warwickhunt

Cheat Trick a tribute to... Cheap Trick Do you have to be a fan of the original artist, or maybe you become one? A fan since about '79. Everyone in the tribute band either has as much passion for them as I do or knows most if not all of the important stuff. How important is it to be visually/musically identical? How much latitude are you allowed? Visually we dress like them (various periods to choose from) and sound as alike as limitations allow (sorry but finding a vocalist who can carry it off perfectly is near impossible). I'm personally struggling with the whole 12 string bass thing but finding 'work around' ways to achieve the sound and look and the guitarist does own 2 or 5 neck guitars. Do you ‘get into character’ or is it just a gig? Character all the way. Does it feel musically limiting, or is it fulfilling your needs? (Maybe you have a side band?) Musically satisfying and stimulating and fulfills a need/desire I've not had from any other band in 45 years... if I could be in any band in the world during my life it would have been Cheap Trick. Do you have any qualms about tributes ‘stifling original music’? No. I can't write material as good as they did (or any other decent band) but why can't I enjoy the next best thing of playing those songs and giving fans the chance to hear the songs played live with as much passion as the original might. I leave writing to those that can. Have you ever met or been seen by a member of the ‘originals’? What did they say? No. What is the overriding thing being in a tribute act has taught you? Discipline to learn the songs in detail. I've also never realised how much Tom Petersson influenced nuances of my own playing style. Oh and playing 12 string bass for 2 hours is a massive achievement. Having done it once, would you do it again? If so, would the musical angle be very different? There's probably no other band who I admire (musically) as much as them and I think I'd get bored playing 90-120 minutes of another band's catalogue. http://www.cheattrick.co.uk/

I'm pleased to see the older RCF310 still gets some love. I've just bought four of them... for the same price as I sold a pair of 8" Headrush and one ALTO TS310, which I initially bought to get the max output for minimum weight... didn't really work like that though. The RCF310 are great as vocal PA for my duo and acoustic trio (inc as monitors) and a step above the FRFR for that application, with the added bonus I now have 4 vocal monitors for my Cheap Trick tribute band; result!

Firstly, neither amp will damage your cab (caveat - you aren't a fool with how you use it). All things being equal between the amps (valve/SS/EQ centres/'sound'), you need to ask what benefit could the 200w have over the 500w? Likely answer is none. However, the 500w gives you more headroom and future-proofs upgrades and changes in circumstance. One thing you didn't mention is price; watts are very cheap today, so I'm assuming they aren't that different in cost.

Antoria.

Discount Sandberg and Maruszczyk at your peril. Both can be had active or passive (Sandberg can be switched) and they are generally sowell put together you can buy blind with little worry... Oh and most are feather weights.

An efficient/sensitive cab will make all the difference (not just 4 ohm).

I was watching this the other week and I realised how much I liked Phil's vocals. He hasn't got a massively recognisable voice but he just has an honest, good rock voice; a touch of Coverdale but without the unnecessary theatrics.

Warwick... it's a Warwick isn't it? 😂

You'll still get referred to as 'the guitar player' by 90% of people... another 9% wouldn't know a bass from a Peruvian nose flute and 1% are bass players (who will feel your dilemma)! True fact that.

Get a P bass but do yourself a favour and make it a Sandberg... or Maruszczyk.

That's an odd plate/labeling. Most, if not every amp I've ever owned (quite a few) that can operate at a min 4 ohm load has had 2 outputs BUT you could connect a single 4 ohm cab to either. Saying that, the pic you show does seem to indicate that you can only get 4 ohm when connecting 2 separate 8 ohm cabs. Very odd way to do things.

SNAP

Those Tech Soundsystems cabs are great cabs, just hope the new drivers were matched to the physical dimension of the box/cab.

It's not really a dilemma or a big issue. It is a simple fact that valves are more fragile than solid state and a 'little' more care needs to be taken. I was always lead to believe that the power up/down sequence simply lengthened the life of the valves. I have to confess that I've learned a bit re. the standby / cooling down period. I tended to think that standby for a minute or two just allowed the valves to cool gradually; going from full hot gig temperature to cool down a bit in standby mode and then full cool down when 'off'. For me, common sense said you simply did everything gradually; take it into a gig from a cold van/exterior and give it a while to come to ambient, power up in standby, full power on to play... and then just reverse that to take it home. I've never timed how I do such things, just whatever happened naturally.

I'm old school, I'd expect to be given a set list... preferably the one that the band do! I say that because I once did a dep and was given a list of 25 songs by the guitarist. Got to the gig to find they were also using a dep drummer, who'd been given 25 songs by the vocalist... they weren't the same 25! I still cross paths with that drummer on gigs and it is always our first reminisce.

More succinct than my simultaneous answer.

What size band are you talking about and are you thinking original material or covers... actually as I think of it, it doesn't matter the answer is the same - Money! Pub covers bands likely just do it themselves and it is 1 less person to take a share. Originals bands that aren't established and a success will need to pay someone (unless they have a very good friend who has faith in them), established bands often do have their own engineer/sound person.

The music industry/world is littered with such happenings. Every bass player needs a DFA switch on their bass and a 'boutique' DI box (with a straight bypass through it). I did a gig and the in-house engineer seemed to have the hump with me from the off and he was unhappy with everything I had brought and played through. He was complaining that my cab was causing masses of bottom end boom in the room... I politely pointed out that at the time I was simply going from bass to HIS DI and my amp was still on stand by; any issues were down to him/his PA. Oh I felt smug but I swear he didn't even put me through the PA during the gig.

I should add that he didn't copy Pino... he copied my bass (well maybe).

I particularly liked; "The original 1965 Vintage Gibson Nickel EB-0 pickup is from a bass serial number 340051. The pickup eventually died and had to be re-wired and now sounds even better than originally!" So we have an original EB-0 pup (with the actual bass' serial number)... but it is rewound... and not even to the same spec!