Re: Good guitarists getting bad advice...
+1 !!!
I use IEM's with 4 individual mixes. When I used wedges, I still blocked the guitar amps with a plexiglass shield (and turn them around).
Beaming the guitar past the knees of the guitar player gives very uneven coverage at FOH. It can be painful on one side of the stage, and nearly inaudible on the other.
If you don't have that many monitors, you can get an amp stand and point it at the guitarist head ...... but I don't care for that either. It has been my experience that it encourages the guitar player to go off into his own world hoping that the rest of the band will sync up with what he is doing instead of playing with the band.
High stage noise is a pretty bad thing for a good mix IMHO. Cymbals, snare and guitar seem to be the biggest offenders. I mixed a band last year that put the lead vocal mic into clip with every snare hit (of course every snare hit was a rim shot by a guy with gorilla arms).
