The Shocking Truth About Guitar Tone | "I Can't Hear Myself" | Thomann 

This live band illustrations is what I’ve been looking for for a long time , please ! I need more of this …..

It never ceases to amaze me how many guitarists (bringing "THEIR SOUND" to the stage) fail to realise or even comprehend this notion. Great demo guys!

This is why amps like the Vox AC30 were so popular. It sounds harsh and midrange by itself. Add the rest of the band and you can still hear it.

This is an incredibly useful video, one which really demonstrates in an actual band context why some things work and others not so much. We need MORE vids like this please! Also, spend an episode on the mostly overlooked, most powerful tone-shaping pedal around: the EQ.

I've been a victim of this due to stubbornly sticking with the tone that sounds good on its own and not tweaking it when in a band setting. Thank you for the demonstration.

This Video is so important. It shows that it doesn't need the next pedal or guitar or amp, but to know the gear you already own and to know how to make it sound good in any context. There's so much Voodoo about guitar tone around, mostly to rip people off. There are so many variables in the signal chain (Scale, Neckprofile, Strings, Bridge, Nut, Pickups, Guitar Wiring, Cable, Pedals, Amp (Tubes, Wiring, Output....), Speaker, Mic (Model, Position) to name just a few and it is unpredictable, which of these components make a sound work and cut through. Making music is craftsmenship and you get better by taking your gear to the the test over and over again and not by changing it all year round.

Short, simple, direct and outstanding. Great job.

More band mix stuff please! this is gold! and i am so glad you guys picked this topic, nobody seems to want to talk about how crap all these great pedals sound in the band

It was impressive how much more balanced the band sounded with the "close" mic.

Forget the guitar sound. That snare sounds great.

Excellent, excellent! Thank you for this, so instructive, such a good idea for a video!

Great video! This is very helpful and now I understand.

Fantastic video guys. Very well made. Beautiful room too. Great presentation

Finally a whole band video 😃 More of that please 🙏

Wow, what a difference! This was such a great idea for a video, thanks taking the time to make it.

Very nice to see something guitar related focused on a band scenario, thank you for this. As others have said more please :)

Excellent demonstration...😊

Thank you so much for all of your vids! You tell only right points without unnecessary words! Only Thomann is good enough!😄❤

Really useful video - it taught me a lot. Thanks!

Love seeing you guys in action. Great, thanks!

Shot out to the great playing! And very useful video, especially for any one starting out with a band.

It's always amazing when Julia makes an appearance 💖 And usually it's the guitar that's obnoxiously loud in a band, and the bass and some of the drums get lost in the mix 😂

A real feel video like this is worth more than million backing track examples or gear reviews Thankyou

It's a very simple video (from the content point of view, not effort and production point of view), but a very useful one, as it demonstrates what most of us are inteested in when it comes to comparisons and understanding what works and what doesn't.

I found this out playing live for so many years. What sounds good alone rarely works well with a bass (low end), acoustic (top and bottom), keys (everything) and drums (low end and high end cymbals). Frustrating but true.

This video is great and thank you so much. I went right out and bought an SD-1 because I have this exact problem with my band.. I have a great-sounding transparent overdrive but I feel like I have to crank the volume up so loud just to hear it sometimes. But it works well for quieter songs but what I needed was to be heard on the heavier songs. SD-1 works just like your video. Thanks again.

This is a great demonstration. I had a similar experience playing clean electric guitar with a grand piano as main instrument. My guitar tone was perfect by itself but it got buried by the piano. Thanks for offering real-world solutions.

There are multiple separate factors at work here, in most live bands. 1. Can you hear well enough to play? 2. Do you want more of you because it’s the best sound for the band? Or just because you want to hear more of you? 3. The best way to bring something up in a mix is to turn everything else down. When each person is in charge of their own amplification, they resist this because of ego. This is why sound engineers love when everyone uses in ear monitoring. You can adjust the house mix for what sounds good, then feed each of the prima Donna musicians way more of their own sound, so they can feel like the star. I’m not saying there aren’t instances where a harsher, more midrange sound is more appropriate. I’m just saying “I can’t hear myself at all” is rarely the real problem…

Mental!!!! Dude I like those experiments! Thank you all! 🙏

This is so useful. Yeah, constantly dialling in tones at home that just don't fit in the band mix. Super insightful.

