My biggest pet peeve is...

[GuitarBilly]

Soundguys that touch your rig while you're playing.

Tonight this dumbass soundguy tried to turn my amp down during our set, which is fucked up enough, but to make things even worse he turned the Red channel volume, which I only use for solos. So the rhythm guitar stayed at the same volume but the solos disappeared
I fucking hate people touching my shit while I'm playing. All he had to do is ask in between songs.

So as a result I stayed in the rhythm channel for the rest of the set, which was still loud, and just boosted it for solos.

[RaceU4her]

I’ve never heard of a sound guy doing that. I’d probably yingwee spin kick his ass

[screamingdaisy]

I've only had it happen once. The soundman went on stage to try to turning an Orange up after telling my guitarist to turn it up between songs... but it was already wide open and couldn't go any louder.

[GuitarBilly]

Yeah I had it happen a few times maybe 4 or 5 out of 100s of shows I've played. But it's enough to aggravate me to no end, especially when the fucker doesn't know what he's doing. Completely threw the channels balance

[Diddlybo]

I find most sound guys to be a pain in the ass.

[Marc G]

I've never had that happen.... I would definitely put it right back where it was before he fucked with it

[EndTime]

Yeah I’ve never had it happen. And thankfully it’s been awhile where I’ve butted heads with the sound guy, or woman. As the last one was a woman who clearly thought I’m just gonna mansplain to her, that when I asked her to mic a different speaker in my cab cause the one she mic’d had a rattle, and she snaps back “I think I know what I’m doing!” And continues to mic that’s same speaker. I said, you know which speakers are good in my cab? She just glared at me.. I already figured I’m moving that mic when she leaves and I do. While soundchecking she says thru the talk back, as I’m about to hit my guitar “You moved the mic I placed?” So I have to yell back across the room, that fucking speaker is the worst in the cab…

Anyway long story short, everyone said I was buried the entire show. Some of these people are fucking soft motherfuckers. I had one recently who’s as TERRIBLE, but we didn’t butt heads but he was the worst I’ve ever had…

[GuitarBilly]

Yeah I don't butt heads with soundguys either because they'll fuck up the sound on purpose if they get pissed off.
Because you know, fuck trying to be professional and talking pride in their work anyway. A lot of these guys are frustrated musicians with a wounded ego.

I got the "I know what I'm doing" line before. And of course, it's always, without exception from someone who actually don't know what the fuck they're doing.
The good sound guys I've worked with always take the time to discuss the sound with the band and check if there are preferences or specific requirements etc

It's the hacks that start micing shit up without asking anything and get upset if you say anything at all.

[screamingdaisy]

My last bar gig the sound guy was stoned and the vocal delay sounds like he was trippin.

[GuitarBilly]

My last bar gig the sound guy was stoned and the vocal delay sounds like he was trippin.

I would be cool with that lol

[GuitarBilly]

So I came up with a contingency plan against fuck head sounds guys and created another preset bank on my MS-3 that only uses the blue channel and adds gain and volume for leads with the MS-3 internal boosts. So if anyone fucks with my channel balance again I can just move to that bank and do everything with the blue channel alone.

I already had something similar set up for the DSL (since the Marshall only has one gain channel), so I just had to copy the Marshall bank and adjust some parameters to work with the EVH.

I have to say I really wish the EVH had an additional, global master volume that could turn the whole amp up/down without changing the channel volumes. I guess I could use one of those JHS volume boxes in the loop for that.... I have one here somewhere

[spawnofthesith]

Ugh that’s whack, fortunately never had that happen

Surprisingly, as of today I’m on a 4 show string of not a peep from a sound guy to turn my amp down. And it’s not because I’ve been coming in quiet either

[GuitarBilly]

Here's the craziest thing about this whole story: I usually don't run the EVH very loud. Because it doesn't really need volume to sound good.

So at first I had the amp at a relatively low volume. He mic'd the amp up and didn't say anything about the volume.

