May Birthdays 
Has anyone had this problem when playing live....:
This was on Saturday - We're booked to play a good sized venue - 200 - 300 people, so there is a good PA, and, admittedly an affable and friendly sound guy. Usually, we play small venues off our backline, with a vocal amp for audience interaction...hopefully.
We have a loud drummer, I have a Dual Showman and a 1x15 cab, Adam has a 500W Orange bass amp and a 4x10" cab. So, we have a fair bit of power in our backline.
On this stage there are two monitors per person. When we do a soundcheck, everything is coming at us from the monitors. I don't like guitar through the monitors, I prefer it from my cab, so usually I ask for no guitar in the monitors, just the bass in case I can't hear Adams cab which is like 10 feet away.
When we come to play, the drums and the bass are so loud in the monitors, I can't hear my guitar. Well, I can sometimes. It left me scratching my head as to why the whole band is put through the monitors when I'm standing next to the drums, and Adam has a loud bass amp on stage. I can hear them fine without the monitors.
For vocals, I can understand the monitors. On a big stage, I can understand monitors. This was neither of those situations. The monitors were blasting our instruments back at us louder than we were playing them!
Out front, the drums sounded fantastic. We probably all sounded fantastic, but on stage I barely heard what I was playing despite standing in front of a Dual Showman turned up halfway which should really be plenty!
Anyone else have issues with sound engineers? Is there a tactful way to say that we don't need half their equipment? Should I always carry a Tech Spec sheet for them? It's also difficult to explain that the guitar needs to be louder in the mix than a vocal band without sounding like an egotistical guitarist.
Are there any sound engineers here that can offer any tips? Or any seasoned pro's that can get a consistently good sound on stage?
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