well hello friends and welcome to
0:52
another Ask Zac i hope you're doing
0:54
well today uh today we are going to talk
0:57
about
0:58
amp placement and
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and the reason is i got i got emails
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about it and i realized what a practical
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thing that is and how
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how everyone has to deal with that
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that's using an amp
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live and i deal with that every time i
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go and play out so today we're going to
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talk about
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putting on the ground you know leaning
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it back getting it on a chair baffling
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it we're going to talk about all those
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things I'm not going to I'm not going to
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say one way is better than the other
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these are just tools for you when you're
1:26
out in the wild playing
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you know for you to to deal with the
1:31
situations you you're probably going to
1:34
be
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affected by so you're going to run into
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these things
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all right so uh before we get started
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picks that are medium heavy and a thank
2:19
you note from me
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and uh but and then there's also uh
2:23
merch at askthat.com another way so this
2:26
is the it's a sickness shirt which is uh
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uh you know a lot of times i i talk
2:31
about having multiples of certain things
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that i like you know especially like
2:35
you know at one point i had five most
2:37
torsion pedals and yeah it's a sickness
2:39
so it's about that obsession
2:41
level that we have with uh with guitar
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that's what this shirt's about so
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let's just dive in
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all right so most of time of course when
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I'm when I'm playing out I'm going to be
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using a you know this deluxe reverb
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and usually I'll have a backup too
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uh you know I'll use the tone master
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deluxe or sometimes I'll use i have a 64
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vox ac 10 that's been rehoused and it's
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a 112
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and those are kind of the amps i play
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out
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the most with i also have like i have
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one of the Chris Stapleton Princeton's
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and i have a
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59 Harvard and i have a little a new
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fender vibra champ reverb that i use for
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really small small gigs like duo kind of
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things and stuff like that
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but those are kind of the amps that i
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use but most of the time I'm going to
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show up with the with the deluxe or the
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vox ac 10.
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all right and so as far as placement
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my preference
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is to have the amp on the floor
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and about five to eight feet behind me
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okay
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and with that by having the amp on the
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floor you get the maximum amount of
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you know well for lack of a better term
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bigness you get you know it's coupled
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with the floor and so it's going to
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resonate and that way your amp is going
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to sound as big and as beautiful as it's
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going to sound okay and that's a
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preference of a lot of players a lot of
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players like to have their amp on the
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ground and then by having it a couple
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feet back
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you actually get to hear the full sound
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of the amp because if you have it on the
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ground and it's right
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behind you
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you know just you know a foot or two
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well guess what most of the sounds and
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the volume is just going past you and
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you're not even hearing what the amp you
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know really sounds like
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okay
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so that's my ideal situation that uh you
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know one you know the stage has to be
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big enough
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and uh you know
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that the engineer has to allow you know
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that level of volume but a lot of times
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i'm allowed to do that and it's not a
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problem
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okay so let's talk about
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the engineer says
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you're too loud
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okay
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well at that point
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you know I'll think about okay can i
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turn down a little bit and still get the
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sound that i want or do i need to keep
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it at that volume level
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if i can turn down i will if i can't
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you know if i need to have it at that
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volume setting to get the sound that i
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want then what I'll do is i will baffle
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the amp somehow so that can be multiple
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different things
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sometimes you know it can be as simple
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as
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i can take this is the
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tukey
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cover that i use for my my amps and
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these i like them because they have this
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uh velcro strap on the bottom that holds
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them in place and these are padded i
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really like these uh
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these uh covers a lot i don't have an
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endorsement or anything with them i've
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been buying these for 20 plus years
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so sometimes i'll just set this
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in front of the amp and it will block a
