Too loud, walked off

[paul_5]

57 minutes ago, Buddster said:

Some people are just dicks

It's true, they are.

[Dan Dare]

6 hours ago, chris_b said:

Most of the deaf guitarists I know are in denial. They wouldn't acknowledge they have a problem if you paid them. A couple are wearing hearing aids as well. Their hearing is obviously shot they're still playing way too loud.

 

It's a slippery slope/vicious circle. They play too loud, cause damage to their hearing, turn up to be able to hear themselves, cause more damage to their hearing, turn up, etc, etc...

 

Guitar players who wear earplugs are just as bad. They turn up because they can't hear themselves because of the plugs and wreck everyone else's hearing. If the rest of the band wears plugs in self-defence, the volume goes up even more because nobody can hear themselves properly.

[Lozz196]

8 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

 

It's a slippery slope/vicious circle. They play too loud, cause damage to their hearing, turn up to be able to hear themselves, cause more damage to their hearing, turn up, etc, etc...

 

Guitar players who wear earplugs are just as bad. They turn up because they can't hear themselves because of the plugs and wreck everyone else's hearing. If the rest of the band wears plugs in self-defence, the volume goes up even more because nobody can hear themselves properly.

That exact thing happened in a band I was in, guitarist put in ear plugs to “save his hearing dudes” then proceeded to turn up 3 times louder than the rest of the band cos he couldn’t hear himself. 

[markbunney]

Wow that must have been very loud if it was too loud through the ACS customs.

 

I have the 26db ACS customs, and sometimes find the fit isn’t as tight towards the end of a gig, which makes them not quite as effective.

 

I tend to now only take them out when I am in the car and all packed up due to loud music/DJ playing after the band has finished and are packing up etc

[chris_b]

I gig in a cover band and the guitarist wears earplugs and plays way too loud. His Fender combo is also pointing at the back of his heels. The rest of the band are matching his level, which isn't good. The singer is always complaining that she can't hear herself, but no one seems to care enough to fix the problem.

[Stub Mandrel]

I have a reasonable spl app on my phone. Itsy not be spot on but it does useful comparisons.

 

Alice Cooper at an arena gig about 20m from the main pa. About 97dB peak.

 

Typical bands in my local club at about 10m from the pa  90-100dB peak.

 

Average levels about 10dB down.

 

The band who needed their valve amps hot to get the right tone - over 110dB.

 

I suspect it reads high, but seriously, no pub/club band needs to be louder than Alice Cooper.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Dan Dare said:

 

It's a slippery slope/vicious circle. They play too loud, cause damage to their hearing, turn up to be able to hear themselves, cause more damage to their hearing, turn up, etc, etc...

 

In my experience the too-loud bands are the ones who gig regularly for a living and have shot their hearing.

[Stub Mandrel]

10 hours ago, casapete said:

I owned a late 60’s model like this, mine was the 1x12 though. Had it since the mid 70’s, sold it 

in 2023 to a very famous player. Was the best sounding guitar amp I’ve owned, my old LP Junior

sounded great with it. I now have a Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb which sounds fine, just not so raunchy 

as the Marshall. 😊

 

In the blues band Alex uses a variety of Marshall heads. He also uses a massive power soak and typically runs at about 5 watts output on stage.

[Beedster]

10 hours ago, TimR said:

Instead, the band leader should be taking control and telling everyone to turn down

 

Exactly this, but perhaps s/he knows from experience that some people simply can't be told, largely because........

 

10 hours ago, TimR said:

At one point he went up to the stage and told them all to turn down. Which they did, but 2 minutes later, turned back up before the sound guy had a chance to sort it all out properly

 

For a lot of musicians it's simply habit learned and reinforced over many years, initially driven by either ego or poor understanding of audio. But usually ego. There's a reason people choose to be a lead guitarist, especially in certain genres, and it's not to contribute to an overall well-balanced sound

[Beedster]

9 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

That exact thing happened in a band I was in, guitarist put in ear plugs to “save his hearing dudes” then proceeded to turn up 3 times louder than the rest of the band cos he couldn’t hear himself. 

 

Defies logic doesn't it 🤔

[HeadlessBassist]

@police squad You did exactly the right thing there by walking off. I do wonder why some bands have three 'guitards' and that wall of hateful guitar noise. It really is just a row.

 

We often ask audiences near the start of the gig if it's too loud for them and jokingly suggest that anyone that finds it too loud should write us a note on a £20 note. But joking aside, we do genuinely ask the question. We want to keep things down to acceptable levels and make it comfortable for everyone.

 

When you get to the point where everyone is having to turn up to be able to hear themselves, that's the time to have a serious conversation.