Excellent video, thanks!

Love your videos, guys. 🥰

This is gold, I ran into the same problem years ago when I used a metal master pedal. By myself it was great but it got lost in a live mix, I ended up using my clean channel with the presence turned up to finish the gig. It wasn't what I wanted to do but it had to be done. Valuable lesson learned.

Great concept kris. Same comparison with other pedals please !!! Pantheon kot some strymon drives maybe revv g series and etc... And if you can show us how they also are heard in a live mix.. like how they are heard by audience through pa systems. This simulation would be priceless

BRILLIANT video. SOOOOO uniquely informative. Thank you!!! Please more videos like this. How about with a strat or les paul and other Pedals, amps?...

Great video on a very important and often overlooked topic. The Blues Driver is a great pedal, I mostly use it only for guitar solos, and amp distortion for rhythm playing. Another important thing that didn´t get mentioned in the video: You generally don´t need as much gain/distortion as you think. Of course it depends on the style of music and the band sound but less gain works wonders for cutting through in a band mix.

This is definitely the best advice every beginners have to know when starting to play in a band. Well done !

Love to see You all playing in a live mix, I'm intrigue to see a other video with a Les Paul or an SG

An entire series on setting up for live gigs (with the kit a new band might have) would be amazing. The number of starter band live gigs I've seen with nothing but high end hiss ...

Fantastic idea to demonstrate this in a live band context. Well done folks. The amp tone, before any pedals, is so very crucial. For clean sounds you definitely don't want it too 'thin'. The main culprit can often (not always) be summed up in two words...single coils. Here, a carefully set amp + (often the key) an even more carefully selected pedal (e.g. EQ/Compressor/Overdrive) to push and tone shape the amp front are key, especially for those clean sounds again. Humbuckers don't generally have anywhere near the same battle trying to cut through live for cleans. Weak/thin crunch sounds can also be an issue and again, those same pedal types can help a lot. Note, for this type of correction, we're not trying to distort these sounds (or add more distortion to a distorted sound), unless that's something you're also looking to change. More of this type of video, please.

This is awesome! Would be great to see a vid on making 2 guitars work and being able to hear them in a live band context.

Yes, more of this! Maybe one specifically for bass?

wow. great video. i just learned something today

Great useful video for the hobby guitar players

I have tweaked my sounds for my last CD and recorded as it is. I get on stage with the same setup - even the miking! - and don’t want to change anything to my sound. Instead I use my Deeflexx Systems and me and the band can hear the guitar sound with all details - simple as that!

Nice! I have two EQ pedals on my board for this reason. a BOSS GE-7 to remove a bit of bass and push forward a mid-heavy sound, and a WMD Utility Parametric EQ for a fuller sound when I don't need to worry about competing for bass player frequencies

Great video - but I would have loved to hear a bit more about what the solution should be (it can't possibly be just use a different pedal, as there is absolutely nothing wrong with either of these pedals) - I'm guessing it is to adjust the EQ on the amp, so would have liked to have seen what effect certain EQ adjustments have on the mix sound in the room vs. how those now sound in the close mic.

Well. I'm glad that I chose the SD-1 as my second Overdrive instead the BD. Me first is actually a very versatile Valeton TubeEngine.

The room mic sound really make you feel like watching a live band performance in bar or small venue gigs🤘

Very helpful video. I love the Blues Driver, but while playing with a band, the OCD driver (which sounds way harsher alone) may be the yay to go.

I have to point out that Chris was playing a telecaster which is already famous for cutting through the mix. I imagine it might be even more striking with a strat or a humbucker-equiped guitar.

i like so much the "room mics" the drums sound open, the hole band actually!