After the first song, I was having a bit of trouble hearing myself. He was on my side of the stage mixing with a tablet so I asked him if I could get a bit more guitar on my monitor. And HE TOLD ME "just turn your amp up" So that's what I did.
5 minutes later the dumbass is on stage fucking with my amp

[fretless]

The only thing more sad then a lonely house sound guy is a bowling alley pin setter. The only solution for this random fuckery is to bring your own sound guy. Especially for the big gigs. Can be a friend but they will know your set better than a random angry dope and they can also change the lights from all red to something less depressing.

[kissmyace]

Had a "sound guy" insist our singer was too close to the mic & he was going to blow it up. Nothing worse than one that's constantly fiddling with the sound all through a show.

[EndTime]

Yeah I don't butt heads with soundguys either because they'll fuck up the sound on purpose if they get pissed off.
Because you know, fuck trying to be professional and talking pride in their work anyway. A lot of these guys are frustrated musicians with a wounded ego.

I got the "I know what I'm doing" line before. And of course, it's always, without exception from someone who actually don't know what the fuck they're doing.
The good sound guys I've worked with always take the time to discuss the sound with the band and check if there are preferences or specific requirements etc

It's the hacks that start micing shit up without asking anything and get upset if you say anything at all.

Right? Definitely wounded egos. That chick was the only that I KNOW of who purposely buried me in a mix just because she didn’t like I knew my gear. Lol.

The dude who I said was terrible, cause he legit didn’t know how to run sound, I also had to ask him to switch speakers , cause that cab had an X pattern, but he was like “I dont care what speaker you want me to mic!” So at least the terrible guy didn’t care about dumb shit. Lol.

I did have one recently during soundcheck get a little salty when I first hit my amp for sound check and he’s like “Woah woah, we might as well go home if you are gonna play that loud.” And the proceeded to tell me how sound works in a venue. Lol. I turned down without telling him my credentials and know how, but I ended up being fucking barely cracked above 1 on the 6505 post gain. I practice alone at that volume. That was ridiculously quiet. The front of house was good, but this was a HUgE venue and he just wanted total control rather than have any sort of stage bleed I guess

[Lance-a-not]

Haha, I saw that on your video and wanted to smack the guy

You sounded great in spite of him

[GuitarBilly]

Yeah I don't butt heads with soundguys either because they'll fuck up the sound on purpose if they get pissed off.
Because you know, fuck trying to be professional and talking pride in their work anyway. A lot of these guys are frustrated musicians with a wounded ego.

I got the "I know what I'm doing" line before. And of course, it's always, without exception from someone who actually don't know what the fuck they're doing.
The good sound guys I've worked with always take the time to discuss the sound with the band and check if there are preferences or specific requirements etc

It's the hacks that start micing shit up without asking anything and get upset if you say anything at all.

Right? Definitely wounded egos. That chick was the only that I KNOW of who purposely buried me in a mix just because she didn’t like I knew my gear. Lol.

The dude who I said was terrible, cause he legit didn’t know how to run sound, I also had to ask him to switch speakers , cause that cab had an X pattern, but he was like “I dont care what speaker you want me to mic!” So at least the terrible guy didn’t care about dumb shit. Lol.

I did have one recently during soundcheck get a little salty when I first hit my amp for sound check and he’s like “Woah woah, we might as well go home if you are gonna play that loud.” And the proceeded to tell me how sound works in a venue. Lol. I turned down without telling him my credentials and know how, but I ended up being fucking barely cracked above 1 on the 6505 post gain. I practice alone at that volume. That was ridiculously quiet. The front of house was good, but this was a HUgE venue and he just wanted total control rather than have any sort of stage bleed I guess

Yeah I've been getting this type of stuff a lot lately. Seems like there's a whole generation of soundguys that are absolutely terrified of guitar amps. I get not wanting a player to wind up a 100w plexi on stage. I understand that. But if you have a drum kit on stage the guitar should be at least leveled with that. I lost count how many shows I've had to play with my amp literally at bedroom volume. Then they still have the guitar loud on stage because I need to be able to hear it, but it's loud on the wedges, which invariably sounds like shit. Crazy.

[GuitarBilly]

Haha, I saw that on your video and wanted to smack the guy

You sounded great in spite of him

Thanks man!!!

[screamingdaisy]

I generally find that the older/more experienced soundmen are the least concerned about stage volume, periodically going so far as to tell us to turn up.

