Guitar too quiet directly in front of larger stage when only using house FRFR monitors?

[Henry]

We played a larger indoor stage (large for us, we are just a local tribute band) on Saturday, with my FM9 and only using the house monitors on stage. The singer/guitar player of the other band told me after the show that right in front of the stage the guitar was not loud enough in the mix (Of course the FOH sound guy optimizes the sound across the whole room, with the speakers hanging off the ceiling, etc...).

I lately started to relying just on the provided house monitors (to reduce the schlepping) and I'm wondering whether for those larger stages I should bring an FRFR too and have it behind me pointing towards the audience, to counteract some of that guitar void in front of the stage. (I do know that of course this is frowned upon by said sound engineers, not necessary to belabor that point).

Thoughts? Are you doing something like that too?

I made this a poll with the idea of getting some quantitative data of what others do.

Thanks to everyone for chiming in!

 

[Greg Ferguson]

As an ex-FOH guy, it seems to me that making sure the sound is good in front of the stage is actually the job of the FOH engineer, and they should have been roaming around checking it during their setup.

I like my cabs behind me but wouldn’t hesitate to move them in front of me, pointing at me, if the house system was filling in the front center. Having the right amount of your rig’s sound coming at your guitar makes it behave better when playing rock.

 

[yek]

Looks like a great stage!

"Missing sound in the front center" is a common issue with "silent" stages, when everybody is on IEMs and no backline.
Personally, I would no want to try to fix it. As Greg writes, that's up to the venue.

 

[la szum]

When House/FOH controls what the band is able to do on the stage and sets the agenda Rock-N-Roll is no more.

Bring your shit, put it behind you, and take a stand for all of us!!

 

[paranoid]

Were the vocals also Quiet in front of the stage. the singer has no amp on stage.

 

[Henry]

Were the vocals also Quiet in front of the stage. the singer has no amp on stage.

Good question, but the input I got was only about guitar!

 

[Sixstring]

Nothing worse than a huge hole in the sound in front center. I have seen some venues like this put small pa fix that issue.