Guitar amplifier placement for live band

Question

For several years, I have played guitar in a rock band. Our band leader insists on putting our amps in front of us. He says if the amps are behind us, it will cause feedback with the vocal mics going into the PA. (Yamaha StagePAs 600). We are mostly playing in smaller clubs with no dedicated sound tech or sound board. Our amps are plenty loud enough and we do not mic anything besides vocals.

However, putting our amps in front of us means I cannot hear what I--or anyone else--is playing. It also blasts the audience with our guitars because the amps are sitting right at the front of the stage.

I want to place our amps behind us (backline), but the band lead says that the only reason that every other band on the face of the planet puts their amps behind them is because they are mic'ing up their amps and turning the amps way down so they do not cause PA feedback.

What is the general or best practice for amp placement in a live setting?

Answer 1

Your band leader is astonishingly wrong.

If you’re playing places small enough that only vocals are miked, then your best option is to use amps that are 1x12 combos with no more than about 50 watts of power (if they are tube amps), and they should be mounted behind you on amp stands angled up to point at your ears. Meaning each player’s amp points at that player's ears. The dispersion cone and sound coming from the sides and back of the amps will be good enough for other band members to hear unless you’re on a bigger stage.

The bass player only needs 100-300 watts (solid state) and a 2x10 cabinet is probably the sweet spot there. That can simply be elevated on a platform stand.

Having the amps flat on the ground is not at all ideal because the audience will get way too much amp sound and the players won’t get enough. Having them in front of you is frankly just silly.

The way I know what I’m talking about is I’ve been taught live sound by a seasoned professional and worked part time as a live sound engineer for several years, and I’ve been a guitarist for over thirty years including many bar gigs. In both roles I’ve gotten compliments on both overall sound quality and stage volume. Even when you have a PA with monitors, my placement recommendations are still ideal, especially for guitarists who would like to play with feedback.

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Here's an example from one of my former bands. I'm on the far side of the stage and you can see my amp by looking directly past the bass player. It's a dark grey/black 1x12 combo mounted on a stand angled up at my ears. The bass player has a fairly obvious 2x10 cabinet with a tweeter behind them. We played this venue many time and the PA was decent, with two front-of-house speakers and two floor monitors, both for vocals only. Our amps were clearly audible for all of us in the band and for the audience.

We received many compliments on our sound from random audience members, bar tenders and bar owners, and members of other bands. Bands who played this tiny bar with 4x12 cabinets on the floor with 100 watt heads on top generated a lot of rolled eyes and secretive complaints.

Answer 2

Your bandleader is wrong! Their logic is also wrong. It may work with open back cabs, which I doubt the bassist uses, but as far as balance is concerned, it's almost impossible to achieve a good one. And everyone will turn up more because they won't be able to hear themselves well enough, at the same time deafening the audience. It might save the hearing of the players, and, to an extent, rock audiences don't mind if they have ringing ears at the end of the gig!! But it's no good for anyone.

By putting the cabs behind each player, each can hear what they're doing, and there will be an opportunity to hear the others, too.

Feedbacks with the vocal mics? When they're being sung into, the singer's head will block most of what's emanating from the cab behind - maybe get some decent mics? And when not singing, those mics should be turned off. Even if they have no switch, there are xlr connections which incorporate switches - I've used them for decades.

Then there's the poor drummer to consider. With cabs out in front, they probably can't hear much at all. Maybe that'll make them play more quietly - a bonus for most bands!! But probably not. No, the band will play more tightly with the cabs behind, guitar ones angled up, not placed on the floor so only knees get the benefit. Or on tables at head height.

Bandleader or dictator? I bet if you tried what the answers suggest, it still wouldn't be accepted. If it was the best arrangement, why does he think it hadn't been adopted by thousands of bands over many decades? Maybe gang up on him, and follow our suggestions a few times..?

Answer 3

I don't claim to be a sound engineer but I played for 35 years in every kind of venue from stadiums & outdoor gigs to tiny clubs. I've never seen anyone put their amps out front. The band members need to hear what's going on. Always do a sound check prior to the performance then adjust as necessary throughout the show because bodies soak up sound. A full room sounds different than an empty one. The best practice is to have a trusted audience member tell you when you need to adjust. Anyhow, I wish you the best of luck.

Answer 4

I was a professional for almost twenty years... The very absolute best thing you can ever do is have zero amps on stage. You put them backstage and mic them.

The second-best things you can do is get a plexiglass shield to put in front of your amp on stage and mic it.

The third best thing is turn your amp around backwards on stage and mic it.

Finally, you could put guitar cases and bags and stuff in front of the miced amp.

Reduce stage noise as much as possible, and let the sound system do all the work.

If you have no mics at all and no sound system at all, your amps must face the crowd. This is not ideal, but we have all been there. You may be able to adjust the angles of the amps. Many amp stands tilt the amp back a several degrees. I would experiment with this.

Answer 5

Speaking as an occasional sound tech:

It's really unfortunate that the speaker cabinet and amp contribute to the particular sound of an electric guitar performance. We would much rather put you on a direct input to the board, so we aren't fighting you over relative volume levels.

One compromise (if we can't talk you into just plugging the guitar cable into our system) is to run the guitar thru your cabinet at a lower volume, have us put a mic in front of it to pick up the sound coming out of that. With either this approach or a DI, we return the sound to you in the monitors so you and the band can hear your instrument.

But some folks really want to feel their amp blasting away behind them. In that case, putting the cabinets at the back of the stage is the least worst solution. It will not directly cause feedback since only the guitar is going through that speaker. It will leak into the mics and make getting a clean mix difficult, and it will make it more difficult to give your bandmates good monitor levels without their feeding back, unless we can convince you to keep your amp down at a reasonable level. Again, the "turn it down and let us put a mic on it" approach is preferred.

If you insist on blasting your amp, we're going to have to turn everything else up to balance against it, and that gets painful for the audience, makes for muddy mixes, and generally doesn't serve you well. If you need more you in the monitors, ask us, don't crank it yourself.

So your band leader is wrong on the physics and acoustics, but there are some potential issues here. Let the sound tech help/advise you on this; it's their job to make you sound good as a group and make sure you can hear each other.

This is assuming you have someone running a separate sound reinforcement system rather than trying to use your cabinets as your entire sound reinforcement system. In that latter case, feedback could be an issue and you're just going to have to find a way to make things work.

(There are reasons I try not to mix for punk and related styles, and this complication is one of them. I'd be much happier if you folks would ditch the guitar amps and get the distortion and so on from pedalboards instead. But I'm very aware that I'm fighting the "this one goes to 11" mentality; folks don't like the idea that their old garage-band cabinet won't be there to support them.)

Answer 6

Place your amps in front of you, but facing backwards towards you. If possible, angle them up, straight into your face. They will be in the null spot of your vocal mic, and you won't WANT to have them turned up too loud! The audience will hear enough.