 

I've seen plenty of amateur bands where even I had to leave the building because I couldn't stand the noise levels.

[Sean]

8 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I have a reasonable spl app on my phone. Itsy not be spot on but it does useful comparisons.

 

Alice Cooper at an arena gig about 20m from the main pa. About 97dB peak.

 

Typical bands in my local club at about 10m from the pa  90-100dB peak.

 

Average levels about 10dB down.

 

The band who needed their valve amps hot to get the right tone - over 110dB.

 

I suspect it reads high, but seriously, no pub/club band needs to be louder than Alice Cooper.

Print off this quoted post, hand it round to those that need their "penny drop moment". If the penny doesn't drop, or if there's no penny there, wave goodbye. [Don't say "goodbye", they won't hear you.]

Edited 6 hours ago by Sean

[Hellzero]

I have a rule of thumb that I tell to every player: If you can't hear yourselves playing, turn all volumes down.

 

Most are dubitative until they do it.

 

And never forget that you first have to match your sound level to the acoustic instrument(s) in the band.

[gjones]

On the other hand...

 

The guitarist in my band plays through a 15 watt Pro Jnr combo and is still sked to turn down by sound engineers. 

 

He really isn't that loud.

[tauzero]

We use backline and vocal PA, and the drumkit isn't miced up. Our drummer isn't a heavy hitter. We set volumes to match the drums.

[Lozz196]

24 minutes ago, tauzero said:

We use backline and vocal PA, and the drumkit isn't miced up. Our drummer isn't a heavy hitter. We set volumes to match the drums.

That`s the ideal for me for a covers band set-up, the main bit being non-heavy hitting drummer, worth their weight in gold.

[Skinnyman]

I’ve been through this dance with every band I’ve been in. In general, it seems to be that the less skilled the guitarist is, the louder they need to be. I’m sure that deteriorating hearing is part of the issue but a big challenge for at least two bands was the drummer’s volume - so loud that the guitars “had” to turn up, which made the drummer hit harder….

IEMs and a quiet stage are, in my view, the only answer. Sadly, the last guitarist I worked with didn’t see things the same way - which is mainly why I no longer gig*.
 

Hats off to the OP for doing what I wish I’d done many years ago. 
 

*well, that and the fact that I’m no feckin good

[RhysP]

23 hours ago, police squad said:

yep but they're all friends of mine, 

This is why I prefer not to have friends.

[Cliff Edge]

17 hours ago, itu said:

In 2004 I went to listen to G3 tour (Fripp, Satriani, Vai) with three friends of mine. The venue was made of concrete and the volume was infernal. All I heard from Billy Sheehan was bzzzzzz. No chance to hear any notes. We left after fourth "song". A g-word player friend of mine was working there and said the same, the sound was a chore. I couldn't have believed that good players were counting on volume instead of skills - and Vai's hair fan was just ridiculous. Yngvie may think it differently, but there exists a level of too much. 

I saw Kenny Wayne Shepherd a year or so ago in a proper concert venue with normally great sound. Christ he was so stupidly loud we joined people walking out half way through the first set. A similar thing with Joe Satriani although we did last until the interval. 

[Rosie C]

50 minutes ago, Cliff Edge said:

I saw Kenny Wayne Shepherd a year or so ago in a proper concert venue with normally great sound. Christ he was so stupidly loud we joined people walking out half way through the first set. A similar thing with Joe Satriani although we did last until the interval. 

 

... and Icicle Works for me, a fair few years ago. I only made it through the first song. AC/DC were also loud, we were right at the back of the area and I had my orange builder's ear plugs. Not loud enough to leave, but loud enough to to wonder about the people at the front without hearing protection!

 

[Dan Dare]

1 hour ago, Cliff Edge said:

I saw Kenny Wayne Shepherd a year or so ago in a proper concert venue with normally great sound. Christ he was so stupidly loud we joined people walking out half way through the first set. A similar thing with Joe Satriani although we did last until the interval. 

 

To be fair to Satriani & Co, such occurrences are not down to them, but to knob waving by the FoH engineer (who was probably hired by the promoter, not the artist). It probably sounded fine to them on stage.

[Buddster]

Can I cut this off a the pass, before it decends into another 'sound engineers are rubbish' thread. 

It's about amps/guitarists being too loud on stage and the face PoliiceSquad did the heroes thing and walked off

Edited 8 minutes ago by Buddster

[ProjeKtWEREWOLF]

I remember going to a Sunn0))) gig. My ears were ringing for days even with high quality custom plugs. 

 

Yes it's *authentic*, but wow.