AX8 with subpar PA

SteveD61

SteveD61

Inspired
Interested to hear whay you guys do if you turn up to do a gig or rehearsal and the house PA is a complete piece of rubbish (POS)? Guitar modellers rely on the PA more than a traditional backline amp, so the last thing you want is a great guitar sound slaughtered by cheap or faulty FOH speakers.

I take my own FRFR monitor to gigs mainly to hear myself in the mix, but I guess at a pinch you could set it up as a defacto backline for the punters?
 
I bring my own speaker to use like backline. Honestly you can run into subpar monitors at some places with decent FOH so it's always good to have on hand if you can.
 
Cainer said:
I bring my own speaker to use like backline. Honestly you can run into subpar monitors at some places with decent FOH so it's always good to have on hand if you can.
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Where do you locate your speaker - behind you on the floor?
 
With traditional amps, it's been my experience that a sub-par PA means you're probably using backline (un-mic'd amps) sound for guitars anyway. Saving the PA for vocals only. I don't think this approach changes much with modelers. If I were you, I'd just set my FRFR up in the backline and proceed accordingly.
 
Doubtful anyone in the audience really knows or cares. It’s great playing on a really nice system, especially when the engineer knows and cares about what they are doing, but I’ve been to far more places with crappy old systems than nice new ones. Work with what you’ve got, or bring your own, but that really adds to your overall effort and/or expense.

Have to ask if it’s really worth it from a point of view of getting gigs, what your paid, if anyone notices etc
 
Have a Power Stage 170 in my bag (I run a dual Mono Setup with right channel - Cab Sim, left channel - without Cab Sim). Double check that they have at least some guitar speakers there.
EQ like a fanatic and it usually works.
 
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I can't really use a traditional guitar speaker cab as I don't (yet) have a power amp to drive it - shame because most rehearsal studios/rooms have a cab or two hanging around. A power amp will be my next investment (keeping an eye on the used market).

My monitor is a standard floor wedge (a very good one) but it does have a pole mount hole so I could mount it behind me on a short stand to act as both a backline and a personal monitor - that should work.
 
I play with horrible PAs all the time. It still sounds good, as good as the PA can sound. I don’t really do anything different except cut harsh frequencies that may be there, which is the same that I do with a good PA.
 
You could get a EHX Magnum 44. It's very compact and affordable. It sounds great at not too high volumes. It would be fine for driving any cab in a pinch.
With my normal band, I go direct to our own PA, but when I'm invited to sit in with others, I bring the Magnum and a 1x12 cab.

Here's my video on this setup

 
SteveD61 said:
Where do you locate your speaker - behind you on the floor?
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yeah, I put it behind me angled up - just feels natural to have it there I guess cause it's like an amp. House monitors in front are fine too, I'm just used to having it behind me. In smaller clubs it functions like backline that way.
 
I always bring my XiTone for either back line, or monitoring purposes. If I'm just using it for monitoring, I point it at me like a regular floor wedge. If I need it for back line I just put it behind me ala any typical combo/cab type arrangement. I don't sweat the FOH things, though I'll make adjustments as needed. So far I've NEVER worked with any sound tech who wasn't exceedingly pleased with the guitar signal I'm sending them via my AX8. YMMV
 
Smittefar said:
You could get a EHX Magnum 44. It's very compact and affordable. It sounds great at not too high volumes. It would be fine for driving any cab in a pinch.
With my normal band, I go direct to our own PA, but when I'm invited to sit in with others, I bring the Magnum and a 1x12 cab.

Here's my video on this setup

Click to expand...



Question for you. Based on your video I decided to try the Magnum 44. I have an old DV Mark 2x12 cabinet and thought it would be a good back up to my FRFR in a pinch.

With the volume dialed back (around 1 or 2) I get a horrible "farting" out noise. When I turn the volume up I have to literally turn the output on my AX8 down to about 1 or 2 and even then it's crazy loud. I'm using a regular instrument cable from the AX8 to the input of the Magnum and a speaker cable from the Magnum to the 8 ohm input on the cabinet.

Do you notice anything similar? Thinking I may have a defective unit.
 
I always put the volume knob on the Magnum like in the video (9 o'clock), and then I use the output on the AX8 to control the overall volume. I think, I can get to around 10 or 11 o'clock on the AX8 before it gets painfully loud.
 
Interesting to see the EHX Magnum kicking around. In my pre-AX8 days, I was mostly a Roland/Boss user and at one point had a Boss GT-10 out in stereo to Magnums feeding a Marshall 2x12" JCM1922 on one side and a JCM1936 on the other. Listening to old recordings, it wasn't bad at all. Sold all that gear I had at the time but I would have like to have heard the AX8 into the same.

Then again, maybe not. Memories of lugging that stuff around does not appeal to me which is why I use FRFR now.
 
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