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<blockquote data-quote="Ned Ward" data-source="post: 67573" data-attributes="member: 100">Re: Driving stage wedgesMitch - congrats on helping your son out - best to get him on the right foot starting out.Couple of things that may or may not help, based on my experience in a band:For rehearsal, simplify the amount of gear needed and size. Your son&#039;s small combo amp sounds like a better bet for rehearsal than the Randal 4x12 cab as the goal is to ensure everyone can hear each other to learn to play together. If there&#039;s a vocalist, I&#039;d give him/her a wedge and then one speaker positioned so the rest of the band can hear the vocals, but remember, the louder the band is, the louder the vocals will get until it ends up being a good old-fashioned volume escalation war. We also set up for practice in a circle; it helps to maintain eye contact, but also points our amps at each other so that volume in a practice setting can be minimized. Get small amps up on chairs, cases, anything so that they&#039;re not on the ground -- this helps dramatically in perceived volume not only for the player, but the rest of the band. I have my Princeton Reverb for shows sitting on top of my Showman cabinet just for rising it up 2&#039; from the ground. If you have a keyboard player, I&#039;d suggest having them get an amp instead of going through the PA. Reason being that they then will have their own amp/monitor, and if they get to gigs, they won&#039;t have to rely on not having a monitor wedge, etc. Doesn&#039;t have to be fancy - a used Peavey TNT300 sounds fine, is indestructable, and the 1980&#039;s models are very reasonably priced. Same reasoning for bass - the less you have to put through a PA to hear themselves, the better starting out. It also will help prepare them for playing at gigs where there may not be any PA that can handle low end, more than 4 inputs, etc. Good luck!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ned Ward, post: 67573, member: 100"] Re: Driving stage wedges Mitch - congrats on helping your son out - best to get him on the right foot starting out. Couple of things that may or may not help, based on my experience in a band: For rehearsal, simplify the amount of gear needed and size. Your son's small combo amp sounds like a better bet for rehearsal than the Randal 4x12 cab as the goal is to ensure everyone can hear each other to learn to play together. If there's a vocalist, I'd give him/her a wedge and then one speaker positioned so the rest of the band can hear the vocals, but remember, the louder the band is, the louder the vocals will get until it ends up being a good old-fashioned volume escalation war. We also set up for practice in a circle; it helps to maintain eye contact, but also points our amps at each other so that volume in a practice setting can be minimized. Get small amps up on chairs, cases, anything so that they're not on the ground -- this helps dramatically in perceived volume not only for the player, but the rest of the band. I have my Princeton Reverb for shows sitting on top of my Showman cabinet just for rising it up 2' from the ground. If you have a keyboard player, I'd suggest having them get an amp instead of going through the PA. Reason being that they then will have their own amp/monitor, and if they get to gigs, they won't have to rely on not having a monitor wedge, etc. Doesn't have to be fancy - a used Peavey TNT300 sounds fine, is indestructable, and the 1980's models are very reasonably priced. Same reasoning for bass - the less you have to put through a PA to hear themselves, the better starting out. It also will help prepare them for playing at gigs where there may not be any PA that can handle low end, more than 4 inputs, etc. Good luck! [/QUOTE]

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