Acoustic Playing Sweet Spots near the Wall

[David Powell]

I've only had one gig so far where I could get away with no amp, and as soon as that place turned on the AC and these fans that sound like jet engines, we had to amp everything in that room. Before that we had just the electric guitar amped (necessary of course). I think my bass is louder than most because I've played next to a loud grand piano with several dreadnought style guitars, a mandolin, as well as a hand played dumbek, and could still be easily heard. In another situation, we were trying to record with two acoustic guitars using a large diaphram condenser mic. There was no where in the room where the mic could be placed where the bass was not practically burying those guitars. So I took mercy on them and just played a lot softer. Truly though, I'm mostly addressing something that is not about ensemble playing per se.

The "wall proximity effect" is something I've noticed mostly when playing alone at home and in a few other places where I was playing acoustically and the space was tight enough that I was right at the wall or just a few feet away.

I can completely identify with the beard pinching incident, too. I sometimes put my ear on the neck, the scroll, to hear my pitch. It's an awful thing to not be able to hear yourself. Something that is a very cool battery free device is that Dragonfly stethoscope amp. I had one of those on the back of my DB and it is nearly deafening. If there is a situation where you need a monitor but can't use an amp, that thing would be the ticket. But I don't want to change the topic, so back to the "off the wall" experiences.....