Awhile back, I posted a blog about mine and Justin’s trip to my amp tech to get a half power switch put into my Holland, so that I could drop it to 15 watts when necessary and hence be able to better enhance the worship music by not….. well…… let’s face it, if we’re honest we think our instrument is the most important and should therefore be the loudest. So, trying to get out of that, I got a half power switch.
(“But these go to 11.”)
And it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done. Because now, in almost every venue I play in, I run at 15 watts with the master volume dimed. And it’s a much purer sound with the master volume all the way up, even though the Holland has a very, very decent master volume control.
But a few nights ago, I’m playing at a church, and my monitor was so loud I couldn’t hear my amp……. eh, at least not as much as I like. I mean, I could hear it, but I want to hear it…… you know what I mean, some of you are smiling right now. So I go over to my amp as we’re rehearsing and flip the switch to 30 watts.
Oh, sweet mercy.
I haven’t played at 30 watts for a while. There are a few venues I play where I need more than the 15, but I have not played at them lately. And I have forgotten how sweet it is to push the speakers like that. I was in heaven for the last half of the song we were rehearsing (I think it was Brooke Fraser’s ‘Hosanna’). And then I realized that the rest of the band could now not hear. Well, they could hear me. And tempted as I was to say that hearing me was enough for them, I called back to the sound guy to turn my monitor’s volume in half, and then I sadly (and not without a few tears, I must add), walked back to my amp and flipped it back to 15 watts.
And that was the best decision at the moment to help the worship music the most……. I think……. there’s still some deranged part of my brain that says that 30 watts would have helped the worship more, no matter whether people could hear anything else or not.
Mmmm……. loudness.
Splendid.
Karl.
Guitar for Worship 