discreet

My point is, just because I currently play in a quiet band and don't like loud bands in pubs, it doesn't necessarily mean I don't like loud rock music in an appropriate context nor be capable of passing an audition to join such a band should I choose to do so. At least that's what I thought you were implying..?

A little presumptuous, I feel...

I think you may have something there.

We're finding the same thing. I think it also helps if you're not a metal band.

Did a gig last week where the venue had a prominent db meter visible from the stage. We were told the limit was set at 105db, but we got nowhere near that. Maybe 95db peak for a very short time during our loudest number. We're quiet, so a 90db band is very quiet. This. Can also be applied effectively to EQ. The number of backline bass amps with a graphic EQ I've come across with the sliders whacked up to maximum and with the gain and master maxed out too. Unbelieveable! Less is more!

Gosh! You young people and your trendy 'beat music' - and that 'hit parade'! What's it all about?? It'll never catch on! Fecking druggies.

Eeeh, luxury! I used to dream of incontinence pads, back-ache pills and Saga cruises. Still do.

Yes it is, and I think (as said above somewhere) that's because the pub itself is verging on breakdown. The entire notion of the pub as a focus of a community and a place to meet friends is definitely on the way out. My theory is, that as people gravitate towards the internet instead of friends or family for solace and advice, the age of mass communication is ironically leading to an age of very little actual communication between real people in the real world. Live music, by definition, can't be part of the great internet experiment. Look at how punters will record gigs on their phones and watch (and share) them later - because they don't think anything is real or valid unless it's digitised and seen on a screen. They don't want to experience the performance as it happens, even though they are physically present at the time! Anyone want to join my Campaign for Real Reality? Obviously it can't be started online... meet me in the Back Room at the Dog and Duck tomorrow night at 9pm. If they say I'm not there, tell 'em Nobby sent you.

Errm... no thanks, my cab's out the front... bye! *Runs away*

So THAT'S why old people are deaf! 'What's that, sonny..? I'm afraid I'm a bit hard of hearing - I saw Led Zep at Earl's Court in 1975...'

There you go, I misunderstood totally. Am I under arrest??

^ Yes. It's because the music you listen to between the ages of 11 and 18 (or so) happen at the most incredible and impressionable time of your life. Of course you're going to remember your first girlfriend, your first acid trip, the first time you drove a car, motorbike, the first time you fell in love, the day you left home - and the horror of pubes. The music you hear at this time is indelible and when you hear it now, you're not only reminded of those times, you're BACK THERE experiencing those feelings all over again. Powerful stuff! Nothing special about the music though - it's just burnt into your mind through association!* *Actually, some of it is still pretty special.

“The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy notes that Disaster Area, a plutonium rock band from the Gagrakacka Mind Zones, are generally held to be not only the loudest rock band in the Galaxy, but in fact the loudest noise of any kind at all. Regular concert-goers judge that the best sound balance is usually to be heard from within large concrete bunkers some thirty-seven miles from the stage, whilst the musicians themselves play their instruments by remote control from within a heavily insulated spaceship which stays in orbit around the planet – or more frequently around a completely different planet. Their songs are on the whole very simple and mostly follow the familiar theme of boy-being meets girl-being beneath a silvery moon, which then explodes for no adequately explored reason. Many worlds have now banned their act altogether, sometimes for artistic reasons, but most commonly because the band’s public address system contravenes local strategic arms limitation treaties. This has not, however, stopped their earnings from pushing back the boundaries of pure hypermathematics, and their chief research accountant has recently been appointed Professor of Neomathematics at the University of Maximegalon, in recognition of both his General and Special Theories of Disaster Area Tax Returns, in which he proves that the whole fabric of the space-time continuum is not merely curved, it is in fact totally bent.”

Have you considered an on-board preamp? I found it useful when I had a Sire V7 Jazz. Nice to have options at your fingertips, you don't even have to wander back and forth to your amp. On the other hand when I moved it on I found the simplicity of a passive P Bass attractive, too... but then I'm a great believer in having everything as simple as possible at gigs. Bass > lead > combo > done.

Twunt indeed, but it does make clear the point that an AC30 is a really bloody loud amp.

Generally. This is one of the very few bands I've been in where the master control routinely goes counter-clockwise and yet I can still be heard - and so can everyone else in the band. Taking that a little further, as an originals band we make a point of avoiding instruments clashes - not volume-wise, but playing-wise and sound-wise... obviously if you make your contribution fit in rhythmically and sonically with everything else, and you're not sucking up all the available bandwidth in the room, and everyone else is aware of that too, then you have a musical jigsaw with an overall picture that can be seen (or in this case, heard) without effort and without being ârse-shatteringly loud. This also makes it about a billion times easier to get a decent sound in a not-so-decent room. Sounds obvious, but I don't see much evidence of it when I'm out and about. Also not much thought is given to sound combinations... for example if your drummer likes a clicky kick drum at 100Hz and you're playing rounds with a pick at 100Hz, it may be better if you played flats fingerstyle so that the kick/bass combo isn't the total mess that the sound engineer so often gets the blame for. And so on. Maybe those bagpipes aren't really fitting in with your version of 'The Birdie Song'?* *Actually in this case, bagpipes would definitely improve matters.

In my current band one guitarist uses a 15w amp, the other goes through FX to the PA. Drums and bass only go through the PA when absolutely necessary. We are a quiet band. I use a Fender Rumble V3 500 Combo, which runs at a maximum of 350w at 8 ohms without an extension cab. Pretty much overkill in this band, as at gigs I have the gain at zero and the master lower than I have it at home! So why use it at all? Well... y'know... It looks cool... and I like the luxury of all that headroom...

Absolutely agree. Back in the day guitarists would routinely play stadia with a Vox AC30, which was more than up to the task. And still is.

It's a step in the right direction, but a 15-watt guitar valve amp can still get very loud. Good luck.

Yep. Went for an audition once at which the guitarist insisted on playing full tilt through a Dual Showman in a room about the size of a toilet. I lasted about ten minutes, then packed up and left. I had been wearing rudimentary ear protection, but even so my ears were whistling next day. Why? Why? WHY??

Every day I thank God our drummer can (and does) play quietly and the whole band play (and sing) for the song. Without exception most bands are too loud. It absolutely boils my goat and mixes my metaphors. Part of the problem is that a lot of players play too much (even in covers bands). A good player is one that doesn't feel the need to fill every nanosecond of a song with noise. Less is more. You get a whole band where everyone overplays and you have a mess. And then of course the volume war begins and everyone's working against each other. Result: a mess, a racket, irritation all round and people walking out. Even today there is still an almost macho attitude where excessive volume is seen as 'manly' in some way. And there are still those who turn up to gigs with way too much gear and claim they have to be loud 'to get their sound'. This may have been true at one time but it certainly isn't now. It's selfish and its counter-productive. Irresponsibly loud bands and (frankly) bad playing and bad attitudes are doing no-one any favours. If a band fires up in my local and they're too loud, then I'll walk away, regardless of how good they are. If you think deafening your audience is in any way entertaining for anyone, then you must be more nuts than I am, which is saying a very great deal.

YESSSS!!! Stoked for you, Dan!

Me too, but where are they??

Wow. Nice score! Even the tort looks decent! Massive GAS for a twin P pickup bass. I've had one or two and they just roar like a Wookie.

Depressingly familiar. I'm always confused when people can't make it. What could they possibly be doing that's even close in importance to rehearsing, recording or gigging? My life revolves around those three things. The rest is waiting to do those three things. I suppose it's unreasonable to expect four or five other people to have the same attitude...