Usually the bands will have 2 cabs in a stack for example but turn one of them off otherwise it would be WAY too loud, even for them.

You can get signal splitters to split the guitar signal to multiple outputs. These are usually quite specialised pieces of hardware, but if you're a million pound rockstar with 8 stacks then its probably worth it.

If you have different amps, it combines the tonalities of all the different amps into one signal to make it stand out much more. If they are the same amp then its either for show (like a massive outdoor festival where only the band and the front 5 rows would be able to hear them anyway) or to increase volume for a smaller gig.

 

Black Label Society - Suicide Messiah?



I don't have anything constructive to say about multiple amp heads, I just wanted to guess the song.

 

I went to see Whitesnake last night and there was 14 Marshall cabs and 7 vintage anniversary heads on stage in total XD

I think it's mostly for show to be honest, and maybe even for practicality if one should blow; there's a backup right there already set up. I think the sound would have been just as big if the guitarists only had 2 cabs each.

 

hehe think I only payed £24 :S Definately wasn't £50!

Off to see Satch in about 2 weeks

 

not sure about the ampheads, something to do with on head being a master and the rest feeding off its preamp.

found an example.. Tony Iommi's 2001 rig, which i must say is utterly ridiculous. still 16 Laney cabs would be loooooud!

http://guitargeek.com/rigview/476/

 

IIRC when you get past two stacks it makes no difference to your sound (unless they're EQ'd differently of course!)

Rick Parfitt from Status Quo famously played in front of a wall of hollow marshalls while a solitary Vox AC-30 was sat behind them actually processing his guitar signal.

Edit: oh yeah, Zakk Wylde has a sponsorship deal with Marshall - you can work out the rest yourself

 

You must really hate me sometimes
seen the original Whitesnake about 5 times and also saw Coverdale when he first joined Deep Purple.
Bonus points for who can tell me where the name Whitesnake comes from?

And onto the thread -
He's probably using two stacks and the others are there for show but ready to be plugged in just in case.
I know in the old days there were 4 sockets on the front of a Marshall and you could link one amp to another.

 

I may be wrong but i'm sure i read somewhere that slash uses one head for cleans and the other for dirty and just switches between the two - any more than two i don't know - symmetry??

 

Makes sense.

I went to see a band saturday night and the lead guitarist was going through a proper Marshall JCM800 Stack and I thought I was about to hear a proper guitar sound.
He came on and I can honestly say it was one of the worst guitar sounds I've ever heard coming from a Gibson Les Paul/Marshall Stack combination.
Lets face it - you should be able to just plug in and get a great sound.
I was recognised and asked to get up and do one and it was only then that I saw he was going through a Korg A5 multi effects pedal
At the end of the gig they thanked me for doing a couple and I said I admired his stack to which he replied that he was getting a crap sound.
I told him to ditch the pedal but he didn't take it too well.

 

You've got your life ahead of you and with the talent you've already got you should go a lot further.

Anyway, the answer to the above question Where did the name Whitesnake come from?
Coverdale named the band after his penis

 

My mate did some work for Marshall a few years back and they told him they make the hollow cabs for bands stage setups.

That said, I saw Metallica do that special guest slot on the 2nd stage at Download a few years back and they wheeled out pretty big stacks for both guitars and also bass. They all appeared to be on and plugged in but obviously only one or two were mic'd up. I suppose when you've got that many amps and cabs you don't need to crank them so much so you're not over pushing them.
In gigs of that size, the audience hears the music through the PA anyway.

 

The musicians themselves need to hear what they're playing, although they have monitors they still really need to actually hear themselves.. that's often why there's a staack of Marshalls (pun intended) onstage but not all mic'ed up.

 

Sorry, I didn't explain myself properly. Obviously the musicians need to hear themselves (I play guitar in a band so I understand this). I was just stating my experiences of the "do they/don't they use all those cab's?" argument.