If that was a condition to play a gig, I would politely refuse and pass that opportunity along to the next group on their list

Last edited: Dec 06, 2023 11:36:41

I'm currently in a cover band and all of us wear in-ears at practice. Our drummer has an e-kit that sounds terrific and also in stereo.

There's 6 of us total. We are connected to a top of the line JAMHUB. It's absolutely wonderful. Every person gets their own personal mix.

We've had just one show so far...but that was with stage monitors. I absolutely love silent rehearsals. It's like playing along to a CD and forces everyone to become better and tighter. All wrong notes are audible. Every misstep is evident. With loud amps and pounding acoustic drums...those things won't get noticed nearly as much.

_

Hi, I'm Gellert, guitarist for The Fintastics.

https://www.facebook.com/TheFintastics

I sometimes do coffehouse-size gigs direct from pedalboard into a small PA - not surf at all, this is more folk/jazz/blues/country/etc. These are situations where the volume levels are literally acoustic guitar/conversational level. The PA is just to get something like an electric or steel guitar up to the level of the vocals or acoustic instruments.

I have occasionally shown up at a band gig and been required to play without an amp. In these situations, I've used either the balanced line-out on a modeler or, the last few years, the XLR DI on my Quilter Tone Block 201 with my pedal board, into the FOH/monitor PA. Nobody will ever get in-ears on me, LOL. I just can't stand ear buds.

None of these direct gigs were surf. Call me old-school, but for surf and other old-school instrumental music, amps are de rigueur for me. I don't think it's necessary to be ridiculously loud at all, and I'm willing to bring as small an amp as needed to keep the volume appropriate to the situation. I generally use my 70s Princeton Reverb with a 10" JBL in a small room. We all scale back for that situation. I marvel that many here seem to get away with full-on Dual Showmans - I love 'em, but that kind of volume is not tolerated around here, possibly except outside. But I'm sure I'd have the sound people bitching at me even then.

The Delverados - surf, punk, trash, twang - Facebook
Chicken Tractor Deluxe - hardcore Americana - Facebook and Website
The Telegrassers - semi-electric bluegrass/Americana - Facebook

I perform on a “silent stage” when I am playing with the Indigenous dance project Sky Dancers. My gear consists of a couple of pedals (soul food, and carbon copy), into a Quilter Superblock US fed to a PA. The backing tracks and guitar come back to me through my floor monitors; no onstage amps at all.

The performances are usually in big soft seater theatres that have great sound techs, and PA systems. The Superblock has allowed me to have a consistent sound for each show, and makes it very easy to get on an airplane without the worry about shipping or renting an amp (other than the security search of my carry on gear bag…lots of great conversations with music interested security)

I haven’t used this set up for Surf shows as of yet. I think I would miss the feel of an amp, though the Quilter does a pretty convincing job.

Rev

Canadian Surf

http://www.urbansurfkings.com/

Last edited: Dec 08, 2023 08:31:48

Playing a silent stage has many practical advantages, I think all of them were already mentioned here. BUT the adrenaline I get when I turn my Showman at 7-8 is like driving 300 km/h on the highway. Then I realise that this is not Surf music but rock'n'roll. I prefer it that way even if my ears don't.

I used to tour professionally, arenas, festivals, theaters etc. and have quite a bit of experience playing direct.
This was not Surf music so it may not apply for some of you.
In all but a small percentage of these situations we were using IEM's and had pro-level monitor and front of house engineers.
When I was using amps they would often(but not always) have to be off or under the stage for visual, reasons or efficient tear down purposes so the amp sound I heard was only through my IEM's.
This worked and sounded great to me when I used my own amps but when I had to use rented backline it could often be a miserable experience due to poorly maintained gear.
The last tour I did was in 2019 and I used an Atomic Ampli-firebox, no speakers, just IEM's. Before the tour I had recorded my trusty Princeton Reverb at home in pro tools, set to my favorite settings, no fancy recording pre-amps and then created a sound in the Atomic that matched my recorded Princeton very closely.
Onstage, through IEM's and front of house it was fantastic. My sound, consistent, every show.
After the tour we had a lot of one-off fly gigs and had to use rental amps. I decided to go back to amps "for the fun and true experience" of playing on the these one-off shows.
It was horrible. Bad, dying amps, sounded like hell...and I had to be pro about it, couldn't bitch or be moody, had a job to do.
After about a month or two of this I went back to the Atomic. I could carry my entire rig on an airplane on a little pedal board and you know what?
It sounded great and was fun again. I even had an opening act who was watching one of our soundchecks come up after we finished to ask about the "magic Deluxe Reverb" behind me and ask if they could use it (it was a spare in case my simulator died). They were surprised when I told them I wasn't playing through it, just this "little box" on my pedalboard.
While these situations are a little different than a club gig a lot of clubs here in Nashville are now silent stages as well. On the big stages, tours, we had "audience mics" on each side of the stage that picked up the audience cheers or banter and when mixed well I could easily pinpoint where a voice or holler was coming from so the isolation from the audience was not bad.
I look at direct playing as just another way of making music. it's not too dissimilar from recording with headphones.
Is it the same experience as having speaker interaction or feeling air move? No.
Is it a bad experience? Depends on how open your mind is. I find it enjoyable enough that I now play at home about 50% of the time direct with headphones. It sounds just like my mic'd amp but I can do it any time of day or night, Surf to Heavy Metal.

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