What do you do...

Duck Tape

Platinum Member
When a musician you play with is too loud, and you ask them politely to turn down and they respond by going out and buying bigger amps and playing even louder?
 
1) You (and the rest of the band) boot them...assuming it's a full band.
2) You leave...probably not the best situation.
3) Force everyone to with strings/keys to go direct through a PA (and use IEMs) so the levels can be mixed by someone else...if you can't get a dedicated sound person, at a minimum, teach a spouse or a good friend the basics, although the sound may actually suffer more without an experienced person on the mix.

But seriously, if this is a band situation, it may take everyone to have a talk with them and explain that there are other ways for them to "hear themselves" better than to just apply more volume. There are amplifier stands that angle slightly upward that work great.

Before our band started running everyone direct to the mixer, our bass player could never hear himself because of where the bass amp was in relation to him. But to me, I could feel his bass, so it's all a matter of positioning.
 
When a musician you play with is too loud, and you ask them politely to turn down and they respond by going out and buying bigger amps and playing even louder?
This was a problem for me for a while, the way I dealt with it was to passively comment on the fact that new, amateur musicians are always too loud because they’re excited about the volume but the novelty will eventually wear off.. Worked a treat.
 
Exit that project.
Clearly a person like that doesn't have the maturity level I need to have a successful working relationship. So I'd be gone.
 
Get a good set of ear plugs first off.

Then get rid of them entirely. There's no need for anyone to be using an amp more than 30w on stage it just kills everything and everyone and nobody likes a volume war.

PAs have come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years in terms of weight reduction, power and affordability so that should be taking the volume away from the stage so you can get a good mix out front.

You'll have the last laugh anyway, the idiots back will go soon and lugging big heavy gear gets tiresome real quick!
 
Bring a massive pa for your drums and turn it up so loud that said musician can’t even hear them selves think. And when I say loud, turning the pa to 11 isn’t enough, you need to turn it up to at least 13.
 
When a musician you play with is too loud, and you ask them politely to turn down and they respond by going out and buying bigger amps and playing even louder?

Seriously though, if you enjoy the music, get a little mobile wired IEM system: Soundboard, IEM's with extension, and maybe a mic or two to monitor. Heck, you may only need earplugs.

Keep playing if you enjoy it. Quit if you don't. Life is short.
 
I'm a bit sneaky at this point in musical life.. I wouldn't have said anything in the first place, if it was really too loud I'd have played quieter to make it stand out - and someone else would have told them to turn down :)
Yes I am doing this at times. They don’t seem to notice but I think others might.
 
........ you ask them politely to turn down and they respond by going out and buying bigger amps and playing even louder?
Dude sounds like a grade A punter, and I don't have time for chuckleheads like that, anymore. I'd never work with him again.
 
I had a guitar player in my band on cruise ships that always played too loud, it became such a problem the music director told me this had to be dealt with. After trying numerous times to get him to turn down with no luck I asked the music director to talk with him. When confronted by our boss the guitarist became very emotional with his eyes welling up in tears saying playing loud was "His Style" and he couldn't perform if he had to actually control his volume. Needless to say that didn't sit well with the music MD who asked me what was wrong with this guy.

After this the guitarist told me to resign our contract and get booked on a ship that would let him play at his normal volume, I ended up just letting him go. To this day he still plays super loud.
 
Happened in one of my bands. Guitarist was repeatedly told to turn down. He was so loud, the singer couldn't hear himself and it was throwing him off key at shows. Guitarist argued he wasn't loud (he was deaf, so he didn't believe us). The guitarist was fired.
 
this is every metal band I have been in..when i play bass, I justy sneak over and turn their main volume back down

when we got to gigs, I would catch the sound guy and say "you are probably going to have to tell our guit player to turn down their stage volume tonight..." <--planting seeds. And sure enough, most gigs, they had to turn down their stage volume. I would also have "respected members of the community" make comments after shows like "man, all I could hear tonight was your amp...."
 
When I played with greener players the stage volume was through the roof.
Good players should be able to perform at a reasonable level.

A local bar manager has a stiffy for jumping on stage during a song to get in the guitarist's face about his/her volume. There's a way to do that properly. He's been fortunate that nobody has thrown him to the floor thinking he's just some drunken a-hole getting on stage.
 
I am at the point where I'll get mad at the offender and let them have it verbally. I just don't care anymore. It makes ME feel better to express my opinion, which is inconsiderate people ticks me off. They do have it coming.

Someone has to not be afraid of these people. I'm happy to do that.
 
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