Monitor question

[Slartibartfarst42]

At the moment our band has a very limited PA system so there are times when it's not always easy to hear myself on stage. However, having this new Carl Martin Quattro got me thinking..... It has a dual mono output and at the moment I just use one of them to go to my own amp's effects return but presumably I could use the other one to go to a small amp that I could use as a monitor. I'm guessing it couldn't just be any old amp that doesn't have an effects loop because then it would be going through another preamp or does that not matter if I'm just using it for monitoring purposes? Any ideas on what I could use that I could pick up cheaply secondhand?

[richard]

What sort of venues are you playing ? I presume you're playing through your 60 watt Blackstar ? I'm having trouble understanding why you can't hear yourself.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Yes, it's through the Blackstar. The amp is plenty loud enough but it's a case of clearly hearing what I'm doing within the context of the band, especially if I move around the stage. We did a gig a while back where we could use the house PA and it was fantastic. We all had our own monitor and I just asked the woman doing the sound to increase how much of myself I was hearing through my monitor until I was happy. Normally we don't have that luxury. Ideally, having a full set of individual wedge monitors would be great or IEM but we don't have the money for that so as the Quattro has dual mono outputs, I wondered if I could use that to help me hear myself in the mix a bit better without it affecting the sound out front.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

I'm sure you could get a way for it to work. I'm not the person to help figure it out though!

I quickly realized in my first few gigs that you're basically screwed when it comes to you hearing yourself if you don't drop some good coin for personal monitoring. Just gotta rely on the muscle memory.

[HTH AMPS]

I find that its not so much an issue of the amp not being able to BE loud enough at gigs, its more that to get a good blend out front the amp isn't loud enough.  I've been using a monitor with guitar fed back at me for around a year now and its a much better system.  Loud amps are great, but it kills any chance of a balanced mix.  If you're using mostly backline for the FOH sound and you get asked to knock the volume down, its much harder to do this than if you're relying on the PA for the sound out front.  It makes for a clearer sound on stage too as you can hear each other.

[Twinfan]

If you move around stage a lot, and you're playing big venues, then in-ear monitors is probably the best way to go.  If you're only playing small clubs, then it's probably not worth going down that route.

It may be that your tone isn't right in the context bad too - have tried using more upper mids/presence and less gain so that you cut through better?