Baffled? How To Baffle Your Amp & Not get Fired - Ask Zac 193 

I work with Tracy Sands. He worked at Fender and Music Man when Leo was there, and later at Bad Cat. He pointed out that if you can't run your amp on 7, that you brought the wrong amp. I have 5 amps, mostly old Fender designs. I'll bring 2 or 3 of them if it's a new gig I haven't played before. At one gig in a large, lively room, I played through my Vibro Champ because it was just enough! Tracy got such a kick out of that, he still laughs about me playing a 4 watt amp. Hey, it worked!

nothing turns an amp down quicker than a quiet drummer. 😂

Dude I’ve either lost or gained so much respect for you. Those Jammies

Seriously, amp direction is a problem. I once had the artist say he couldn't hear my guitar sound, so one night I placed my combo on a flight case and pointed it towards him, and he said, over the microphone, mid-show, "Hey, the guitar is too loud...", so in the interval I faced the combo about 45 degrees up into the upper side of the theatre (where some paying members of the audience were sitting and had to suffer my amp pointing right into their ears, despite the fact that the sound engineer was happy with my FOH sound (and the artist had multiple stage monitors and side fills with almost no guitar in their personal mix). My conclusion is that I have a "moderate/reasonable" stage volume and feed my (speaker) signal to the PA and let the mix engineer give each performer more or less of my guitar sound. It's so difficult though, because only recently, the bass player asked me to to face my combo across the stage towards him, but moments later the keyboard complained that my guitar sound was too loud and requested that I fired the combo elsewhere, so I faced it towards my ears and let the sound engineer provide what each of the members of the ensemble desired. Sound engineers are facilitators. They are the placators. They have the power!

Try having your amp in front of you pointing away from the audience, tilted back so it’s aiming at your head - like a monitor wedge. You’ll get quieter pretty quickly!

Zac, could you do a video on hearing protection?

that's what happens when you size your amp for outdoor gigs, and then it always sounds better when it's too loud anywhere else. what you do is get a 15 or 20 watt tube amp head and run different cabinets, for different situations. ( 2 X 12, 2X10, 1X12, 1X10 ) OR you get a pedalboard amp sound, and turn up and down a solid state amp.

The Speight baffle is a great idea, but like you said, it’s one more thing to lug around. The guy who mentioned tilt-back legs on the cabinet is right-on, but a lot of amps don’t have them. When I was gigging, I always used an amp stand, but that backfired on me sometimes. I played in a band years ago with a steel player who used two Peavey Session 400 amps and insisted on having them on the floor right behind him, and I was right next to him with a Peavey Renown 115BW (1-15” Black Widow speaker) on a stand, pointed at the back of my head. His sound was going straight out below his knees, so he wasn’t hearing himself as loud as he really was; instead he was hearing more of me. He was always telling me to turn down, and as he was the bandleader, I had to do it! Every time another guitar player would come in the club, they’d tell me to turn up-and I’d tell them, “Go tell David-he thinks I’m too loud!” We were both in the PA too, but I wasn’t cutting through. I even tried putting my amp on the floor, tilted back against the drum riser, but he thought I was still too loud. And I wasn’t being heard out front! I’ve seen some singers with the same attitude-they want to hear only themselves. I don’t know how they can sing or play without hearing the rest of the band! Me, I need a mix or I’m screwed.

Speaking from experience? “Turn it down” is a buzz kill. Glad you’re back!

Been there in that exact same scenario!!!!!! Used to do all kinds of things on stage and in the studio. Turning the amp around. Putting it in a studio corner. And my all time favorite: Draping a moving blanket over the amp front. But there is another aspect of this rarely mentioned. The band leader doesn't want you to out shine him. And in that situation there is a real fine Fix !!! You TURN DOWN !!!!!! You TURN DOWN !!! And put him on your Do Not Call Back List !!!!

When did the phrase "too loud" enter the popular lexicon? Strange days indeed! lol

Hey Zac. I saw JR BROWN a couple times at the Southgate House in Newport Ky. He used 2 Fender twins tilted back right behind him covered with a big moving pad blanket. It was 150 ft to the back wall from stage! Yes it was still loud!

