Gigging: wedges or "upright" cabs?

    I have a powered toaster on the way. My goal is to use this for live gigging. I will go back and forth between smaller venues where at times its hard to even get an amp behind me (6 people on stage)...to larger venues where a 4x12 and Marshall head had more than enough room. I'm wondering if those of you who gig these things have found wedges in front of you to be easier to hear or if you still prefer having a cab behind you?


    Granted...this is all without first trying the powered Kemper with my usual gigging cab (2x12 with Scholz Sugarcone and CL80) to see how that works. But my thinking is that I may like a passive FRFR wedge in front of me (next to my vocal monitor) so I can hear myself. Larger stages though I'm afraid that it wont disperse enough to hear as I move around the stage. (no in ears yet!).


    Also, any recommendations on good but reasonably priced passive wedges or cabs?

    Put it this way, I've been using a Yamaha DXR15 powered monitor (I use the unpowered version of the KPA). I use this monitor a small gigs in my cover band that plays in front of a couple hundred people each weekend, and also used the same setup to play a festival in front of just under 10,000 people (and it was MORE) than loud enough (there's a video of it somewhere in my past posts on this forum). Believe me, you don't "need" 4x12 cabs anymore. The days of 4x12 cabs have been past by better technology. Like @Ingolf said, - good FRFR monitor will spread the sound better than a 4x12. Not to mention it'll take up less room, is easier to transport, provides a more accurate representation of what the guitar sounds like out front, and you can use it in a monitor position to shoot the sound at your ears, rather than a 4x12 cab, which shoots the sound at the back of your knee caps. Play your 4x12 cab in your normal position, and then lean down and put your head next to the speaker and hear how much different (and most likely, worse) your sound really is. This doesn't happen as much with the KPA through a good monitor. I love not having cabs on stage with me anymore. It gives me more room to move around.

    Sounds like i'm on the right path thinking "wedge" in stead of "straight cab".


    That DXR15 isnt considered a FRFR speaker is it? I'll be very curious to know how well my old Yamaha 15" wedges sound.

    I went with 2 mission gemini 1P cabs for live. Smaller footprint and better dispersion than a traditional 4x12. I've also used it as a wedge with a slanted combo stand.


    I'm happy with my DXR10 in front of me and sometimes with an additional Monitor-wedge for my vocals.
    Just only for our Drummer, who always wanted the guitarsound right beside him, I used an additional small passive wedge with a Guitar-Speaker in it (driven by the KPA's power-stage).


    Since we are just considering to shift to IEM, this constellation soon will be history.


    Stage volume, stage-Sound and by this the FoH-Sound - so also the audience - will profit by this.

    I went through a painful trial-and-error period with my former band trying to find the right way to make sure I could hear myself, yet allow the entire stage wash to be relatively low. (we're all old... ;) ) Generally speaking, what I found was that no matter where I set the cabinet behind me (in this case, a Tech 21 Power Engine), in order for me to hear myself clearly it was too loud for the rest of the stage. I added an Alto TS210 wedge that I put on the floor either in front or slightly off to the side if there is a FOH monitor, and while there was some grumbling, it ultimately did the trick. Note, we almost always played with a competent FOH engineer, but often the bass player and I had to share a monitor and this allowed me to separate my guitar from that mix making it less muddy. Plus, since we both sang, it allowed our voices to come through more clearly.


    In a perfect world, you should be able to get an engineer to give you a good mix and not necessarily need your own speakers but we don't live in a perfect world, so you may need to experiment. Given the above answers and my own experience, I think you are better off getting a wedge according to your budget. The Alto TS210 is just fine for me, but if you can afford it, I think there are better FRFR options as mentioned.

    So one thing I'm thinking about is if I went with a wedge, is it possible to have 2 wedges for larger setups with my "powered" toaster? Just thinking that I coudl put one wedge in front of me and one to the side or behind me for larger stages. But I believe the powered kemper has only 1 powered output. Is it possible to daisy chain 2 8 ohm speakers for 16 ohm load? Or woudl I want to buy 1 powered monitor (like that Alto TS210) and use a powered output for one wedge and an unpowered output for the other?

    Yes - You could do it either way.


    If you use two unpowered 8 ohm wedges, and want a 16 ohm load, get a "series wiring" one-input, two-output speaker cable adapter. Using a parallel cable run from one speaker to the other would give you a 4 ohm load.


    One possible advantage to using a powered speaker would be semi-independent volume control of the two speakers (you could use the input control of the powered speaker to turn it up or down, compared to the unpowered monitor.)