Comments for Gigs

Comment on What watt guitar amp should I buy for use as a practises amp and small to medium gigs in a band? by Michael Watson

Michael Watson — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:01:59 +0000

I use a 50 watt Marshall MA Combo. That is PLENTY. It sounds great quite and even better when I crank it up to jam with my band. I play small gigs and haven't needed to mic it yet.
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Comment on What watt guitar amp should I buy for use as a practises amp and small to medium gigs in a band? by Zirwa Sue

Zirwa Sue — Sat, 19 May 2012 13:13:59 +0000

You should try first with 5-10wat amp.good for noobs. I even started with that.
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Comment on What watt guitar amp should I buy for use as a practises amp and small to medium gigs in a band? by OU812

OU812 — Sat, 19 May 2012 13:04:59 +0000

The first choice you have to make is tube or solid state. A 5 watt tube amp like a Marshall Class 5, etc. will keep up with a drummer like rambo said (good answer from him by the way), and mic'd it is also enough for small to medium gigs. In a solid state amp 30 to 40 watts will be more than enough. Personally I find a 30 -40 watt solid state amp a bit loud for home practice, but maybe you practice louder than I do. When you are trying out amps be sure to see how low they will go volume wise. Some amps just don't do that late night practice volume because of the circuitry, volume pot or whatever. On some amps you just go from nothing to way too loud for practicing at night. Don't even consider a 60 to 100 watt amp.
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Comment on What watt guitar amp should I buy for use as a practises amp and small to medium gigs in a band? by Stan

Stan — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:24:59 +0000

I use a 15 watt Fender Blues Jr. NOS when I play out, although sometimes it is miked thru the PA.

P.S. Fire the singer…if the rest of you musicians can’t cover the vocals, it’s time you learned!
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48 years guitar/part time pro

Comment on What watt guitar amp should I buy for use as a practises amp and small to medium gigs in a band? by Lord Bacon

Lord Bacon — Sat, 19 May 2012 11:50:59 +0000

The difference to our ears between 60 watts and 100 watts is not significant. Hearing is not linear like that. Our ears are very sensitive at the quiet end but become less and less sensitive to differences at the loud end. If you want the distortion effects that can come with high volume, these can be achieved with more control by using an effects pedal.

When you are practising, you will not want or need maximum volume. When you are gigging, the only way to get the instruments and vocals balanced is to put everything through the same mixer/amplifier/speaker combination. In this case, you don’t need very powerful individual amplifiers (known as ‘back line’ amplification) and these will be mic’d up to provide an input to the main (’front line’) PA system.
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Comment on What watt guitar amp should I buy for use as a practises amp and small to medium gigs in a band? by rimbaudrambo

rimbaudrambo — Sat, 19 May 2012 11:25:59 +0000

Wattage and volume aren’t the same. Often, the higher the wattage, the louder the amp… but that’s not always the case. Amps of the same wattage will differ greatly in volume. But for the sake of this, we’ll say that wattage = volume to make it easier (but in reality, be wary of each amp’s individual volume).

Anyway, regardless of differences, 100W will be loud. There’s no chance in hell you’ll have it even half way up for small gig. Same for 60W. Most medium and large venues mic amps anyway, so tone is more important than volume. If you have a tube amp and want a clean tone, you might want an amp with higher wattage just so you DON’T have to turn it all the way up – so you can keep it low enough that there’s little or no saturation. For that purpose, 50W would typically be more than enough, and as low as 30W would suffice. If you want a saturated/amp distortion sound, it would make sense to get an amp with even lower wattage (or, rather, lower volume – see the first paragraph) so you CAN blast it and get that saturation. In this case, 5-15W would be ideal.

A strong 5W amp (the Fender Champion, for example) is loud enough to keep up with drums/other instruments during practice and small venues (Chuck Berry played a 5W amp, unmic’d). For medium venues, it will more than likely be mic’d and sent through a PA, which is where the real source of volume will come from (again, for medium/larger venues, focus on tone, not volume).

Unless you’re playing stadiums/large theaters (5,000+ people) or really love the tone of a particular amp, the ideal all-purpose wattage is 15-30W (for The Beatles’ famous Candlestick Park concert, they used unmic’d 30W amps) . Loud enough for unmic’d practice, and controllable enough for good tone when playing live/mic’d. If you have a 100W amp, you’ll be playing it so low (probably around 2 or 3) that you really just won’t be getting a full sound/tone from it.
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Comment on What watt guitar amp should I buy for use as a practises amp and small to medium gigs in a band? by XTIAN170174

XTIAN170174 — Sat, 19 May 2012 11:03:59 +0000

Depends on whether you're going to mic the speaker to the pa and just use the amp as your back line
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Comment on What is the best camera for taking pictures at gigs? by rick

rick — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:38:59 +0000

I would get a Nikon D3100 and a the fastest lens possible in your price range. A good lens is more valuable than a slightly more expensive body. If you are close to the stage, look at the 50mm f1.4. I might be throwing you over your budget but you can get the camera and body for less than what you want to spend and ad a faster lens later.
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Comment on What is the best camera for taking pictures at gigs? by Crim Liar

Crim Liar — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:04:59 +0000

Best all round has to be the Nikon D4. At a consumer level for photos only then the Nikon D7000, but if you want video too then the balance swings in favour of Sony's SLT-A77 or even SLT-A65 (yes I know the D7000 shoots video, but Sony does it better!).
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Comment on What is the best camera for taking pictures at gigs? by Agidy Yelov

Agidy Yelov — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:47:59 +0000

This one: http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-12-1MP-Digital-Camera-Body/dp/B000VRV6LY

You want brilliant? This is brilliant. Perfectly suited for those low light situations in clubs and concerts.
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