"Sure man, soon as the drummer turns down." As a Guitar player /musician /adult/ professional, it is a big part of the job to know how soft or loud you need to be. But I have had to tell many musicians to " turn that down" and its a sure sign of not playing with the band and serving the music. And finding the musician you're playing with is that oblivious is a major buzz kill. Sometimes worse than the bar owner who expects a 5 piece band to be as loud as a boom box.

I have gotten used to tilting the amp up in front of me. It is weird at first, but makes a huge difference. When you want to hear it you stand in front for solos, and when you want to blend in or hear the vocals, step off axis. Small amps help too. A Princeton is the perfect little amp. Modeling is really great for small low volume stages. We have so many options now.

There’s an English speaker box maker called Barefaced Audio and their boxes are open backed with a baffle that spreads the sound from the back of the speaker around the amp so then you don’t have to run the amp as loud worth checking out. Angling the amp with legs or amp stands is always helpful and using as smaller amp as you can is also good. Many model amps have attenuator like the tone masters which are pretty good. I actually worked with a guitarist once who had a Marshall head and a 12 inch speaker box that he layed flat on the floor. The sound went straight up in the air hit the ceiling and spread all over the stage so the whole band had good monitoring and none went into the crowd which gave me the mixer a lot more control of the guitar sound in the PA. It was brilliant, I’ve told other guitarists about this but they just stare at me blankly and turn up! Great topic to bring up Zac it’s a very real problem but dealing with heavy hitting drummers is worse imo!!

Lay a A piece of foam cut out to fit the grill cover of the amp is what we were using back in the 60's and 70's.

Good stuff! I only have two remarks... well, three: 1. Too loud is too loud. Period. 2. The best tone in the world is useless if it's so loud it hurts people's ears. 3. 100% of competent guitar players can tell if their guitar's volume is hurting the crowd's ears and can fix it.

I think as a guitarist, we've all been in that situation. I haven't played electric in awhile, but my last solution to the loudness problem was to bring out my 4 watt Valco amp (the one with the funky oval speaker) ,mic it up and run it through the monitors. Small amp... you can crank 'em up and get 'em breathin' hard and you'll be surprised at how big it sounds through the mains and monitors. Also, it was really ease to carry around.

Thanks Zac for tackling a common but rarely talked about issue. My biggest challenge is playing in a 5 piece with small stages.

Speaking from the apparent minority of players who is usually told to turn up as opposed to down, these insights are very helpful to me in that I can plan to play louder than I normally would, and respond to my usual directive reductively instead of wishing I'd brought a louder amp. Kudos!

in the 80s i saw jefferson starsip in hawaii. the guitarist had 2 4x2 cabs pointing up toward the lights probably about a 30 degree angle. there mix was amazing. one of the best ive ever heard

It's baffling that people don't want to hear me play loud LOL

I 'm thinking that even the worst attenuator is preferable to turning down the power section of an amp from its "sweet spot". If you can tweak the output volume while retaining the "sweetness" of a particular amp - that's the way to go. But, knowing ahead of time (when and if possible) the most optimum "mating" of amp to room is the key. I have considered bringing two possibly undersized combo amps and turning both on when I can get away with it. I've discovered that two 10" combos (each with 2/3 the wattage of a 12" combo) is not only louder with more head room but also fills the room better. Key to any mix of instruments (and players) is to "tame" the loudest first rather than try to meet "up" with them.

Learning to use the proper EQ for the venue. Bright / Dark / Small / Large / Full / Empty Venues all have different EQ. Another solution is to use the proper amp for the venue. Don't bring a Fender Twin to a Coffee shop, don't bring a Tweed Champ to a Festival.

Something called baffling should be hard to figure out

You hit the nail on the head when you stated that baffles reflect the sound. There will actually be multiple reflections - which cause cause comb filtering, which distorts the fabric of the universe and and disturbs Schrödinger's Cat and...

I’m waiting to see the sound person place a mic in front of that Speight baffle…. You know it’s happened/gonna happen. I usually turn my amp backwards or facing sideways or sometimes use the plexi shield of shame if the audience’s heads are at amp level. And that’s using a Princeton or Deluxe.

When I was at Ole Red for a 90's Country shindig, I noticed all the guitarists had those Speight baffles in front of their rigs, and I thought they were a great idea that was a long time coming. Stage volume was under control, and the sound out front was amazing. Thanks for reminding me of these, I'm glad you had a link to a dealer.

