Backwards amp on stage

Brooks Montgomery · From: Idaho, USA

I saw a hot young blues guitarist the other night at Antoineâ€™s in Austin: Brad Stivers. Really impressive to say the least. He was playing thru a Grammatico Custom Twin amp. It was set up backwards behind him, and micâ€™d. He sounded fantastic. Is this ever done with any of you on steel guitar?
I asked him about it and he said it works great for him, gets rid of the â€˜in your faceâ€™ highs.
Named somebody else that taught him to do it, whoâ€™s name escapes me.
Brad was all tone and a young man to keep an eye on if you like blues guitar. Young Canadian woman, Lindsay Beaver, on drums was also real tight.
Anyhow, interesting set up of his amp.
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

That's a trick from Roy Buchanan, who did it often. I do it sometimes, probably more for Tele than steel, mic'd from the back which is facing forward. Try a Tele into a Vibrolux Reverb like this, it is a unique sound. I also sometimes set an amp in front with the speaker pointed towards me, which is generally just to reduce the volume coming off the stage while still being able to hear myself; in most cases, front-of-house PA would be essentially entirely controlling the out-front sound.

The sound coming out of the back of the amp is different than coming out of the front; of course, it tends not to be as loud, which is probably the main reason some players do it.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Speaking of Roy Buchanan... I saw him play back in the early 70s, and he had his Fender amp facing backwards on a chair. I was surprised by that at the time but now I understand why he did that. It was at a small club in CT and the room was almost empty, maybe about 50 people there. He had a small band, only four pieces, as I recall, or maybe just three. Sounded awesome though!
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Chris Boyd · From: Leonia,N.J./Charlestown,R.I.

I saw Roy do that back in the early 70's at the Shaboo Inn in Mansfield,Ct. I've done it too with 6 strings with great results...never tried it for pedal steel..
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Yeah, I saw him do it pretty often. Good shot of the backwards silverface amp on Austin City Limits back when - 11/15/1976 - https://youtu.be/v4e2VgycfSw?t=1158

Brooks Montgomery · From: Idaho, USA

Dave, great hi-vis quality YouTube vid of Roy. Man he looked young in 76.
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Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I filled in one weekend on bass for a band. The bass player left his amp there for me to use. It was a Kustom with the two 12" stacked speakers and ported in front and closed in the back. He had it sitting a couple of inches from the wall with the speakers facing the wall. I thought it had better dispersion, although I never tried it with my steel amps.

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

I wish I'd tried all this when I was a recording engineer, but my brief was always to be quick and simple, so there wasn't much time for experiment.

What I did know however was that the French horn faces backwards for a reason, and the sound the listener expects has a veiled quality which is entirely reflected except for a little which diffuses round the edge of the bell. In a situation where it has to be close-mic'd for separation (e.g. if there's a strong rhythm section) instead of mic'ing it from behind (which sounds unrecognisably vile) I used a figure-8 pattern mic on a table stand pointing up at the edge of the bell and down at the floor. That way the dead area of the mic was pointing at everything else in the room and I got a proper orchestral horn sound with hardly any spill.

The steel has something in common which the horn - that distant quality which suits a lot of songs, especially the slower ones. I think if your venue has an acoustic you can exploit by bouncing your sound around physically instead of relying totally on electronics you should give it a try Smile

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Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

Keep in mind that Roy Buchanan dimed his amp.

Godfrey Arthur · From: 3rd Rock

We used to do that back in the 60's when we played kid parties to keep the volume down.

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Robert Parent · From: Gillette, WY

We use to do that as well to keep from blasting those enjoying dinner and conversation. I think several of the super clubs would hire us over other bands as we tried to make the customer happy.

Robert

Scott Denniston · From: Hahns Peak, Colorado, USA

I played a night with a five piece acoustic band with a pa. After I set up I could tell two of them really had their "what ifs" about having the steel walk all over them. They even started arguing between them with one guy saying "ok two songs and if I say it doesn't work he's gone!" This was a pretty smallish bar so I turned my amp towards the wall.Very close to the wall. That guy ended up loving it and wanting me to play with them the next week and give him lessons too. (the operative word being "give").

John De Maille · From: On a Mountain in Upstate Halcottsville, N.Y.

Not steel related, but, in the early 70's I was in a very typical R&R band. We had a deal with the Kustom Amp company to showcase their amps. The whole band used them in excess. We were very, very loud, but, suited for large venues. When we played bars or small clubs we always faced our amps toward the rear, away from the front. One of our roadies thought of the idea. I was happy about it because my ears didn't ring for an hour or so after the show. Back then, playing loud and going big was the thing to do. Nobody thought or cared about later ear damage. The crowds never cared either. They were either stoned or drunk, so.... But, reversing the amps made a big difference. And, in the terms of the day, it gave an Etherial Sound to our music.
I've never had a negative volume problem with the steel. The bands I play in today don't use the same volumes at all. Half the gigs are stage miked anyway, so, there's no need to blast the music.

Greg Lambert · From: Illinois, USA

I did this , to show the drummer how difficult it was to hear the rest of the band when one instrument dominated the show. ie drummer. It didnt work , he just played even louder. But he did eventually get his ticket to sit in the audience and not the stage.

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