TimR

80s Whotsits were more yellow and hence much more powerful. The new Wotsits are less yellow and hence less powerful which is why they now come in bigger packets containing more of them.

And that is at the root of the problem. There is no ‘proper’ way of measuring them.

The National Anthem, when the rest of the band couldn’t be persuaded that you were being serious about having to play it at the end of an RBL gig, and refused to even run through it once at practice...

You should hear my fretless playing.

How about putting the bass through an octave up pedal before this unit. Hey presto, you get a bass modeller for your bass.

As said above, loudness is frequency related. The power measurement is taken using THD Total Harmonic Distortion figure in %. So some manufactures will measure at a specific frequency with a specific amount of distortion, others at a different frequency and different distortion. Each manufacture will measure at whatever gives them the best marketing results. So someone could sell an amp that does 500w but 0.1% distortion and someone else an amp that does 500w but only 0.01% distortion. One will be louder than the other...

It’s a meat based version of the McDonalds apple pie. Cool and crumbly to the touch but with insides “hotter than the sun” giving the same effect as biting into liquid lava.

Vintage? That looks suspiciously like Skank has put that together in his home workshop using spares obtained from Allparts.

Thought you were going to say earplugs don’t Wok.

They should be fine unless you’re doing 8 hour gigs with stage volumes well above 100dB.

If you’re using ACS 17s they’re only 17db so “they don’t work”, they’ll only reduce the sound levels to 83db which is still above the HSE legal limits. The most attenuation you can get are the ACS 27s which would take the levels down to 73db. That’s assuming 100db. A drum kit on its own could be 90-130db (according to a quick google) So plugs on their own “won’t work” in that scenario. But that’s for legal levels in the workplace according to the HSE.

@Billy Apple Another factor is how you approached the Audiologist. It was at an HSE event. He would be looking at it from an HSE perspective where sound levels in the workplace are strictly controlled. So he is right Ear Plugs don’t work in a lot of situations, or more correctly don’t do the job they’re required to do. For the majority of us; the combination of limiting the exposure to loud noise for periods of an hour at a time and the loud noise not being at industrial levels, means plugs will do the job. In an industrial situation the noise needs to be reduced to the level of normal conversation, with the premise that the user could be in the environment for several hours at a time. Reducing the levels that far when performing live music just defeats the aim of the live music in a lot of cases. Practicing for several hours is a different case. But then I don’t think anyone should be practicing at gig levels. The odd rehearsal maybe, but during a practice it is counterproductive.

Careful: Ear plugs will only protect up to 100db ?

They tell you that they’ll reduce by 15-20db. That is the full story. If you need more than that to come down to a safe level you need ear defenders.

It surprises me how much a group of 4 drinkers can spend in an evening. I’d guess a bottle of red wine would be less than £4 to the pub and would sell at about £24 - based on £8 for a large glass! There was a group of lads doing Ouzo shots last weekend when I went to my local to watch a band. They must have done 3-4 shots each. I’d guess that alone would have been £20 a round after the beer that they’d drunk. That was a Friday night. Makes my £8 for a couple of pints and bag of crisps sound miserly. Guess as musicians playing, and possibly only visiting pubs when playing, we don’t appreciate the volumes of alcohol being consumed by non players.

Thanks. So earplugs could only reduce sound levels by 40-60db. Most of us are wearing 15-20db plugs for an hour and a half tops and I’d be surprised if we were even approaching 110db on stage so plugs are perfectly adequate. Construction, factories and Orchestras and other professional environments are different. You’re exposed to loud volumes for up to 8 hours a day at much higher levels. If you’ve ever been in a steel pressing plant you can feel the floor move when walking past the presses. I’m guessing you’d be deaf after 5 minutes without protection. The plant-room doors we have at work have ear defender signs on them, not ear plug signs and that’s because the sound level has been measured as being potentially above 85db with defenders on at the ear. http://www.hse.gov.uk/noise/hearingprotection.htm

Maybe we should take a leaf out of the American model and have a bucket go round. Forget the landlord paying the band, let the punters decide how much we’re worth. Maybe then we might get pub bands playing music punters want to hear at a listenable level instead of music the bands want to play at punters at 1,000,000 dB.

How much would you pay to watch a pub band?

and music stands?

@Dapper Bandit sounds to me like there is a gap in the market for someone with a bit of imagination and enthusiasm to take hold of...

I guess this could be a key factor. If you treat gigging as an ‘us and them’ situation and don’t get the audience on your side you may run into problems. Chatting to people at the bar when you arrive is probably more likely to mean you play a better gig and are asked back, than turning up, ignoring everyone, moving the furniture around, unplugging the TV showing the footie and turning up to 11. (Not that anyone would be that extreme of course)

Bands can usually find new bass players quickly if you’re still playing and gigging. Bass players are in short supply and will tend to gravitate to those bands that are busy. Bands that struggle are those where they’ve got rid of the bass player, or he has left. Bass players don’t tend to get fired or leave for no reason and when it’s the bands word against the absent bass player, it’s anyones guess what the real reasons for leaving were...

Over the years we have reduced the amount of gear we take to gigs and always set up the same way. If it takes longer than 45mins to get in and 45 to get out then something is wrong. We all carry the gear in, amps go straight into place and guitarist and I set up PA and lights while drums are set up. One secret is to have multi-way extension leads of varying lengths laid out first thing and know how many sockets you need where. Nothing worse than everyone asking if they can use this socket or where can they plug in and trying to rearrange cable runs.

I think Kylie was struggling with technical issues. Her mic was cutting in and out at one point and she was messing with her in-ears. I got the impression at that point she gave up and handed over to the audience to cover the tech issues.

Seems we have a gig coming up on a multi band line up. 2x1hour sets. The band on after us has asked me to dep for them. So thats 4x1hr sets... ouch!