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certain level of sound another thing
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I'll do is I'll bunch this up and put it
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in front and uh under the front end of
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the amp just to lean it back a little
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bit and also this will absorb a little
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bit of sound also
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so that's a you know that's you know one
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level
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a uh the problem with putting the cover
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in front of the amp is it doesn't really
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look very good
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so now most of the time i will take two
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amps not because I'm going to use them
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but i always carry a backup so one
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really uh great thing to do as far as
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baffling if you've got two amps and
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you're not going to use the other one
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is you just put the other one
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in front of the other and so that way
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again the sound is going to be diffused
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and blocked by this amp okay in front of
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the other one so you've got the other
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one either miced up or maybe you're just
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you're not locked up but anyway this is
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going to help out a ton okay so just by
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putting this in front of the other amp
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it's going to block that beam that's
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coming off of a 12-inch speaker that's
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usually hitting either the audience or
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the uh you know the sound engineer you
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know right sometimes right in the face
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so this is a great great solution you
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know and if you don't have another amp
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many times it shows you can find
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something to baffle the amp
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all right
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so another situation
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that you run into is
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let's say the stage isn't very big okay
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and that happens a lot so you have a
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stage where you can't get the amp five
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to eight feet behind you well
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in those situations i usually will not
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put the amp on the ground simply because
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so much of the sound is just going to be
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blowing past me now if it's a really
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loud gig and nobody cares i might do it
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but most the time
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i want to be able to hear my amp and the
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reason i want to hear my amp well is
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because
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you know
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i play telecaster but you know and but i
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also do a lot of string bending and i
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always want my bins to be in tune
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and i find that for me to be in tune
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with my bins i really need to be hearing
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you know the high end you know from the
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speaker not bouncing off the walls and
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things like that
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so in a situation where the stage
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is smaller and i can't have the amp for
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the back that's when i will either lean
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the amp back if that works to get me
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enough sound from you know treble coming
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from the speaker or i will go ahead and
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find a folding chair or a milk you know
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a crate or a beer crate or what have you
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but something to get the amp you know at
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least a couple feet off the ground so
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you know like on my shows i always you
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know have the amp up you know high and
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and that just uh and what that does is
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you're able to hear the amp
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and you're able to hear the highs and
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i'm able to play more
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in tune especially with my bending now
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here's what you lose by getting your amp
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off the ground
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you decouple it
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from the floor
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which means you're going to lose base
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okay
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so that's going to make a lot of guys
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hate that and there's a lot of guys that
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will not play without having their amp
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directly on the floor they don't want to
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decouple it they want that low end
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and i you know
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i don't blame them so uh but you know
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sometimes it's just what you have to do
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and in those cases you know i might turn
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the the bass up a little bit you know on
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the amp if it has a bass control or you
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just kind of get right with it as it
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were so and you just kind of you know
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move forward and uh
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and and you you'd be uh
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easy to get along with guy
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all right
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so
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another situation you're going to run
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into is you're going to run into rooms
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that are overly bassy
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okay
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and in those situations you absolutely
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want to get your amp off the ground
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because you're just adding to the
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problem okay
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so you know get your amp off the ground
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try to turn the bass down and just kind
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of get over it try to get as much you
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know direct sound going as possible and
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try not to have as much you know
