bigjohn

They do come now. They won't come any more. No matter how you dress it up.

It was clear the moment that leaving the EU and not being parf of EU FoM was mooted. You'll need a visa to work over there. That's that. And Non UK citizens will need a visa to work here. That's what Brexit means for people who work in different countries. Simple as that. The cost and hassle of which will mean less of it goes on.

So a band on tour, with techs and wags. Maybe 10-15 people. Coming to the UK as part of a European tour and playing 5 gigs over a 2 week period to audiences of 500 with a margin of about £100-£200 per night if they're lucky. Don't forget the promoter needs to be paid too. You think £2.5-£4k doesn't sound unreasonable? Yeah. Right on. Those sort of bands will just swerve the UK entirely.

That's the thing... this the UK saying that going forwards, this is what non UK artists will have to pay and do to come here. As part of the EU, this would have contravened the FoM regulations. So you've got this the wrong way around... What a lot of people don't realise is how touring for all bands works when it's properly organised with crews etc. Having to organise and pay for visas will not only stop a lot of touring bands coming here, but when reciprocated, which it will be, will stop a lot of UK bands going to the EU, which frankly, is where a lot of the money is that pays for UK dates when the whole tour is considered. It's not just band members that will need visas, it's everyone on the tour. It's not just an EU visa either. A visa to work in France does mean you can work in Spain or Germany etc. We're playing a festival in Greece this year. It's already said it's the last one. Visas for 18 bands is too much for the organisers to cope with. We've become a provincial little island over night.

Ah gotcha. So ignoring the one cab solution end of things, is there any major differences between the Super Twin and 2 stacked compacts?

I'm glad you said that. Means I'm hearing things right!

Surely they could be wired in parallel for a 4 Ohm load? To be honest another compact would probably suit me. I could leave one at home and one at the studio and then pair them up if I ever felt like knocking people over.

Yeah. Not a bad idea. Was thinking about a big twin but two compacts is probably twin enough.

Yeah, the drive added more crunch and I was looking for less. Feedback selector seemed to scoop in the left position and add might mids in the right. Both of them lost me presence in the mix. Fine in the middle. I also found it best with the contour dialled right back to zero. I assume this is flat? I dunno. I'm going to have a bit more of play with it later at household volume.

I received a WB-100 yesterday, fortuitously just in time for a rehearsal. I play with 2 guitarists who have a somewhat heavy tone and we play loud, in an new rehearsal space that really needs a lot more work doing on it in terms of dampening. It's long and thin and brittle sounding. I like quite a clean tone. Fat and smooth with a bit of bite when I dig in. I use a P, finger style with big fat flats and I roll all of the treble off. So you can imagine I require a fair bit of power to get where I want. I have been using an SVT preamp into a 600W Chevin mosfet power amp for some time. I use a Barefaced Compact. I can't say I wouldn't like a bit more power, as such my tone was little bit more crunchy than I would normally like, but I got on with it just fine. Volume was maxed, gain I hovered between 3 and 4 trying to find a sweet spot. Maybe I need a bigger cab. Will be fine for gigs as usual venues are PA and monitored. The tone from it really is brilliant though. And more power would come with probably quite a bit more more weight.

Never saw Rush but they were my favourite band in my late teens, 25 years or so ago. I still listen to them when I’m in the mood. RIP NP.

Yep, I run an SVP-Pro too. It's a great pre. I used to have an SVT-IIP, which is the front end of SVT II, and that was okay, but nothing like as alive an SVP-Pro. And I use fairly clean settings on it. It's just nice and musical. I also have an Alembic F1-X, which is a Fender Showman clone, that's cool too. I sometimes run the Ampeg through the FX loop of the Alembic, there's some real deep, fat and glassy overdrive down there.

Yeah, Fenders do rock.

Joe Cocker innit? This is good though. If only for the keyboard solo.

You couldn’t intonate them. It’s just idiocy

Well good luck intonating that.

Rush was the first Rush album I heard. I still have a soft spot for it. Especially Working Man. My favourite album is either Moving Pictures or Signals. Signals is the Rush CD I have in the car at the mo. I find the synths too harsh on Grace Under Pressure. I do like the live albums and have probably listened to Exit Stage Left more than I have any other album of theirs. Show of Hands is ace too and reminds me so much of being a 15/16 year old. So much of it needs remastering. I too like Presto. It's the only Rush album I've bought on release. Much to my regret, I've never seen them live.

I don’t mind lending gear under supervision, strict instruction and implicit threat of proportional violence. Never had any trouble, but it is a PITA. Glad all is sorted.

I have a few different habits. So long as I'm not driving. Playing a new venue I might not drink. If I do it'll be one early, like soundcheck early. If all's going well or not so well I'd maybe have one at half time. I'm a bit more free and easy with it once I've played somewhere a few times. There's a local venue we play (which happens to be the only place we play unticketed and free) where I get a taxi there and back and they've got a good bar. I've been playing there twice a year for about 10 years and I'm VERY free and easy there

I sometimes get nervous. I find smaller crowds are worse and empty rooms. And when I know people, especially if they’ve never seen me play. Knowing someone is coming can sometimes make me nervous in a run up to a gig. Its easier to play to 1000s than to less than a hundred I've found. Most often I forget about all that once were going. I agree with the associated stress too. Others being late or messing about can sometimes get on my wick a bit, which sometimes doesn’t help. Eating properly on the day of the gig is key for me. And not drinking too much the night before. If I do that, The nerves aren’t so jangly and are somewhat part of the fun.

I think I joined a “band” that was just one guy about 12 years or so ago. Still in a band with him. We’ve gone through some drummers and guitarists but been the same lineup for about 8 years. So don’t write them all off!!

It's good advice for life to be honest. Most people just like to be told what to expect, rather than have to think for themselves. That's especially true when you're asking them to think about other people "if only they'd have told me" becomes moot if you do the telling. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it requires you to do the thinking.