Best all round amp that I ever bought was a ZT Lunch box. (I started in the late 60's early 70's with Vox AC 30's, then Marshall 50 watt head and 4X12 cabinet), many years later I played Roland small amps, but nothing compared to the ZT Lunchbox! (The older model, with 200 watt output through a 6 inch speaker!) Crazy, but I even used it on live outdoor gigs, and it cut through the mix perfectly. Truly the best amp I have ever owned.

As a drummer, this is a video every guitar player needs to see!

This is very useful. More band situation topic pls. Thanks 1. Difference in tone during jam session vs in a gig. How to channel 2. Sounds good in the studio, but not live. Thanks muchos

great video! i often feel so rushed in rehearsals and just do not get the time to tweak my tone - the other guitarist in the band overwhelms me on a consistent basis and I often just can't hear myself. i really want to be only guitar player in the band!

I've had this revelation when I used a Klon-Style pedal in band rehearsal. Played alone it sounded very boxy and unpleasant, but in the mix when I got to the solo part and turned it on it was magnificent! Even my bassplayer said it was the best tone he heard from me in a while.

04:30 that snare 💪🏼💪🏼🤩

What's better; SD1 or 808 Tube Screamer? Thanks for the videos, really good content

I've begun using a tip i heard lately, about using a tubescreamer style pedal as the last gain stage in the board to narrow the sound. I've been struggling heavily with controlling the high end and low end of my guitar in the rehearsal room, but using TS style (actually the Harley benton pedal 😎) I've been able to focus my sound a lot more, leaving only the midrange and dumping the unnecessary frequencies that only muddy up the sound space. Going through a pedal like this, I can get more out of the volume control, being able to go from a fairly clean sound to a lightly overdriven song, which is perfect for our more pop sounding songs or solos. For more dirt I just stack another drive pedal behind it, keeping the focused sound. This way I only need the volume control and switching one drive/distortion pedal on and off to achieve an incredible range of sounds, while filtering the unneeded frequencies at the same time

Kris, So incredibly thrilled to see you and definitely Julia. She's such a talent. You two would make one hell of a band. You also managed to get away with playing recorded music. Don't get demonetized 😅😂😂

I only started learning how to play the guitar a little over six weeks ago & I'm documenting my entire journey on here so to this was super interesting to watch!

When developing the Deeflexx Systems it turned out (again!) that the presence of frequencies in the midrange is the key to hear yourself better - that’s the way our hearing works. The first step is to increase the mids on the amp, use a EQ pedal in the loop to shape the sound and/or use pedals like Tube Screamer. BUT: All this will change the characteristic of the sound. Experienced players use a Deeflexx that reflects/deflects those missing mids and highs and your bandmates can hear exact the same sound like you. Players like Marcus Deml, Axel Ritt, Aynsley Lister, Eamonn McCormack do it this way for more than 10 years - they don’t want a change in their sound ! 🎸🔊_/😀 PS: You will find A/B tests on my channel like episode “Deeflexx vs Beam Blocker Devices” …

I'm not convinced. When you play with a live drum kit and bass and don't properly turn up the guitar, no amount of Boss Pedals will help. In any scenario of this video, the guitar practically disappeared in the room.

My pedal journey: Level 1: one crazy pedal. My first was a NYC big box muff. A wah or whammy are other great contenders. Level 2: lots of cool pedals that sound great in your bedroom Level 3: a handful of pedals that are actually useful: EQ, tuner, compressor, channel switcher, volume pedal.

Pretty cool video!

Really important demonstration for us sound engineers! Shows the importance of EQ’ing on the stage mixer, creating a sonic “hole” for each instrument to be heard in - and of course tailoring the stage monitors to give an appropriate mix to each performer, so they can hear themselves clearly.