You can use an inefficient speaker. I have a large collection of vintage speakers ranging from the 30s to the 60s. I have a 1946 GE speaker from a radio console that sounds really good but it just has much less volume, so you can crank your amp and get your crunch tone with less volume.

Dr. Z - Z-Brake works great on my UK HW AC-15 60th Anniversary.

I've always wondered about 'beam blockers' that go in front of the speaker voice coil and have attachment points outside the speaker. I think Weber still makes them..

Great video Zak ! I can't recount how many times I heard this sentence LoL ! I saw Arthur Nelson a new Yorker bluesman putting his leather jacket just on top of his rented Twin reverb to muffle it !

Good video Zac. It’s amazing how much you can ‘adjust’ the sound coming off stage by turning the amp off center to the audience and sound guy. That was always the solution with my boogie as it was very directional

About 16 years ago a colleague had a mic (SM57) on his (100w) combo that got knocked and for most of the show it was pointing toward the floor! That's when I realised that, much as mics are good, if they aren't facing the loudspeaker, then it's bad! I use a Sequis Motherload, which feeds the amp's speaker output to the PA (it has variable tones, but I keep it set to approximately a little off axis on a virtual Celestion Blue tone, which provides a consistent sound night after night.).

Aha!!!!! Saw The Wild Feathers and they had these sort of false amps in front of their amps and I could not for the life of me figure out what the heck they were... and they were these Speight baffles! TWF sounded spectacular and these things clearly worked like a charm!!! Thanks for shedding light on this mystery!

Always prioritize your audience’s experience, and remember anyone who is in the direct line-of-fire of your speaker is likely experiencing a very harsh sound. If someone is telling you to turn down, it’s probably good advice. Great topic! Very informative.

A "V" shaped external baffle behind an open back speaker cabinet can improve both clarity and dispersement of sound simultaneously. This also lets the other players hear you better (even if they'd prefer not to).

The highs travel further. I point my Deluxe up like a wedge monitor. More towards ceiling lately. Breaking up is hard to do. Controlling feedback with my body and strings used to be my trick in smaller band where I didn't sing. Sound checks should last longer. Walk around wireless in audience area. Everything seems to change when drums/full band kicks in if you just do brief line check. Tone goes out the window when rushed and you need to adjust during first few songs. Great bands seem to know just how to set up quick in every room.

I dig the lounge pants.

"Bass too rwowd! Bass too rwowd!" yelled the heavily accented guitar player in a 80s Berkeley Band. 'Cuz I'm a 6 stringer 1st but gotta RIC 4001 for this gig. Keys/GF played moderator, but y'know who won the argument as I climbed onto my motorcycle, bass on my back & rode off into the CA sunrise....

First time I went to Nashville a lot of guitar players on Broadway had makeshift foam over plywood 'baffles' in front of the amp ....a few years later I started to see in videos those Speight baffles - the Speight products look killer!

Amp legs have helped me. It takes the beam of death and diffuses it off the ceiling. I rarely get told to turn down now. Also, try not to get sound checked first.

Really appreciate your information!!

Hey Zac, I built a 2 12 Wedge cabinet that goes on my monitor line. 2 Eminence patriots I made a partition in the center so it's 2 separate cabinets in one Box. Stereo or mono. The singer never has a complaint and I can hear it great. 1 Mike no problem

Aloha Zac! I'm baffled LOL!😂 I just moved into a house. My tell me to turn it down. I got Fender Pro Jr unless I got it turn up a little it doesn't sounds good. I got to fool around to solve my situation. Thanks for the options. Mahalo Zac!

Tilt back! I recently bought a Mesa Boogie Mark V 25. 10 inch speaker, slightly smaller than a Princeton. Went by Harbor Freight and bought an 18” trigger clamp. Clamp it to the side of the amp and lean it back. Works like a charm.

I gigged with a Dr Z Maz Jr and a ClearSonic baffle. The venue sound guys almost always told me I would need to turn down BEFORE I even plugged in the amp.

I used to attach a circular piece of cardboard to the grille to prevent "beaming"... I poked holes in the cardboard until I could hear enough high frequencies. Bandmates made fun of me but it did the trick. I could crank enough to get the tone I wanted without cutting every one's head off and have a fairly consistent sound all over the stage 😉

Hey Zac... Don't you know the Deefleex H!1 V2.0 system? I don't play without it anymore. It was developed by a German and solves all problems. It turns the sound into a ball and is simply great for listeners and bandmates. You can hardly see it from a distance and it's easy to transport. You no longer have the toxic direct sound, I can turn up the amp and nobody complains.

