band that the sound sucks, I get the blame.
Crikey! I was @ Marshall on the weekend, they have Hotplates going for over 4K retail!!! Would be interested to hear the verdict on Mr Parfitt's creation.
We've been discussing it for a while and I selfishly pushed him in that direction purely cos I wanted one myself, and wasn't willing to pay such ridiculous prices for what is essentially a simple device. I think there's a gap in the market locally for an affordable version. He has it ready, I've just got to make a plan to get it to try, possibly a little bit more tweaking and then he'll be ready for production. Unlike the Hotplate, it's a multi impedance device too, so you won't need different models for different amps. He's also looking at options like a speaker simulated recording line out.
