I recall years ago before bar bands habitually miked amps and drums.

When the guitarist used an open back super reverb with four 10" speakers, he was smokin too loud on stage but inaudible past the dance floor.

When he used a closed-back amp with 12's (can't recall the brand), he was barely audible on stage but he'd be killing people way in the back of the room.

Small speakers and open backs seem to get louder on stage. Bigger speakers or closed backs seem to project better.

If you can stand to run the amp pretty quiet, just for tone, and get most of the room coverage from a mic in the PA, maybe you would get more predictable coverage. There might be hot spots or dead spots in the room where your PA speakers don't cover evenly, but at least the guitar balance would be about the same as the rest of your mix, if most of the volume comes from the PA.


James Chandler Jr
http://www.errnum.com/