Thanks Zac! I met you at Robert’s Western World around this time last year when my wife and I and friends were in town and checking out Luke and the boys. You had just stepped away from the bar grabbing some tator tots. I told me buddy, I think I just saw Zac Childs walk away with some tator tots. 😂 I recently bought a 2 panel plexi panel hoping that would be the final solution to my way too loud tube amps. I have a few friends that recommended them to me and said that’s all you need! I played a few weeks ago using a Dr. Z Maz 18 cranked, but even using the built in Dr. Z Brake Lite, it was loud as hell. I used the plexi baffle and felt like I had the strangest tone all night. You hit the nail on the head, “ambient noise” everywhere! The stage floor, ceiling and walls were all wood, so kind of like playing in a box. Last gig, I brought my 67 blackface Deluxe Reverb turned up to 5, and used pedals for more overdrive tones and my pedalboard soft bag in front of it. Had way better tone, which floored me because I thought the Dr. Z would kill! I guess I’m still trying to learn how to dial it in.

Great looking, smart solution to a common issue.

Nice jammees, Zach! Cheers!

Too loud? I'm baffled.

Nice one Zack, this is a very important subject. Even at the back of a venue a small Guitar amp can transmit treble that pierces your forehead. Having used a Twin reverb for small and large venues I got into the habit of using those tiltback legs that the larger combos and cabs used so you could tilt the amp/cab to point at 5he ceiling so the blast of the Guitar would'nt hit the ears of the listener directly. I saw Roy Buchanan in London in the mid 80s and his amp was facing towards the side of the stage and it sounded massive but did'nt hurt the ears or give a head-ache especially from a Telecaster whos treble could crack a coconut at 200 ft. Saw a Video of the "Ventures" live in Japan and their amps were all at nearly 45° tilting back even the bass amp/ cab, what and increadible sound. Would be great to hear the story behind this idea of those steel legs on Fender amps amps. Thanks.

awesome trousers!😮

What a fantastic video have a wonderful day Zac ❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊

Thank you so much. This is gonna save our small venue situation. 🙏🏻👍🏻

that amp look-alike baffle is really clever. I recall seeing Australian blues/rock player Kevin Borich playing a silver-faced Twin very, very loud and he'd built a Plexiglass V-shaped baffle with built-in mic clips for two SM57s

Excellent video and subject! Very good ideas, including the back tilt. I have used the aim to the side trick as well. The baffle seems cool, if only you could control the amount.perhaps by internal sliding panels?

Great advertisement for the Tone Master concept. I can run a Twin at any volume without changing the tone. I send front of house my signal via DI mic sim and we are gold. I’ve even had the joy on occasion of using it in the 85w mode! 🤠👍

The struggle is real! I play steel and lead, through a Tonemaster Deluxe. The only one telling me to turn down is the bass player/band leader.... I may have to start pointing the amp upward or come up with a baffle of some sort. Thanks for the info Zac. I really enjoy your videos!

Weber makes the perfect load box using a dummy speaker magnet. I have 5 of them.

I just watched Kenny Vaughn at "Kenny Vaughan and The Imperial Blues Hour@ Dee's 04.03.24" on youtube and he has his gig bag in front of his amp, lol.

Thanks for another great segment. The reflections you described from the Plexi-Salad bar things can sound pretty bad and in addition to having to drag those things around If I had to go that route I'd probably be carrying Windex and paper towel too cause those things look awful when the lights hit them with hand prints all over them. Because I don't want to bring any extra stuff if I've done like you mentioned and pointed the amp away from the sound guy and it's still too loud my next move will be to put my spare guitar right in front of the amp's speaker. I use those low CooperStands and blocking the amp with the spare guitar can sometimes do the trick. It's already there!

The struggle is real. Great video.

Man - this is a great video….. I need one of those baffles

I’ve been using a Deeflexx diffuser with excellent results.

Use a sound shield made for vocals find one that looks nice with your amp most will have a mic stand with it or a hole to mount the mic! Otherwise put the amp at your head level remember you’re on stage with the amp on the stage it is at the audience head level or close to it! With your amp at your head level add a baffle so you will know what is going out to the audience at their head level!

