brensabre79 Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Had a gig last night, equipment disasters all round! First my Fretless Jazz bass decides not to work. I changed the battery last week after it did this before I've got a ACG/East preamp in with sweepable frequencies etc. running off a single 9v battery. For some reason it has suddenly decided to eat batteries at a rate of one expensive Energiser / Duracel Ultra per gig! Previously I had a cheapo Duracell in for 6 months. Its especially a PITA because theres no battery compartment, its just under the control plate requiring a screwdriver to swap out. - Any help/advice with this one greatly appreciated! Then my brand new GB Shuttle decides to go on the fritz, making a loud hiss, crackle, hiss noises. Obviously the first thing I check leads, connections etc. turns out its in the amp somewhere, tapping the top of it I managed to make the hiss/crackle go away and get through the gig. I'm in touch with the shop about this one! The guitarists amp suddenly went very trebly (all the mid range disappeard) probably valve related, and the power light on his Fender twin stopped working - even though the amp was still working. And finally the SM57 sax mike suddenly decided to be super quiet. Changed lead (no change) changed channel (no change) - had the thing cranked up to full gain and boosting through 4 groups just to be audible! Needless to say, whilst the rest of the band and the audience had a great time, I didn't really enjoy the gig!! Has anyone ever had a night like this? Come on, help me feel better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Vader Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Long, long time ago when I still played guitar, I had a really bad cold anyway, but still did the gig, could barely sing (was lead vocals too) and croaked the whole way through. Also, bust a string on my main guitar, then drowned the backup in so much sweat it shorted out on me. Finished off on the support bands Les Paul (which was horrible) before the bass player's pint went down the back of the old valve powered PA we were using, finishing the night off with a heck of a bang. Hows that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skelf Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Hi Regarding the battery use. It sounds as if the battery is draining to ground some where. Check that it is not touching the cavity shielding any where. If this has just started it is unlikely to be the wiring but worth checking everything is as it should be. Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 (edited) We had a gig in a well known live venue in Edinburgh. Well we thought we did... turns out (after we'd driven 150 miles to get there) that we were double booked with a fecking wedding reception. Luckily they made some phone calls for us and got us booked into a rock venue just along the road. Most of the way down from north of Aberdeen, the rhythm guitarist remembered that he'd left his guitar at home. So he had to head back up the road to Dundee where fortunately he knew someone he could borrow an axe off. This meant he missed soundcheck. During the gig said rhythm guitar bust not one but 2 strings (cue random jammings from lead guitar, myself and drums to fill time) and at one point he lost his strap mid song, which I hooked back on for him tapping the notes with my left hand so as not to break the flow. The house vocal PA went quiet. And to add insult to injury we tripped a fuse every 20 minutes of our 2 hour set, cutting the power to the amps and plunging the stage into a familiar silent darkness except for a couple of bars of drums and a desperate twang of electric guitars played acoustically. Strangely enough the audience had a ball and we made some good friends. Edited January 13, 2012 by Ou7shined Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 [quote name='skelf' timestamp='1326453455' post='1497335'] Hi Regarding the battery use. It sounds as if the battery is draining to ground some where. Check that it is not touching the cavity shielding any where. If this has just started it is unlikely to be the wiring but worth checking everything is as it should be. Alan [/quote] Ah thanks Skelf - I'll check that although I don't think the cavity is shielded actually - which probably explains why this bass is particularly prone to picking up earth hum if I stand within a metre of an amp. I'll take it apart tomorrow and get the old circuit tester on there. I thought it was just a dud battery the first time, but after 3 batteries in as many gigs theres definitely something up. Great sounding pre-amp though! Dave & Ou7shined you have made me feel a bit better! Thanks. We had to fill in last night actually as halfway through the first set the guitarist left the stage as he couldn't wait 15 minutes for a piss! cue impromptu cover of Fever! Mark at Bassdirect is being very helpful re: the amp, its being swapped under warranty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 [quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1326456637' post='1497388']...Dave & Ou7shined you have made me feel a bit better! Thanks. We had to fill in last night actually as halfway through the first set the guitarist left the stage as he couldn't wait 15 minutes for a piss! cue impromptu cover of Fever! ...[/quote] Haha that unlucky guitarist I told you about earlier decided he needed a sh|t mid set one time. We tried to get him to hold on but you could see how much trouble he was having and eventually he had to make a break for it. Obviously we told everyone while he was away what the problem was. He returned to the stage amid thunderous applause and with the reddest face ever. It still cracks me up today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 [quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1326453555' post='1497339'] Most of the way down from north of Aberdeen, the rhythm guitarist remembered that he'd left his guitar at home. So he had to head back up the road to Dundee where fortunately he knew someone he could borrow an axe off. [/quote] I'm sorry, but there's no way you can just slip a line like that into a post and not get pulled up on it. How the hell can a guitarist be 100 miles from home before he realises he's forgotten his guitar? It's not like forgetting a tuner, a lead, a strap, or even an amp - all things that have happened to guitarists near to me. I mean, actually forgetting to take your [i][b]guitar[/b][/i]??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 I don't know what guitarists you've been playing with Jack but this is quite normal. It doesn't happen often. But it does happen! About 10 years ago I lent my beloved metallic purple Gibson SG to a guitarist I knew who had forgotten his. He phones me to invite me to his gig near my house and says, oh and can you bring a guitar? I had a gig myself but said he could borrow it. I never saw it again sadly as he also left it at the venue afterwards. I asked for it back a week later assuming he still had it by which time it was long gone... Now I have his telecaster thinline and he's not allowed to borrow it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1326462957' post='1497544'] I'm sorry, but there's no way you can just slip a line like that into a post and not get pulled up on it. How the hell can a guitarist be 100 miles from home before he realises he's forgotten his guitar? It's not like forgetting a tuner, a lead, a strap, or even an amp - all things that have happened to guitarists near to me. I mean, actually forgetting to take your [i][b]guitar[/b][/i]??? [/quote] Are you sitting comfortably.... Well, we were doing a lot of touring around Scotland at the time and our drummer who didn't have his own transport would 9 times out of 10 deal with the hire van and would be in charge of the gear. He has a rather "unique" character... so no one really wanted to ride with him and because we were a mix of smokers and non-smokers we'd all make our own way to the venues/digs in our respective cars. Matt (the rhythm guitar) who shall we say, can be a bit spacey at times had a Fiat Panda then, so only had bearly enough room for his guitar and Orange gear in the back and his girlfriend (now wife) in the front. He lives 50 odd miles out of town up in McDuff and would usually take all his gear with him but this time since we had had a rehearsal (in town) the night before, the arrangement was that he'd leave his guitar at the drummer's pad after practice, who would then stow it with the other gear in the morning after he picked up the van, leaving him more room for his gear + g/f in the Panda. Somewhere between leaving the rehearsal rooms and getting home both numpties had completely forgotten the plan, then the next day both presumed the other had the guitar until Matt realised too late that he'd not dropped it off the night before. Typical Matt moment* really... still love the guy though. *Like the time we were loading in down a tight flight of stairs into a sub street level venue and he dropped his heavy Orange cab. He'd been carrying it normally from behind but somehow during the raucous journey downstairs Matt ended up in front of the cab. When the noise stopped we all looked around in silence at the crumpled mess of man and cab at the bottom of the stairs. Luckily everything was fine... except the cab had landed on a bollock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Oh and one time we had a gig up in Aviemore and when we arrived up there the drummer realised that he'd left his cymbals in his hallway. Cue a couple of mad hours trying to track down a set cymbals in a remote ski resort village. We got a shot of some in the end from a kid with a 3/4 size kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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