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reverberating around and in that kind of
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situation i might also
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use you know my my little amp cover
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i might put it behind the amp to uh you
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know reduce the amount of sound that's
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coming out of the back of the amp so
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that's a another you know technique
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um
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yeah
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you know another you know situation
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coming into is just a room that's just
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really you know bouncy and everything's
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reverberating around and that's another
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situation where you want to get the amp
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up
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you want to get it away from the floor
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you want to get it to where you're
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hearing as much as much direct sound as
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possible
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and you know and you might want to
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baffle the back of the amp or you know
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who knows
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now
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in these situations you can also run
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into things where it's just like they're
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just telling you over and over you're
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too loud
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and then you you get the thing we'll
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turn the amp around well
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okay
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well then you have you know you turn the
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amp around and if they're still saying
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it's too loud well you can of course
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baffle the back i mean the amp's already
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turned you know against the wall where
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you can baffle the back
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and then in those situations where
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they're still screaming that you're too
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loud
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uh you know this is kind of the
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the most extreme measure
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and and sometimes you just run into
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these things where you have to be really
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low volume and in these situations i
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will bring a stand
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and
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this is not my favorite to use
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and uh wow i have got this all
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in my amp okay here we go
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all right
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so
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this
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is a lean back amp stand so this is
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welded this was actually made by a
12:00
string swing the company that
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makes the guitar hanger thing you know
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what you you put into the wall and they
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make a lot of
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display uh things for uh for guitar
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shops well
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for uh for true tone they made a couple
12:16
of these years ago they just welded
12:18
these together
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and
12:22
and we used these at uh at trade shows
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you know again because it was trying to
12:26
reduce volume so that we wouldn't get
12:28
into as much trouble with the uh
12:31
the volume the db police at the at the
12:34
uh at the namm show
12:36
and so this is what i call worst case
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scenario so i bring this when it's when
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you're really going to have a volume
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situation and so one you can put the ant
12:45
behind you and leaning back into where
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it hits you right at the back of the
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head
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and then if it's a situation where
12:53
they're like still
12:55
it's too much well then you get in the
12:57
situation where you put it in front of
12:59
you
13:00
like a monitor so basically you have
13:02
your amp
13:03
right in front of you leaning back
13:05
hitting you in the face
13:08
and in that situation i probably won't
13:10
take a deluxe reverb or the vox i'll
13:12
probably take a Princeton or the Harvard
13:16
or the little viber champ because then
13:17
you're talking about a really low volume
13:20
situation again you're getting paid to
13:23
play
13:24
and so
13:25
you're supposed to be you know you're
13:27
supposed to be providing solutions
13:29
you're a problem solver so if you're a
13:31
problem
13:32
then you're less likely to get hired
13:34
back
13:35
so this is worst case scenario and
13:38
sometimes you know if you're playing
13:41
in you know in an orchestra or for a
13:43
show or at a church or something like
13:45
that you know this is what you know
13:47
sometimes you just end up having to do
13:48
something like this and you don't have
13:50
to have this exactly there's all sorts
13:51
of ways you can lean your amp back you
13:53
can use a a wedge
13:56
uh you know from uh
13:58
you know to like hold a door open or all
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sorts of things but you definitely want
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to have a situation where the amp's not
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going to fall over during the show so
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make sure it is secure
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and of course if it's a situation even
14:10
worse than that then you probably won't
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be able to use an amp at all and you're
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going to be in a uh you know going
14:16
direct and using a
14:18
kemper iridium etc etc so
14:22
but those are just you know kind of my
14:25
uh
14:27
you know my practical tips as far as
14:30
amps again
14:31
you know if i have my druthers you know
14:33
I'm going to have the amp
14:35
on the floor
14:36
and I'm going to have it you know a
14:37
couple feet back where I'm able to hear
14:39
the full sound of the guitar but then
14:41
just depending on the room and the
14:42
situation you just have to kind of roll
14:45
with the punches depending if there's
14:46
too much bass or too much reflection and
14:48
also if there's too much reflection you
14:50
turn the reverb down you might use less
14:52
delay and be more direct sounding so
14:55
that things aren't just bouncing around
14:57
everywhere
14:59
and everyone has to kind of be you know
15:01
cognizant of that so that you you sound
15:04
good
15:05
in the studio
15:06
you know you have some
15:08
you know
15:09
usually a lot of engineers will want to
15:12
have the amp off the floor because they
15:15
they don't want that extra low end at
15:17
all and now some engineers will be okay
15:20
with you leaving the amp on the floor
15:21
but the majority of them are going to
15:23
say i want the amp off the floor and and
15:27
you know so that i have control over
15:29
that and i don't have all this low end
15:31
that's going to be fighting with the
15:32
bass and that's and that's completely
15:35
legitimate and understandably so
15:38
all right guys well i hope you've
15:40
enjoyed today's episode and today's you
15:43
know look at uh ant positioning i hope
15:46
this was good and practical and uh you
15:48
know be sure and put you know comments
15:51
below and any other techniques that
15:53
you've
15:54
come up with i know guys will get
15:56
plexiglass and stuff like that but
15:57
that's uh that's a little much for me
16:00
but uh yeah just to put your comments
16:03
below and uh you know what I'll see you
16:05
next time thank you so much bye-bye