Good show Zac. I just turn my DR about a foot from the wall. I picked up a V.L. Sparkle Drive for about 100$ at my local GC. Very good pedal. I thought I would point out that some Dumble Amps have a Ratio control on the OD side to blend clean and dirty. Nice Shirt.

Great video. Although the idea of disconnecting speakers seems risky if the impedance load is changed stressing the transformer.

I have a handful of different attenuators, a Marshall power brake, a Weber and a Tone King 100 watt.

Maybe I’m crazy but I put a deluxe reverb in a head chassis and use an isolation cab, always sounds good in the in ear monitors….these days I’ve gotten lazy and just use dream 65 or iridium. But I always see it as my tone is secondary to the band’s sound.

Thanks Zac...I always look forward to your videos ..and your playing too ! Truly respect your shared knowledge. On the topic, I don't see why lowering your volume should seriously affect your tone...can you not just adjust your settings on your guitar and amp ? I mean not many non-pro touring players, who do not have roadies to move equipment around for them are going to want to buy baffles and schlep them around...I think that baffle muddled the sound and removed some highs and clarity. . p.s....love your jammies !

Dude, those Santa pants are amazing!!! This is great content and the right stuff - but those pants!

Don't kill your tone! Model it!😁

I do love my red Z28 MKII... 🤣

Since i switched to fender Tonemaster amps my troubles are over.

if you have a road case... you have an ISO cab.. go for the LED video cases they usually have the most padding. I would angle it upwards which I do anyhow... but honestly I just use a tiny amp

You just need Christmas pants that are louder than your amp

Im i'm with Tracy Sands......just use a smaller amp.....5 watts on 7, instead of 20 watts on 3.....pretty simple.

Telecaster sounds should never be baffled!! Let those tele twang!! 😀

What about a Webber "Beam Blocker" ? I used one of these and they work well. The downside is the mount is a permanent thing. For me this wasn't a big deal.

Love the Santa pants.

The Baffle of Shame!.... I use lay back stands. Point it at your head... but that can be a problem if you are the main vocalist.

Speight.! All the way!

I haven’t played on a stage in front of people in years. I have a Tone King Imperial and I really like the Ironman attenuator on it but I’m playing in my bedroom and living room, so I don’t know how it would actually respond on a stage.

Bukovac was using those shields with Ann Wilson.

I usually play my Princetons or champs on a stand mic’d but pointed at my head and the speaker towards left of me. I can usually get away with it at pretty moderate levels.

Tab Benoit and Joe Bonamassa use the plexiglass, sounded good to me, but that’s up close, at a distance I think it affects/weakens the sound, even if mic’ed

Nice PJ's :)

Those pajama pants!

To be honest that’s why I have been using my tone master deluxe most of my gigs I can drop down to 12 or even 5 watts for small gigs

The Speight baffle really cut the volume down on your demo, but it also seemed to remove a lot of treble (alter the tone). When setting up with the baffle, do you then go back and readjust amp eq to get the balance and tone you are looking for, or does that end up defeating it's purpose?

Hope I don’t get kicked off the subscriber list for this but if it’s too loud it sounds grating and shrill to me. And simply turning it down to below that level improves the tone for me.

Road cases usually dull the tone. I often bring 2 gtrs to a gig, and place the spare on a stand right in front of the spkr as a beam blocker. That Speight looks nice but changed the sound a lot too.

I've been using a Fryette PS2a with my Vintage Sound VS22 deluxe style but it's 15 lbs and an extra piece of gear to haul around... PS2 works amazingly well but another potential failure point.

THOSE PANTS!!! 🎅🎅🎅🎅🎅🎅🎅

it would be funny if you just used the preamp model direct but brought the mock baffle amp thing and they still told you you were too loud murphy's law lol jk. ive had situations where the monitor mix is bad and the amp was all i had to hear and they wanted to point it away from me. why can't we all just get along and help each other out sound guys musicians. fun times all The Lord though. thanks for sharing bud God bless.-pc

I almost gave thumb down because of the off-season pants! Hahahaha

My wife tells me to turn it down all the time, is there a wife baffle? :p Hey, Zac how do you handle reverb in a hall, do you use the combo's spring reverb or a pedal or not? I mean something the size of Floore's Country Store in Helotes, Tx? (wood stage, low ceilings, wood walls... acck)