# Live sound dillemma! being forced to use certain amps live...



## Chumple Spuzz (Dec 24, 2010)

*I HAVE A LIVE SOUND/ GEAR QUESTION!*

My friends in a local band are playing a pretty big show next week (headlined by Punchline) and are dealing with a sort of live sound dilemma. for contract reasons or something i don't fully know about, the opening bands are required to use a certain set of gear as to, i assume, speed up the set-up time between bands. 

the problem is, for the guitar amps, they need to use a vox ac30 and and an orange ad30. now, those are pretty sweet amps, but my friends band plays pop punk in the vein of bands like four year strong, thirtyseven, set your goals, etc. so of course, they like to have a big distortion sound-not necessarily super hi-gain 5150 kind of sound but something more akin to a big blackstar/ marshall tone. both the vox and orange are more fit for playing clean and pushed blues kinds of tones but not heavy pop-punk. 

being the biggest gear head of the bunch but still not a supremely wise one, i reluctantly suggested running a tube screamer and possibly a distortion pedal (maybe a boss overdrive or ds-1) between guitar and amp. its all i could think of to give them a more compressed, usable tone.

heres a high quality video of them playing in a pittsburgh radio station studio if you want to know the kind of sound they strive for. 


*so...suggestions? please? i think they'd really appreciate it!*


----------



## LLink2411 (Dec 24, 2010)

I would say that a Vox or Orange amp is right up that band's alley.

But a pedal like a tubescreamer will make the tone more meaty if they so need it.


----------



## Hamatha (Dec 24, 2010)

I'd call that easycore... at least that's what they call around my area. Anways, regarding the gear. Boosted AC30's and AD30's are where it's at concerning those tones. Just make sure they get, a noise gate. If they want more compression, just pick a compressor and run it in the loop (or in the front, because I'm not sure if either of those amps have a loop). Tell them to go try out those amps in a music store, and experiment with different boosts and compressors and I'm sure they'll do alright.


----------



## Pove (Dec 24, 2010)

my friend uses a Sunn amp which was given to him by his dad. I'm not entirely sure how old it is now but it is still the loudest amp i have ever ehard, closely followed by most orange amps. I recommend using an orange amp though, great value for money and seems that it would benefit this band.


----------



## scottro202 (Dec 24, 2010)

This isn't necessarily regarding this specific case, but just a piece of info relevant to you.

I make sure that I have enough pedals on my pedalboard to where I can run into ANY amp and still have a tone that'll get me through a set. I run into a single channel amp atm so that's a pretty easy task. If you have a distortion pedal that'll "do the job", you can run into any amp's clean channel and be ok.


----------



## Chumple Spuzz (Dec 24, 2010)

thanks everyone, i'm digging the general input. a noise gate and boost would be a great idea for both of them, but i'm kind of more concerned about the vox ac30, being that they tend to be really bright and 'chime-y.' i barely have any experience using one though, is there a sure way to set the eq on that thing to tame its brightness and thicken it up a bit (while using other pedals)? it probably wouldn't be too hard at all, but i was wondering if anyone here is an ac30 expert


----------



## Lon (Dec 24, 2010)

usually you can be greatful if anything more than guitar-mush reaches the audiences ear, so just slam a tubescreamer in front and you will be set

edit: just watched the video, kudos for performing solid in this situation but the guitar tones were just fizzy mush, gain really kills the defined-ness of the sound ,i actually think this band would sound much better with the AC30/Orange Amps ...


----------



## Soubi7string (Dec 24, 2010)

pop punk/rock

and a TS9 would work well
personally I like the Digitech Hardwire Tube OD(used its 50$, new its like 150$)
but yeah an OD will help out alot
and a simple Noise Gate/suppressor would as well

EDIT:
btw
how the hell do you get a radio station to broadcast a live performance?


----------



## scottro202 (Dec 25, 2010)

I didn't watch the video at first, but now that I've seen it, whoever thinks they'll be better off with Voxes and Oranges was right


----------



## rotebass (Dec 25, 2010)

Grab a few distortion pedals and make it happen, I see a Line 6 Spider and a Crate halfstack in that video so it shouldn't be too hard to find a tone that is as good or better than those amps.


----------

