Having Your Amp Head Close to Change Settings

[dannyc80]

Hi,

I was just toying with the Idea of building a stand to sit my future Mk v Head on so that I can have it situated at the side of me, but leave the cab at the back, that way I can easily change settings and modes without having to be walking back and forth all the time while gigging.

it would be nice to be able to just tweak your settings, change from clean to fat or add a bit more gain etc.. without having to be turning your back and walking around.

Just wondering if there is any issues that I am not aware of that could potentially cause issues having the head separate from the cab?

Cheers

 

[OldTelecasterMan]

There would be no issues with head location if you have a good quality speaker cable long enough. There is just the distraction..LOL..

I have been using mine for almost a year now and never actually had the desire to tweak it that much while working. I do adjust my guitar volume and tone controls (on the guitar) for tone changes but never the amp. I get that done during setup and sound check. Room acoustics with any amp take very little adjustment. In the beginning I got disappointed to the point that I figured I didn't know what I was doing as I was constantly adjusting. I am a player, a part time working musician. Farting around with a piece of a equipment trying to get jobs done and at the same time trying to please myself tone wise I was getting unhappy. My first few months I did get caught up in the, why is this like that, can't get my tone right, on and on. It won't happen overnight but you will get there. Now I set things in a couple of minutes and don't touch much all night except for volume if I need to come up or go down.

For me, I open up the main volume at least half way. More is better as the amp can breath. Then I adjust my individual channels. Keeping the main volume up about half eliminated most of my tone issues. Everything seemed to work better, more consistent and controls are not so touchy. The amp tone controls work more like how I thought they should. They are different because one drives into the other but they do more without the main volume constricting them. I also just purchased a compressor (Xotic SP). I put it in front of the amp and I leave it on. The compressor was like turning a light on. I set it at 50% on the dial and the volume so there is no change from the volume of the amp. Now all is right in my world of tone, drive and sustain.

Just a note. I did an outdoor job a while back. The channels were barely cracked volume wise and the main was at half. I got asked to turn up so I opened up the main volume to about 2 O'Clock and the amp began to sing. Overdrive, sustain, beautiful harmonics, it was just awesome. Give it a try.

 

[dannyc80]

Hi Mark I I,

That's great information and definitely worth taking stock of.

The only reason I was thinking of the idea was to have it to hand for finding the tones at hand whilst gigging, I don't really have much opertunity to play at any reasonable volume so it's just an idea to help at first.

I'm just getting a bit excited to be honest!!

But your points about the volumes is great, thanks . ?

 

[OldTelecasterMan]

Finding the tones..... The great search and the Mark V is full of tones. My concern is the enjoyment of playing and not worrying about my sound. My wife goes to 99% of my jobs. She does notice things about the bands' sound and only if asked she will let us know what she hears from out in the crowd perspective. There are times when I'm having a extremely good night, playing and amp sound/tone is just awesome, I could do no wrong on the fretboard. She just laughs and says "doesn't sound any different than any other night". In reality we hear every little thing, every nuance and the crowd, well they don't really hear all that much detail. I'll blast a lead and hit a minor in the most wrong place of a major key, make the best of it and nobody notices. That is a good thing but kinda sad cause we work so hard to do it right.

Bottom line, tweak your amp if you want to but don't worry that much about it. Get a good sound, play the right chords, the right notes in your leads, when you start a song be sure you are in the right key LOL... and enjoy playing.

 

[dannyc80]

Haha that made me laugh.

On more than occasion I have started a song a semi tone out, look down to check position, look up, speak to someone and start.....only to find you moved from the F# to G. Then look at the bass player and laugh before sliding back quickly. ..

I'm not a knob tweaker by nature, some players often can't leave things alone, always with pedals or the amp.
Its just a short term idea till i get close then I'm happy to pop it back on the cab.

Cheers again

 

[OldTelecasterMan]

I was in a four piece and there was a song that I started. The bass and drums came in at the end of my intro, it was a little lead ditty that repeated for another pass with the band. One night I started it one half step up, realized what I did and dropped it proper when the band kicked in. The singer laughed and it almost made him screw up. Then we all got in on it, except for the vocal. I would stay one half step up, the bass player joined in, one half step up. When the vocal started we would drop. Screwed up the singer big time. About the third time (job) we did it the singer gave us a "Stop stop stop now hold it a minute and then told the story of how we were screwing with him with the half step thing" the crowd laughed. I looked at the bass player and pointed my finger down. So we started a half step down. Freakin hilarious.

What Cabinet are you running? Pedals?

Here is my rig.


I use the stand at small venues where I have problems hearing myself cause I have to stand so close to the amp. I'm 6'4" and we have done jobs with stages so small that I can bump the amp with my rear end. Or I take my Boogie F-30, well I do take my F-30 sometimes just for a change. It is the easiest to use amp I have ever had. A real workhorse with great tone, small and really cooks. It's also my backup. I never go to a job with just one amp, they crap on ya and most of our jobs are resort jobs 50+ miles away.

 

[dannyc80]

It's always good to mess with the singer now and again, keeps them in their place!!

My current rig is an 1997 ibanez S540 ltd into a morley wah/volume - vox ice 9 OD- vox satchurator - vox time machine delay and a TC electronics flashback delay into a fender 4 x 10 blues deville.

But I'm buying a mk v head and 1 x 12 theile cab in feb/March. Then I will just use...

ibanez - wah/volume - xotic ep booster into the front end and the time machine and flashback in the loop.

It's gonna be fun times ahead.

I would like a 2 x 12 at some stage but to be fair it's only local pubs and theatre's we play in. But still lots of fun!

 

[Buster Leggs]

Edit- l read this wrong, my answer didn't apply

 

[elvis]

I've run speaker cables up to 50 feet with no issues. The longer the cable, the heavier the gauge should be.

 

[John BNY]

As a gigging musician, I don't believe I ever had to tweak my tone in the midst of performing, so in my mind, I don't believe there would be a need to have the head next to you. You generally do a sound check before the performance where you get your tones set for the different channels you use, and the venue generally has a sound guy who controls the volume of the mic'd amps to even out the different instruments.

 

[Markedman]

My current rig is an 1997 ibanez S540 ltd into a morley wah/volume - vox ice 9 OD- vox satchurator - vox time machine delay and a TC electronics flashback delay into a fender 4 x 10 blues deville.

But I'm buying a mk v head and 1 x 12 theile cab in feb/March. Then I will just use...

Your world is going to be in technacolor once you get your Boogie! New life.

 

[domct203]

As a gigging musician, I don't believe I ever had to tweak my tone in the midst of performing, so in my mind, I don't believe there would be a need to have the head next to you. You generally do a sound check before the performance where you get your tones set for the different channels you use, and the venue generally has a sound guy who controls the volume of the mic'd amps to even out the different instruments.

+1

I might tweak the volume or presence a bit for the room after the first song or two, but after that it's "full speed ahead" and I'm off to my happy place for the next 20-40 minutes.

Whether I tweak knobs later is up to her .......

Dom

 

[dannyc80]

Thanks for all the advice and tips

I'm just gonna go watch all the mk v video's on YouTube again!!