Nice video and topic, thank you very much! In this era of modelling and pedalboards a lot of people don't know how to blend with a real band. What you didn't say in your video is that in a rock situation the guitar should be a little louder than the drums in order to be heard properly. But the biggest thing in loudness manipulation isn't just turning a knob or finding the right frequency but years of practise and playing with others, a certain technique and perception that is developed and can not be quantified in "what exactly did you do, what effect etc..." Also, the playing of the other members helps that as well. How they go "under" the guitar when needed or equal it. Rock 'n' roll is otherwise called guitar music and the guitar should lead in presence and attitude. All this equipment is really amazing but mostly to those who already have the experience and know how to make sound and take their place whatever the situation

I was waiting for the 3rd sample = stacking the BD and OD 🤘

Steve Vai's concert was so nice, his tone was so mid/low-mid rangy and could be heard even though loud drums, and also bass could be heard nicely. I like his pickups for sure.

I made this experience with a Marshall JCM900. This amp is always criticised in forums for being edgy and having a very biting sound. It is true if played without a band. In a band context this is for me one of the best Marshalls especially if you play with two guitars. It is cutting through the mix and sounding really nice. For those who want to tame it a little, they should use it with Celestion Lead 80 speakers. Dream sound. There is a big difference between what I call a living room sound and a stage sound within a band.

Great video here, sir! No bullshit. Not even 8 minutes but has everything in it.

super valuable info - people in bands don't usually have this kind of appreciation of EQ balance - more of a producer/engineer talent!

Awesome video! More like this, please! Including Bass. Also like to add, that it works WAY better when your own speaker isn't behind you. We used to have the bass amp behind me (on guitar) aiming towards the bass player and the Guitar amp behind the bass player pointing towards me on the guitar. We dropped stage volume (when we wanted to) a lot with this trick. You can physically move yourself OR point the speaker more or less towards yourself for your own mix levels.

That's why I put a parametric EQ last in chain and I cut lows below 300 and highs above 4800 Hz. Of course this is not an high order filter, so this means that e.g. 200 Hz and 6 kHz are attenuated but are still there. Now my sound can be heard in the mix without being harsh.

I was jamming with a bass player the other using my Marshall TSL and a LP. I've used this rig live before with no issue. This day we were using a drum machine I usually practice with through a PA and It was a room I'd never jammed in before. I must have nudged a few of the guitar dials when moving the amp. When I plugged in and started playing it sounded OK but a little fuzzy (I prefer more power tube distortion). Then we started playing and as you've seen, I got lost in the context. The amp is more than enough to get over bass and drums but in this environment needed some tweaking.

A lot of people are shocked just how loud live drums are, (and Mini-Moogs), so this is why you rely on a sound mixer out in the crowd in a live setting to balance the band across the space.

This was a great reminder and a cool video! Would be great to do a similar exercise with cleaner tones as well please? I feel like I dig in so much harder when playing clean live so I can hear myself but then lose a lot of my dynamics and feel! Could be something about good monitoring mixes as well to be fair.

Oh darn it, was hoping for a video about the relative perception of tone. You know like the guitar tone equivalent of body dysmorphia.

cool - will you make it also with effects? ( i found it alwasy hard to use this digital multieffect magicboxes - they all createted a muffy sound in a band context ) and with analogs : reverbs also muffy - delays better !

The Boss SD1 is one of the best pedals ever. I’ve been playing them since 1985. They work so well!

Great idea... Question, some music does sparkle. How do you cut through the mix with that. Thanks keep it real.... Fun Thanks Nathan

I switched from Marshall to Fender HRD a few years ago. Because the latter is a bit cleaner it cuts through the band mix better, but it's much harder to play rock solos. Something like a blues driver turns it more marshally and a bit more forgiving. I often use a green rhino in front so that gives me a mid range hump. But in general I keep my sound cleaner than I used to so I can be heard.

Nice. It would be also interesting to hear digital vs. analog setup working in a band.

First time that I've seen Julia play standing up 👍🥰

This is such a great example.

I understand that you want to sell pedals and stuff, so I get the treble discussion on different pedals. BUT actually, the most important thing in a situation like that is where you put the amp in the room and where you put yourself. If you have the amp near the floor and you stay right in front of it the sound is gonna hit you in the legs, not your ears. The reason the drummer could hear you always is because he is far away from the amp. So people, try to place your amp in a way that hits everybody's ears in the same way. Bring your amp up on a table or something, or if you cannot, at least put it far away enough so that the sound dooesn't hit you in the leg, but actually has the space to travel to your ears

The best guitar tone these days, in my opinion has Vogg from Decapitated. What a huge sound!!!

