Which way is your amp facing?

Lapyang

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I just started venturing into the realm of using an amp, recently bought a Yamaha THR5A. It opens up a whole new world of sounds!

I am just wondering what our fellow UU members are doing: what you are playing/practicing alone without an audience, do you face the amp away or toward yourself?

I usually play for myself and the two dogs are by my side. My wife just does her things and walk by once in a while, sometimes humming whatever I am playing.
 
Hi Lapyang, first of all, if the two dogs are by your side and have not run away yelping, that's definitely a good sign! (Just kidding!)
I have had pretty good luck (assuming that I'm sitting down when I play) placing my amp on the floor just to my right, facing the same direction that I'm facing (i.e., toward the audience, if there was one). I try not to place it too far "forward" (out in front of me), because then I can't hear it well enough to have a good feel for how I'm doing. But on the other hand, I don't like to place it too far "rearward" (behind me), because I actually feel more confident if I'm NOT hearing every single tiny detail (yes, I know that sounds a little strange!). So, I try to place the amp so that its "face" would be just about exactly even with my own face, if both the amp and I were sitting at an imaginary "starting line" in a race, for instance. That allows me to hear what I'm doing, but not to hear it in such great detail that I get nervous or shy about plowing ahead with the song at hand. Again, this is just my personal preference, and I'm certain you'll find other points of view expressed here!
 
Glad you bought the little Yamaha, great amp for the money and very versatile, love mine. It does not have a ton of volume so if I line up with it as Bill above suggested it needs to be cranked up to maximum to really hear it. I keep the amp on a dining room chair along a wall, it is always ready for me to just sit down plug and play. Thats the beauty of these small amps, they take so little space. I sit down perpendicular to the amp so it is off my left side pointing at the left side of my body.

Bigger amps are on the floor using Bills starting line analogy or sometimes 10 feet away angling towards me on a 45 degree. They are not pointing straight at me, that can cause feedback with acoustic instruments .
 
I have all my amps and equipment set up in a corner of the basement. It is not an elaborate setup. I have a room with a bar down there that also serves as a practice area, and I've been known to entertain there on occasion. Because I'm usually practicing my playlist and working out how that is going to go, I set it up as if there was a whole audience at the other end of the room. I have a decibel meter on my tablet that has a readout that fills the whole screen. I can see it all the way across the room. I set it up on a table where I imagine my audience. I watch the meter while I play and adjust accordingly, trying to balance my singing and my ukulele so that neither overpowers the other with a small mixer. By doing that I get pretty good at hearing the balance. So, that's what I do.
 
I sit at my desk when I practice the bass uke using a small Blackstar Fly 3 Bass rig that faces me. I had it to my right next to my computer external speaker and I used a cable to plugin, but it kept getting under the wheels of my chair, so yesterday I received a small wireless kit, moved the amp to my left behind my iPad Pro 12.9" (I'm completely paperless for the last few years) and now I'm unencumbered.


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 3 acoustic bass ukes, 8 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

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Glad you bought the little Yamaha, great amp for the money and very versatile, love mine. It does not have a ton of volume so if I line up with it as Bill above suggested it needs to be cranked up to maximum to really hear it. I keep the amp on a dining room chair along a wall, it is always ready for me to just sit down plug and play. Thats the beauty of these small amps, they take so little space. I sit down perpendicular to the amp so it is off my left side pointing at the left side of my body.

Bigger amps are on the floor using Bills starting line analogy or sometimes 10 feet away angling towards me on a 45 degree. They are not pointing straight at me, that can cause feedback with acoustic instruments .

Have the same amp and do the same as Dave has suggested. When I’ve used it outdoors, at a gig, I have it behind me and off to the side. I don’t use it much outdoors now that I have a louder Roland AC33.
 
My amp is a simple one with an open back to it so you can see the back of the speaker, and store cables and what not in the void there. I carefully place it with the back to the wall so our cat can't jump in and nibble the electronics.
 
I suggest trying out all sorts of different positioning with the amp. It will sound different to you depending on which direction it faces. It will also sound different if you have it sitting on a hard floor vs. carpet....or up on a shelf or stand vs. the floor. There are lots of possibilities. Have fun! :)
 
The Yamaha is a personal practice home amplifier. You are the audience really so place it on a desk and point the speakers in your direction. That is the best sound and you really need to hear it at its best. Do not turn the input volume all the way up as it will cause the amp to distort. In fact try not to have any of the volume settings anywhere near full. The amp is not designed to be loud. It is designed to sound great at normal home listening volume .....Like a tv or hifi. Mike
 
Good points, Mike, and I must apologize, as I wrote my above response to be in the context of an actual "gig", rather than strictly in a practice setting. In the latter context, I'm more likely to just sit in a random chair and face the amp toward me, at low volume. I suppose there's a good argument for configuring a practice session in the same way you'd configure an actual gig (though nowadays the only gig I do is a super-small coffee shop where no amplification is used at all!).
 
Thanks everybody for your input. I will try out different ways, as long as my wife doesn't think I am making too much noise.
 
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