The younger/less experienced are generally the ones that want to micro-manage both the stage volume and the overall mix.

One even complained that the cymbals were the wrong frequency... as if we could tune them or something.


Anyway, sound reinforcement vs sound production. I don't think most bars are big enough to take a production angle, and as an audience member I generally prefer the sound of stage bleed to hearing everything flattened out through the PA.

[Marc G]

Yeah I don't butt heads with soundguys either because they'll fuck up the sound on purpose if they get pissed off.
Because you know, fuck trying to be professional and talking pride in their work anyway. A lot of these guys are frustrated musicians with a wounded ego.

I got the "I know what I'm doing" line before. And of course, it's always, without exception from someone who actually don't know what the fuck they're doing.
The good sound guys I've worked with always take the time to discuss the sound with the band and check if there are preferences or specific requirements etc

It's the hacks that start micing shit up without asking anything and get upset if you say anything at all.

Right? Definitely wounded egos. That chick was the only that I KNOW of who purposely buried me in a mix just because she didn’t like I knew my gear. Lol.

The dude who I said was terrible, cause he legit didn’t know how to run sound, I also had to ask him to switch speakers , cause that cab had an X pattern, but he was like “I dont care what speaker you want me to mic!” So at least the terrible guy didn’t care about dumb shit. Lol.

I did have one recently during soundcheck get a little salty when I first hit my amp for sound check and he’s like “Woah woah, we might as well go home if you are gonna play that loud.” And the proceeded to tell me how sound works in a venue. Lol. I turned down without telling him my credentials and know how, but I ended up being fucking barely cracked above 1 on the 6505 post gain. I practice alone at that volume. That was ridiculously quiet. The front of house was good, but this was a HUgE venue and he just wanted total control rather than have any sort of stage bleed I guess

Yeah I've been getting this type of stuff a lot lately. Seems like there's a whole generation of soundguys that are absolutely terrified of guitar amps. I get not wanting a player to wind up a 100w plexi on stage. I understand that. But if you have a drum kit on stage the guitar should be at least leveled with that. I lost count how many shows I've had to play with my amp literally at bedroom volume. Then they still have the guitar loud on stage because I need to be able to hear it, but it's loud on the wedges, which invariably sounds like shit. Crazy.

yeah.... it's a control thing.... they want FULL control of the sound at all times and I just don't get that way of thinking.... in the end unless you're using electric drums, once the stage is balanced with the drums who gives a fuck what you have control over in the PA... I ran sound in a small bar last night for my buddy's band, about 60-80 person capacity, place was small enough we just spent some time in sound check dialing in the amps and all I had to put in the PA was vocals and kick drum....

Monday night I played in a Plaza type venue and we took the same approach, balance the instruments to the drums and the PA is used for sound reenforcement.


granted.... this approach only works for a band who is actually able to balance themselves... I've seen bands play and their guitar levels were all over the place depending on the song they are playing etc.... so I guess engineers have been fucked over by enough of those bands to treat everyone that way... this is why I always recommend that any band that gigs regularly to get their own engineer if possible, especially original bands since the engineer would be familiar with their sound and songs, that really makes a massive difference in my experience

[GuitarBilly]

Yeah getting our own soundguy would be great and I actually know people that would be willing to do it if I trained them but most venues around here won't allow a local band to bring their own soundguy.

I actually love playing the really small bars where only the vocals are on the PA. Some of our best shows were in venues like that. And the larger venues like the House of Blues etc are always great because they hire true professionals. The venues that are in between are the ones that usually the issue.

[Marc G]

Yeah getting our own soundguy would be great and I actually know people that would be willing to do it if I trained them but most venues around here won't allow a local band to bring their own soundguy.

I always found venues that did that really dumb.... it's not like they can break anything....the most restrictive venues here will let your band's engineer mix the band under the supervision on the house engineer at most... especially venues with digital boards since they can reset everything in a few seconds if needed.... we did a show a few weeks ago and the house let us totally retune their PA because they know they had their settings saved on their board...

[Devin]

Fuckin soundfolk

[primeholy]

Fuckin soundfolk

DATS WAVEIST!!!