warwickhunt

I've been trying to get the idea of a tribute to Cheap Trick off the ground for years (who?). Absolutely it is a niche market but Cheap Trick have been MY band for almost 46 years and I had to create this tribute as they were never going to call me! Long story short (it started 12 years ago LOL), I finalised the line up of CHEAT TRICK this year with 3 other guys who were massive CT fans... and it fell apart again within 2 months due to issues with the guitarist. In stepped the guitarist from my other covers band who is a technically brilliant player and he got us off the ground, mainly due to the fact he could write out and read the main song structures and was ready for a debut gig in 4 weeks. Sadly he wasn't a fan of the band we were trying to recreate and after a year of waiting for him to actually cop the style of Rick Nielsen, we had to let him go as he just couldn't understand that a tribute should at least be playing in a similar style (he's more Paul Gilbert/Steve Vai), a 1000 notes a minute isn't Cheap Trick! This week, we organised to audition a guy who we knew to be a Cheap Trick fan... BOOM! He walked into the studio and proceeded to run through 30 songs with us, emulating Rick Nielsen's style and chord/note choice to a 'T'. Not only that but songs we hadn't even asked him to look at, that he'd never tried to play, were handled like he wrote them. I have to say that I left the studio space with a grin a mile wide and buzzing to be chasing gigs this year to get out and about. Has anyone else had that Eureka moment or conversely that dread that someone in the band just wasn't the right person and you can't progress?

Indeed but it is essentially 3 other musicians who are preprogramed to think that the only place for bass bins is in 'that' wrong place!

Cheers @Bill Fitzmaurice & @Phil Starr. I've been doing onstage mixing for small/medium venues for 40 years and I know a lot of the nuances of a fair few venues (shared dimensions). I've rarely used bass bins in the past but then again I generally ran my bass through backline and in 50% of venues didn't use it through the PA; more frequently I'm going ampless and 100% through PA (to monitor or IEM), with a bass bin (or 2) being supplied by another band member. For the last year I've tried to convince the band that 2 bass bins directly under the tops (15" RCF) isn't the best place but I'm battling 3 other opinions with all of their ingrained habits and it isn't easy. The worst situations are the 300-400 seater 'clubs' where subs with poles and tops are placed 7-10m apart at the front of the stage area. I'm trying to show that placing them together off to one side near a wall will improve matters but I don't want to scupper my best informed ideas by making things worse, hence the question re. how close is too close!

How close is adjacent? We sometimes have to set up in fairly tight spaces (inc long skinny rooms) and I've only just convinced our PA owner/operator/guitarist, to move the sub(s) from directly under the FOH main speakers... just to the rear and side of the drummer is sometimes the only position available that is near a rear wall or corner.

Part of this was down to the fact that the output control was such that you had most of the output delivered in the first 1/3 of travel (or less). The first time you used a TE, you'd go to turn up the output (after setting the input) and 'BOOM' before you were past #2 you had volume enough to scare the beejeesus out of other band members.

When you say 'talk between songs', I realise you mean in a quiet ambient kind of way, to overcome having plugs in your ears but you can also get a talkback foot switch which allows the use (band leader/main singer) to talk into their FOH mic and it will only be heard through the aux channels not FOH. We find it useful as we often change song selection on the fly to suit the mood... only downside is if someone in the band isn't using IEM, they then don't hear the instruction (though it could be equally fed to a monitor but you might get bleed through to the audience)!

I'm always sceptical when terms like 'full power' are used; is full power when the output gain/volume/dial is on max rotation and the input gain/volume/dial is turned sufficient to get a clip light indication or till it starts to distort? I know of clip lights that are set to come on before any clipping and some that vary colour (green, amber, red) depending on how close to clipping but would you only be full power if in the red, if not how can a musician at a gig/rehearsal tell when full power is achieved without taking multi-meter readings? Genuine question not any form of dig.

Single as per Delano (1 large pole per string 4 in total for a P pup). Double as per Fender et al (2 small poles per string 8 in total per P pup)

All watts are not equal, all drivers, all cabinets, all... well everything really! I had old passive Peavey BW 15" cabs (25 years ago) each a couple of 100 watts (used with 2x250w amp) and they performed faultlessly for 15 years. I've since used 1000-2000w 10/12/15" cabs and I'm not sure they are any better! Added to which I know PA guys who could make a band sound great with a couple of hundred watts of amps/cabs whereas another bloke could cripple a band with 2k watts of PA. In short, I don't think it is as easy as 'how many watts'!

My new Lionel...

NBD Sandberg Lionel.

I've been using strips of day-glo orange duct/gaffa tape as side 'dots' for ages... I'm thinking the glo in the dark stuff off ebay @ £4.10 inc delivery will be a luxury!

Caveat re 'righty tighty'... never take this as gospel; sometimes it is the reverse. Make an initial very small turn and check (or even keep the bass connected to a tuner to see if the pitch increases/decreases).

Personally I would/could do a video, upload and attach it to email blah blah blah but I'd be doing it as much as anything to cover my back. However, there'll be some folk that can't or would find that difficult to do and they shouldn't need to stress about returning a faulty item. I'm confident the distance buying doesn't require the onus to be on the buyer to prove it is faulty, so the seller appears to be imposing conditions that aren't required. Aside from anything else, if you really wanted to, you could easily make it appear you were pressing buttons etc even if you weren't; so I am unsure what the seller/company is gaining! For context I received a dehumidifier direct from a manufacturer last week and needed to return it as it ran very noisy. I filled in a returns form and they rang me to ask if I could do a video, I said that I'd already videoed it on my phone for my record but seeing as they were on the phone, they could have a listen... 3 days later they'd collected the unit and sent me a replacement. I could have faffed on forwarding the video but tbh I knew my rights and it was going back either way!

Going off that 1 pic it does look like it has been attacked with a blunt chisel as opposed to 'roadworn' which is a shame as Sandberg do great aged basses!

For goodness sake he plays Ibanze guitars!

This is my actual Tele, reviewed by the guitarist in my band. What he fails to mention is that I paid £99 for it.

I've worn ear plugs (inc custom moulds) for 20+ years so I've saved 'some' of my hearing but I know damage was done before that (slight tinnitus and less top end hearing in my left ear). IEM should further reduce on stage volumes/DB/pressure (where it is practicable to use them) but I still have to contend with loud acoustic drummers and situations where IEMing is not available!

Not on the same level of quality but I've gone from the KZ10 to Sennheiser IE100 which I concede are budget models but I much prefer the tone of the IE100 with the single DD as opposed to the 5 in the KZs. However, the main reasons for the change was that I could never get a comfortable fit and isolation with the KZs whereas the smaller, lighter, low profile IE100s just fit and seal much better for my ear shape.

Recurring shoulder injury means that anything over 9lb is, in my books, heavy! I have basses ranging from 5lb (Aria Sinsonidia/Hofner) to 8.5lb (Sandberg/Warwick) and I can do 2-3 sets no problem, as soon as a bass exceeds 9lb(ish), even with a neoprene/padded/wide stripe, my shoulder will ache over the next days.

I'm a simple lad, when it says 'no mid frequency' I take that to mean...

3 band EQ... no midrange?

Are you using independent power supplies or are they all running off one? My TC Plethora does strange things if I power if from a brick that is supplying power to other pedals, regardless of the fact that the supply is strong enough. I resorted to ensuring the Plethora (digital) had its own supply and no problems since. Not saying it is that but worth looking at.

Point taken. Possibly I'm just jaded with many of the pre/DI pedals available.