Combo vs head & speaker cabinet

[JazzGtr]

Unless your're a true Fender dude, head & speaker cabinet is the only way to go. What's manufacturer sounds better in a combo versus separate?

 

Jazz,

[MrNylon]

One thing nice about a Combo, you can set it in a stand, to raise it up off the floor.

[SteveFord]

For component longevity it makes sense to have a separate head so you don't have the vibration slowly beating the guts to death.

 

 

 

 

 

[surfpup]

For component longevity it makes sense to have a separate head so you don't have the vibration slowly beating the guts to death.

 

All of my old Fender combos beg to differ. Of course those things are built like tanks.

[Blueblooded]

For component longevity it makes sense to have a separate head so you don't have the vibration slowly beating the guts to death.

Not sure there's really a lot of difference since you typically end up setting the head directly on top of the cabinet anyway.

 

I was perfectly happy playing at home with my head and 4x12 V30 loaded cabinet until I started a band project. Lugging the beastly 4x12 around was too much. I found an open back 2x12 V30 loaded cabinet that matches my head and that was the solution for me. I still use a ProLine stand - it handles the 2x12 with head on it just fine. I can see the benefit of portability with simpler setup with a combo if you're moving it around a lot.

[milod]

It's my observation that except for rock bands that have a heavy sort of show requiring them, a lotta travel bands will have guitars and smaller amps and rent big PA rigs and portable stages.

 

I think that makes pretty good sense.

 

Now, in saloons? I'd say it depends on the venue. As mentioned, you can put a combo on a stand. Of course, you can put a cab wherever, too.

 

But what counts is what an audience hears. I know that regardless of "power," you ain't gonna make stuff work with 10,000 watts on stage worth of guitar amps, even if the PA matches it, and have part of your crowd outdoors three or four city blocks away watching a toy stage in the distance and on big television emulation screens. So... PA systems are designed to put available and practically-sized equipment where they give appropriate volume to folks in different areas of the venue.

 

That always struck me as a lot more professional than my rock and country band days where we'd get big amps and put our bodies between them and the audience and then hope our directional mikes weren't feeding back too badly while the innocent little PA was attempting to keep up with the guitar stuff.

 

I love to hear music of many different types, but it's a lot more enjoyable in an old style piano bar or acoustic gig saloon where you can hear the words and notes from the band - and the potential conversation from them you came with. When I can't hear a friend screaming into my ear from 12 inches away, the other noise is too loud. When I can't hear distinct notes and words from the bandstand in the back of a venue, there's something wrong there, too.

 

So I guess I look at it as "what do you need for practical sound reinforcement of what you normally do" more than "what do you want."

 

I've personally spent too doggone much on the latter.

 

m

[Drog]

I have gone to a Kemper Profiling amp, with a FRFR speaker for my monitor. Its an amazing piece of gear. I won't sell my current line up of tube amps, but for gigging and rehearsals I use the Kemper. I have even profiled my own amps, just the way I want them to sound.

 

I highly recommend this setup!

['Scales]

well m, I still occasionally like to go to a gig where the big amps are used in a small venue (dive) and you get physically assaulted by the wall of sound as well as audibly, and conversation be damned - reliving my youth I guess before the fun police stopped most of the opportunities to do so.

 

I hear what you're sayin' though....well I would if my ears would stop ringing

[milod]

Scales...

 

Don't get me wrong, I think rock especially should have the potential of being reeeeally loud.

 

The problem is when the amps are putting out sound somewhat modified by legs, floor and often odd stuff around the ceiling - and the PA speakers for voice clobber the dance floor but aren't mixed with the instruments blasting away in the background. Meanwhile at the back of a rectangular venue all you hear is noise sometimes with an apparent beat that makes no sense; and in an "L" shaped venue it's only noise.

 

Few saloons - and not all "dance halls" - have been designed for acoustics of any sort. So we simply modify what they did with a piano and a couple of wind instruments, guitar, fiddle and accordion in 1928, but now with 8 million watts of stuff blasting at 120 decibels?

 

So... my feeling is that folks oughta do a better job of considering what an audience really hears rather than what they think they hear from, at best, some stage monitors.

 

I've played rooms where a bit of thought to sound, 'stedda simply putting up what you put up everywhere else, can make a world of difference in presenting the band more in the way of what folks would hear from a well-mixed CD or whatever... regardless of volume.

 

We often forget that the venue itself plays a huge role in what we sound like in various parts of the audience. Even a "nicely mixed" sound near the stage can devolve into noise quicker than one might imagine otherwise.

 

Face it, even the Romans knew about acoustics in building interiors and even outdoor venues - and used what they knew to get the best potential sound. Vetruvius wrote of it some 2,000 years ago. And how many times have we walked past a saloon with a band inside and heard little but unrecognizable instrumental noise and a voice doing... something.

 

That's all I'm saying. Loud is fine as long as it's "loud good" stedda "loud noise."

 

Heck, when I learned Paul Revere had died, I proceeded in my office to catch a Youtube version of "Just Like Me" that I always liked a lot - and played it at a volume that covered my keyclicks and about anything else one might say or do short of smashing the speakers.

 

m

[badbluesplayer]

I'd rather play a combo in a band. For me, I don't want to show up with a bunch of gear that I'm plugging all over the place. I don't want to look like a gearhead. That's not cool for club style venues playing blues or jazz. It's maybe o.k. for loud or heavy stuff, but not so cool for what I do.

 

When I audition, I definitely want to show up with a combo and whatever pedals.