Hey Steve, I’ve seen you and some others position your amp on its side on stage during a show. Is there a specific reason one might do that? Anything tone-wise? I’ve noticed you place a head on top of, say, your Vox on its side so might just be for convenience but I’ve seen others have something like a twin reverb on its side – nothing on top. Any advantage to the side amp shuffle – thanks!
Andy, Virginia
The Twin on its side which was typical of backline gigs for me foe a long time has a number of advantages;
you hear it better, it takes up less real estate, if you put the left side up (transformers down) it provides a cool surface for Germanium effects and keeps the hum field down by the floor.
The Vox cab vertical with the amp on top is the same minus the effects heat and noise stuff obviously.
Probably worth mentioning vertical 2×12 has a lot less coupling to the floor.
Most of the room/stage acoustic issues I deal with involve too much out of control bass, so less coupling is usually better.
Finally as a technical note, the dispersion of a column is opposite to its orientation: horizontal throws tall, vertical throws wide.
I’m kinda short, occasionally like to walk around the stage and still hear my guitar, so vertical 2×12 is more my thing : )