How many of you guitarists use the guitar volume knob less than 11?

[SexyGreyFox]

Heres the rub.
This friday we will be playing a gig in Crewe and we go through the in-house PA.
Once we've set the volumes at the beginning of the night they never alter but the mixing guy will swear blind that we are touching our gear.
The thing is that we NEVER alter volumes once we've setup.
Over the last three years of gigging there we have covered our amp knobs in tape so we can't access them and even gave him a pen and paper to write down our settings and if the sound alters he can jump on stage and see who turned up etc.
On the phone last night he said that he knew what we were doing which was turning our guitar volume knobs up. I tried to explain that the guitar volumes are on 11 all the time but he wasn't having any. I tried to explain that every guitarist who he mixes will have their volumes on 11.

Anyway, this begs the question, do any of you actually use the guitar volume less than 11?

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Is 11 louder than 10?

Its a Spinal Tap reference meaning you're always on full.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

My band is set to the one sound.
Neither the rhythmn guitarist or lead guitarist have any need to alter because its full tilt all night.
We don't do soft.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

do your guitarists ever alter the tone dave?

Never.
There is one part in Bad Company's Good Loving Gone bad where the rhythmn guitarist changes channel for 4 bars on the slow bit but thats it.
I've also just remembered that at the start of Down Down (Status Quo) he plays the quiet bit at the start and his volume is down to about 5 and then he cranks it up to full to start the riff.
Those are the only two bits where the sound changes - boring hey?
Actually it totally suits the music we play and believe me we have experimented with different tones but we decided many years ago to play it safe.

I've actually forgotten that over the years I have played guitar in many bands and many different genres of band and I've used my guitar volume a lot.
It just shows how my mind wanders after 7 years of not playing guitar in a band and of course old age setting in

 

[SexyGreyFox]

So, DMPoole, thanks to this forum you've recently been introduced to 'tuning down half-a-step' and 'volumes that go lower than 11' ... so I can be the one to introduce you to this wonderful thing?

What is it, will it go in my 8 track cartridge system?



Tell you what, that half tone has done wonders with my vocals.
It ain't easy doing 10 ACDC songs a night.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Both the guitarists in my band have amps which get louder as they warm up. After an hour of playing they will both be much louder than when we started without touching anything.

That could explain a lot of things.
Both of my guitarists use valve amps and they are turned on 1 minute before we hit the stage.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

EUREKA

Just got back from my gig and I explained to the band and the Entertainment/mixing guy about valves warming up. Of course we all then remembered and turned the amps on a good 30 mins before going on.
No complaints tonight