I could hear my bass, yay! Great tone..I couldn't hear anything else

[Jigster]

really frustrated tonight - just gigged at a pub venue, proper venue as in has had bands on for years - full band and vocal pa and sound guy all in etc - (but only one monitor which ain't good!!)

but in spite of the scarcity of fold back we did a great sound check, cud hear drums, guitar, bass all as one - but, and this has been the case every time we've played there, the actual gig sound never matches the soundcheck, ie. the nuances evaporate, suddenly the drums are a pale thud and all i can hear is bass and no guitar -

so we're up there, first song, and i can't hear anything apart from me singing and this rich lush bass sound from my Berg cab and LM head, which is great, but suddenly it's like i'm playing in a bubble: where has the guitar gone, why can't i feel the drums, why do i feel like the last man alive!!? and there's no point asking the sound guy to give me more of this or that in the monitors cos there's only one!!! and it's bang centre of the stage

it was busy in there, but not heaving, so altho a sound check in an empty room will differ to a room filled with punters two hours later, i'm still mystified at how it can sound so good and then be NOTHING like it when it comes to the gig

anyways up, anyone else, get that?

[casapete]

All the time - empty room soundchecks are nearly a waste of time for us, often we just line check
everything (to make sure of no nasty surprises) and then sort it out 'on the fly'.
A pain, but so much time saved on soundchecks that have no relevance to later in the evening etc.

[bassicinstinct]

Every gig.

Fact of life.

Q.E.D.

[Cat Burrito]

Very common when they don't have both front of house and onstage sound, i.e. the pub venues etc. The obvious thing to do is to communicate with the soundman and turn down your amp. I agree with casapete on empty room soundchecks. Line checks are fine but musicians need to be adaptable to the changes and adjust volumes (up or down) accordingly or move angles of cabs.

[OldGit]

Were you listening to ear mashing music between soundcheck and playing? Maybe your ears lost the top end.
Earplugs when off stage may be the answer.

[discreet]

Never soundcheck and never rehearse. Then take some acid an hour before the gig. Sorted!

[Jigster]

[quote name='discreet' post='858258' date='Jun 5 2010, 03:37 PM']Never soundcheck and never rehearse. Then take some acid an hour before the gig. Sorted![/quote]

[NAS]

All the time.

Unless you've got an ace sound person "in the house" or you use something like this:

[url="http://www.dv247.com/news/Bose%20L1%20Model%201%20Model%20II%20Compact/132338"]Bose L1 Behind Band P.A.[/url]

don't know how you solve the stage sound / house sound and the empty house / full house issues.

There must be some experts out there somewhere?