When playing live shows do you use your own amp? And where do you plug your mic for practice?

Question

I'm a noob to the whole band thing and I had a couple of questions. Do you use your own amp when you perform? And where do you plug your mic for practice?

Answer 1

depends on where the show is. aim me if you have a lot of questions i can answer them easilly. but a mic plugs into a mixer or pa. thatll plg into your speakers or a bass amp if you cant get speakers

Answer 2

Most people prefer thier own equipment but using others makes for less down time between sets.

Should be 2 pick ups on your amp if you just want to warm up the vocals

Answer 3

For shows, yes, you will use your own amp. Clubs and bars don't provide a backline.

I'm not sure what you mean by plugging your mic in for practice. The common way of doing things is to use the same amp for both practice and live shows - keep it quieter for the show, and turn it up for practice. To this end, around 50-60w of amp is a good place to be.

If you have a small amp, ie, a 15w non-tube amp, you will have problems being loud enough both live and in practice. Get a bigger amp. Guitarists gravitate towards 100-watt half stacks (half stack = 1 cab with 4 12" speakers in it), but that is usually overkill. The more watts you have the louder you can get, but the louder you have to turn up to sound good.

As I said earlier, 50-60 watts is usually a good compromise between tone and volume for both practice and live work.

One way to go is to get a tube amp, though. Amps like the Epiphone Valve Jr are cheap, low wattage, and tube. If you get the "head" version of it and plug it into a 4x12 cab, you can actually get a pretty fair amount of volume... or 2x12, whatever. The Epi Valve Jr is only 5 watts, but those 5 tube watts are enough to play live with and still have enough volume to practice with, if everyone isn't too loud.

If you mean "mic" as in "vocal mic" then you'll need a PA system for practice. Most clubs and bars provide a vocal PA at the very least, so all singers usually need to do is show up with a mic, but if you're practicing then obviously you don't have that luxury. It's been my understanding that a vocalist will need as many watts as the guitarist to be heard, at the minimum. There are packs/bundles out there, usually comprising a mixer, power amp, and some speakers. Sometimes the mixer is a powered mixer, in that it is both a mixer and power amp in one. Visit Guitar Center or local music store for more info on those.

Hmmm. Hope that answered your question.

Saul

Answer 4

Ok, so if you're playing a show at a club or a venue it depends on your instrument.. most people will bring their own amps, but if you play bass you can plug directly into the mixboard and it'll usually allow for a better bass sound if the technician knows what he's doing

when my band first started we actually used a line 6 guitar amp for the vocals.. then at one point we were using a piano amp.. but it's best to have a mix board and power amp and a moniter speaker.. either works.. it just depends on the amount of money you're willing to spend for it.. the mix board definitely makes the vocals sound better, but if it's just for practice it really doesn't matter

Answer 5

It all depends ... for a big gig, I just plug into the Neve Console (actually, none of us plug in... we all use wireless now) but for the small club rooms I like to play, I just use a small amp and try not to turn it on.