For the longest time, I have kept my amplifier heads and pedalboards near my studio's workstation area, and put the cabinets either in a recording booth (my old studio) or a nook at the far end of my current studio, or simply in the storage room of my studio, running long speaker cables wherever they needed to go. This practice allowed me to work the recording gear with the guitar on my lap, adjust amp and pedals from my workstation, but put the speaker cabinet where it sounded best, and out of the way of the rest of my workflow.
If you've seen Pete Thorn's review videos, you'll see that his amp heads are on nearby shelves, and he keeps his cabs either in the back of his room or in a closet. Same concept I've employed in my place.
I've also managed to convince myself, with a little advice from an amp designer I know, that it's better for the head in the long run not to sit on the cab and absorb the vibrations of the speakers. This makes sense.
On the other hand, the iPad my kids gave me for my birthday has changed my workflow. The Logic Remote app for it is so comprehensive, and so well done, that I can now sit near the cab, operate Logic's recording modes with the Remote, and not be tied to the workstation area. I can put the head on the cab, where it takes up the least studio space, put my pedalboard by both, hit "record" and go. I have to say that having everything in one place does feel pretty good. And the studio looks great for clients. Plus, no 30 foot cable runs from heads to cabs. No tripping over the pedalboard when I'm going back to adjust a mic for a singer, or record acoustic instruments.
So...the only thing holding me back from this arrangement is that I can't get the idea that I'm somehow contributing to the demise of my amps by sitting them on speaker cabinets out of my head. This, despite the obvious fact that if my amps last another ten years they might just outlive me, and we all have seen oodles of vintage amps that spent their lives on top of, or even inside, speaker cabinets, that are doing just fine 50 years later, thank you very much.
It is quite clear that the main reason for not putting heads on top of cabs is my own neurotic thinking. But maybe my neurotic thinking is actually the right thinking. What does the hive collective think?
If you've seen Pete Thorn's review videos, you'll see that his amp heads are on nearby shelves, and he keeps his cabs either in the back of his room or in a closet. Same concept I've employed in my place.
I've also managed to convince myself, with a little advice from an amp designer I know, that it's better for the head in the long run not to sit on the cab and absorb the vibrations of the speakers. This makes sense.
On the other hand, the iPad my kids gave me for my birthday has changed my workflow. The Logic Remote app for it is so comprehensive, and so well done, that I can now sit near the cab, operate Logic's recording modes with the Remote, and not be tied to the workstation area. I can put the head on the cab, where it takes up the least studio space, put my pedalboard by both, hit "record" and go. I have to say that having everything in one place does feel pretty good. And the studio looks great for clients. Plus, no 30 foot cable runs from heads to cabs. No tripping over the pedalboard when I'm going back to adjust a mic for a singer, or record acoustic instruments.
So...the only thing holding me back from this arrangement is that I can't get the idea that I'm somehow contributing to the demise of my amps by sitting them on speaker cabinets out of my head. This, despite the obvious fact that if my amps last another ten years they might just outlive me, and we all have seen oodles of vintage amps that spent their lives on top of, or even inside, speaker cabinets, that are doing just fine 50 years later, thank you very much.
It is quite clear that the main reason for not putting heads on top of cabs is my own neurotic thinking. But maybe my neurotic thinking is actually the right thinking. What does the hive collective think?