I use boss SD 1 and always heard. Wich also means all mistakes comes through 😊

I think a great example is the Fender Hot Rod. Horrible sound when the volume is low and you're at home. Shrill and thin. In a band at band volume it's a very good amp.

Speaker polacement and direction matters HUGELY as well. Midrange is already quite directional, thus unless the center of the speaker isn't aimed directly towards your ears, you most probably will not hear yourself well... and very rarely anyone else hears you either. Drummer has easier time hearing you in this instance because they're in a corner and walls are hard -> they hear your guitar bouncing off from 3 or 4 surfaces and combining, thus they get a huge boost to the åerceived volume. Band spaces are very difficult for this reason. In ear monitoring systems exists because of this reason.

Im wondering though how much is tone cancel etc and how much is down to room and venue issues. The corner in this room is the sweetspot as the drummer does hear the guitar and the different qualitys of each pedal. Surely also a band even in a small venue setting would close mic into the room system and bring someone to mix.

Great video but the speakers of the cab are also very very important. Alone, the Celestion v30 is a pain for hears at loud volume but in a band context it cut through the mix

I learned this the hard way. Not being able to hear myself. The more I went to concerts I realized the guitar basically had no bass and more highs. So I dialed my amp with less bass and more highs. I also started playing more on the bridge pickup and on solos an EQ pedal as a mid/volume boost solved all my problems.

Personally I would use both of these I’d use the blues driver as an always on for my clean tone then hit it when the ds1 when I need to climb over everyone

While it is true that some pedals affect your guitar's eq like a Tube Screamer which boosts mids, a Blues Driver that is more full range, or the SD1 which is more like the Tube Screamer in that it is also has a strong mid range and bite, implying that your pedal choice will make your guitar audible or not is a ridiculous simplification of what is in reality a very complex sonic event. The actual volume of your amp and how you set it's eq are even bigger factors than pedal X vs pedal Y. A basic rules that you have good strong mids and not too much low end in your guitar sound is a start. As was stated here a good bedroom tone with an electric guitar by itself is indeed a very different thing than a good tone to fit in a band mix. Guitarists when they play alone often enjoy a very scooped sound that has lots more low end than a guitar should really be making along with somewhat recessed mids and a bunch of sparkle on top. This generally isn't a good plan in a band mix. I noticed that what is probably your room mic seems to be in shot over towards the drums and behind and above the bass player. If this is the room mic we are hearing it really isn't proper to give an accurate picture of all the instruments and the sound in this room as it is far too close and almost behind the bass amp and way to the side of the guitar amp. The positioning of the room mic there would help prove your point more than offering a true sound of what is going on in the room as it is going to capture far more drums and less guitar because guitar amps are so beamy and directional. Honestly the biggest sound issue to most bands trying to hear themselves in a practice space situation is too small a room with too low a ceiling and too much volume which results in a ton of bad reflections that just muddles everything.

Nice to see a graveyard tee, one of the best bands for a long time

Lololoooool 😂 Julia ist ne bank 👏👏👏👏🥳 👌👍 und was ich mal feststellen konnte ist ...wenn die gitarre zu leise ist sollte man den regler am amp mit der aufschrift VOL gaaanz nach rechts drehen....wenns immer noch zu leise war hatte ich immer noch was in der hinterhand, ..der VOL regler war an meinem amp ein push pull 😅🌊🌊🚀

Okay. So, I have the BD2. Instead of putting a TS9, can I put a ten-band EQ? If yes, where should I put it in the chain signal? Also, you didn't mention what to dial in on your amp (or in any amp), in a band settting. That's also important. Lastlt, how about putting a boost pedal at the end of chain signal?

Great vid! I’d love to see the same but about bass tone.