Playing live:Pickups still sound as you expect ?

[AJK1]

How do your pickups sound when playing gigs ?
Does your volume and playing with a band change the sound at all ?
Your experiences would be interesting to hear
My A2 and A4 equipped guitars hold up well but the A5 Custom needs a bit more volume and the mids turned up

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

What I noticed with my wolfetones is that at higher volumes, they really open up and I can hear all the small little details that I may have missed at lower volumes. The Marshallhead though need less mids at this level because they are heavily mid range

 

[ARandall]

If you play at different volume, or with more other musicians then there will more likely than not need some tonal tweaks to the amp. It would be a fluke or an accident to have a setup that didn't sound deficient in either of those cases.

 

[AJK1]

If you play at different volume, or with more other musicians then there will more likely than not need some tonal tweaks to the amp. It would be a fluke or an accident to have a setup that didn't sound deficient in either of those cases.

Of course, how do yours sound when playing live ?

 

[ARandall]

Don't know.........as I don't play live and the last time I did I used a rig that was sold about 15 years back.

The closest I get is when I either play along with backing tracks or alongside a song. And there's certainly a difference between that and me playing by myself.

 

[C_Becker]

Mids cut through the mix. Thats why some amps or pups sound not-so-nice on their own, but fit in really well when playing with a full band. You have to fit in between the bass(drum) and the cymbals, thats where you are as a guitar player.

The way we perceive sound changes with volume, too - see Fletcher-Munson curve. Room acoustics also play a huge role. So the settings change depending where and with whom you play.

We also hear different frequencies different, thats why bassists need way more power compared to the higher-frequency instruments.

 

[kboman]

Not live as in onstage in front of an audience but:
I always felt the Fatboy Super-Dry set I got this summer were quite meaty and maybe even a bit fat, bordering on slightly muddy, when I played at home so I had the guitar and the rest of the rig set up to compensate for this. Then I got to rehearse at volume and holy moly, that's some treble response Batman! Volume can make a considerable difference...

 

[El Kabong]

Your pickups will sound exactly the same... your amp, however, will sound differently when being pushed harder and/or at different volumes. The speakers will also most likely be pumping a lot more air through them and hence require some venue specific tweaking. The sound will also continue to rise and fall with varying numbers of people in the room, which will change the tonal dynamics of the venue. Its pretty important to have a sound guy, who knows what he's doing, monitoring this stuff from various positions as its all but impossible to do yourself while you're playing.

 

[bulletproof]

Your pickups will sound exactly the same... your amp, however, will sound differently when being pushed harder and/or at different volumes. The speakers will also most likely be pumping a lot more air through them and hence require some venue specific tweaking. The sound will also continue to rise and fall with varying numbers of people in the room, which will change the tonal dynamics of the venue. Its pretty important to have a sound guy, who knows what he's doing, monitoring this stuff from various positions as its all but impossible to do yourself while you're playing.

+1....this right here

 

[Zhangliqun]

They sound different at every live venue.

 

[kevinpaul]

The location changes everything. From a practice volume to a full blast, amp, pedals, pick clicks man you name it. New each job and the others sound strange too!

 

[LeftyF2003]

At gig volumes I find that I need to use much less overdrive for the same result. As far as pickups go they just sound louder, the tone stays fairly consistent.

 

[El Kabong]

They sound different at every live venue.

Care to explain that?

 

[Leroy]

I'm not Zhang, but I agree. I don't think that the sound coming out of the cab speakers or folds sounds different but what you here on stage defiantly changes. The room size, shape and material changes the reflections and what frequencies are absorbed. Some rooms make me sound muffled and some make me sound great. I play with a second guitarist which can also muddy the waters. We've been using the same sound guy for ages too.

Leroy

 

[carydad]

Too many variables to nail down. The two biggest headaches for me are the FM affect mentioned above and that I can't really tune my sound at home alone to what it will be like at live at practice with bass bashing the lows and cymbals smashing the highs-in a space I know-forget gig spaces with a bunch of other variables. Of course, I can't leave anything alone and constantly change stuff, so that probably doesn't help my sanity.

 

[ARandall]

I'm not Zhang, but I agree. I don't think that the sound coming out of the cab speakers or folds sounds different but what you here on stage defiantly changes. The room size, shape and material changes the reflections and what frequencies are absorbed. Some rooms make me sound muffled and some make me sound great. I play with a second guitarist which can also muddy the waters. We've been using the same sound guy for ages too.

Leroy

Yep, easy to explain. The sound you hear when you play is ALWAYS the speakers interacting with the room acoustics......ALWAYS.
Different room......different furnishings......more/less crowd = different amount of reflections/absorptions.

Think of it like a macro version of 'does wood affect tone'.....as this is precisely what it is.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Care to explain that?

They have said it. Every room is different acoustically so every room makes not only pickups but every instrument sound different.

And the same room won't always sound the same from one night to the next. Differences in temperature, humidity, air pressure, number of people in the room, etc.

 

[DADGAD]

A person taking softly will characteristically still sound the "same" as they would talking very loudly. You will recognize them. A duck quack live and a duck quack through a compressed YouTube video will sound the same. I do understand that room dynamics is a huge factor but I'd wager people watching music live care less about out tone than we do. As long as they are having a great time and feeling the energy from the band, they aren't likely to care that your tone is missing some mids.

 

[freebyrd 69]

Your pickups will sound exactly the same... your amp, however, will sound differently when being pushed harder and/or at different volumes. The speakers will also most likely be pumping a lot more air through them and hence require some venue specific tweaking. The sound will also continue to rise and fall with varying numbers of people in the room, which will change the tonal dynamics of the venue. Its pretty important to have a sound guy, who knows what he's doing, monitoring this stuff from various positions as its all but impossible to do yourself while you're playing.

This....100% this. Pickups will sound NO different.

 

[Matt_Krush]

I am one of those guys that use the same pickups in all my guitars*

My Jacksons all have Dimarzio X2N's in the Bridge and Super Distortion 2's in the neck.
My (2) Gibsons have Super Distortion 3's in the Bridge and PAF Pro's in the neck.

The guitars all have slightly different tonal qualities, but consistent volume output.
The Jackson's can stay in one bank of presets* and the Gibsons in another (I run a G-Major through a JVM410). By keeping my volume consistent, the sound guy doesn't have to 'readjust' me in the mix.