4stringslow Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1461151950' post='3031876'] That's a luxury that only someone living in a country with plenty of space can indulge in. Here in the UK only if you are very lucky will one of the band members lives in a detached house with understanding neighbours. For everyone else the rented rehearsal room is a necessary evil. [/quote] True, but it's not necessarily an expensive luxury if you live in the countryside where detached houses away from neighbours often cost less than most places in towns and cities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 [quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1461155466' post='3031929'] Indeed! You can only just get away with a guitar or two and bass, noodling or song writing etc for the most part. Rehearsal or acoustic drums no chance. [/quote] I've lived in what others may consider some fairly horrible places in the past simply because I had no other residential neighbours and therefore it was possible to practice there with a full band including drums. I have rehearsed in my current place with a drummer who used an electronic kit, but we had to build an isolating platform for it to stop the physical sound of it (mostly the kick drum pedal) from travelling through the structure of the building and annoying my neighbours. However this did mean that at practice volume the drum sounds were almost completely masked by the sound of the sticks hitting the drum pads. Not ideal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 The trouble with rehearsal rooms is that the first thing you see when you walk in is everything you need to play Hyde Park ... a 16-channel PA with a pair of powered 1x15 cabs and four 1x12 foldback monitors, two Marshall stacks for the guitarists, and (usually) an Ashdown or Behringer rig for the bass player. The room is slightly larger than your bedroom, but the drummer thinks he's in the stairwell at Headley Grange, the lead guitarist is trying to get both feet on the monitor at the same time, and the vocals are shrieking feedback in the PA's desperate efforts to be heard over the cacophony. All the bands I play in rehearse in my garage. I have more PA kit than you could shake a stick at, but it all stays in nice, neat boxes on the shelves. All vocals are UNamplified, which automatically limits overall volume to whatever the singer's voice can be heard over. We are too loud (probably) to play in the sitting room of a semi or a flat, but for a garage this volume level is usually very acceptable. If that's not acceptable to your neighbours, then for a grand or so you can put in sufficient sound-proofing (or at least damping) to make any garage or shed usable. On that sort of money, and assuming that you rehearse just once a week, payback for the sound insulation would be about six months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefbaker Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 I've been thinking about this whole availability thing, from a number of perspectives, especially as music is so easy to listen to now. For example: I am typing this while listening to a playlist of tracks I've never heard before on spotify... Absolutely unthinkable when I was 18 in 1991. And sure... I probably know "Too Dark Park" by Skinny Puppy or "Master of Puppets" by Metallica more intimately than I'll ever know anything else again because I could only buy one album a month and would play them on repeat for ever, but would I go back to that? f*** no! In the same way that a starving man wouldn't want to go back to the time he found a piece of mars bar in a hedge, and when he ate it, it was the best mars bar he'd ever because he hadn't eaten in a week. No. Those days are gone. Incidentally all my first stuff was broken sh*t from 2nd hand shops. My first bass was a short scale piece of crap with no name on it that barely made a noise over the hiss, and one of my first guitars, the electronics fell out, along with what looked like hay. In short, I'm not completely against the old definition of nostalgia as an illness. http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/06/29/when-nostalgia-was-considered-a-crippling-mental-illness/ No, things weren't better back in the day. The truth is you were young, full of wonder, everything was new and your memories are partially false and partially rose-tinted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockfordStone Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1461157062' post='3031950'] The trouble with rehearsal rooms is that the first thing you see when you walk in is everything you need to play Hyde Park ... a 16-channel PA with a pair of powered 1x15 cabs and four 1x12 foldback monitors, two Marshall stacks for the guitarists, and (usually) an Ashdown or Behringer rig for the bass player. [/quote] not in any of the rehearsal rooms i have been to. you get a 4 channel PA with 2 wall mounted speakers, if you are lucky a semi working monitor speaker..... all any amps you may hire would be combo's at best. the problem with using rehearsal money to pay for soundproofing is musicians. if they are forced to pay a studio they will pay it, but i have experience of being shafted for spending money on practice or recording treatment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingBollock Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 [quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1461055163' post='3030921'] An anecdote..? Oh, go on; only a (fairly...) short one. I can..? Ah, well then... My parents met and courted during WWII, and founded a (large; 8 children...) shortly afterwards. They both worked hard, but money was pretty tight, so luxuries were...well, luxuries, so we seldom had any. One of the fashions back in those days were for fur coats; all the 'stars' had 'em. Too expensive for most folks, but one could dream, couldn't one..? The children grew up and left home; Mum and Dad would have, little by little, a bit more disposable income. In secret, and over a decade or so, my Dad put away a medium chunk of money and, as a surprise 50th wedding anniversary, presented my Mum with a splendid mink coat, just like the ones seen on the silver screen in their younger days. Of course, she was delighted. However, their social circles and way of life had changed a lot over time, and she had less occasion to wear it than in the past,and, frankly, fashions had moved on. The moral of the tale..? It's a question of dreams. My Mum had gained a much-coveted fur coat, but had lost a dream of having a fur coat. She was the first to admit that, whilst being very grateful for the intention and attentions of my Dad, the dream was, in fact more valuable to her than its concretion. Back in the '50s and '60s, rock'n'roll, and modern music in general was a dream for many of us, and an almost unobtainable luxury. Not so these days. The current generations have their own aspirations and dreams (X-Factor..? Top footballer..? Fashion designer..? I dunno...); it's the dream that's got value. The realisation of one's dreams is not, always, desirable, or, at least, should be followed by further dreams to aim for. Are we really luckier these days..? Hmm... Not for those still dreaming... [/quote] That makes me think of the radio controlled monster truck kit that I so desperately wanted when I was a kid, and would still love to have to this day. I was twelve and had decided that the £130 monster truck was what I wanted for christmas, more than anything. But my Dad had decided that he wanted to manage a band and made my brothers and me take up musical instruments. He wanted me to play the drums, but I didn't want him to have it all his way and chose the bass instead (being a big Motorhead and Iron Maiden fan it made sense to me). I still look lustily at those kits to this day, and they're still the same price. A couple of years ago my wife offered to buy me one, but I just knew the guilt of spending so much on a toy like that would ruin it for me. I am the only one of my brothers that actually kept up playing my instrument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Passinwind Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 [quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1461018965' post='3030791'] Been reading the book British rock guitar which is an updated version of 17 watts by mo foster. It's basically a collection of often very funny stories by famous names, talking about there first guitars, first amps, experiments etc etc. It's a really good read! What got my attention is the fact that it's so much easier to get equipment that actually works, even the cheap gear. And we have internet so learning and music in general is so accessible. It's so much easier in every way. We are indeed lucky. However why I'm I yearning that it was still a bit like that. Even when I was fairly young in the 90s it was still easier than the 50s, 60s and so on. Although I am still relatively new to playing it would of been much easier when I was young to do so. So I never got to really experience the "struggle" of previous decades. The experimentation of it all seems really exciting. Even the crap instruments and struggling to get even the latest record has a certain fun element. I can't help thinking in a way lacking all that now has lost us something, some magic in it all. [/quote] There is a ton of room for experimentation today, and now the resources are much more readily attainable. I just finished building a 700 watt bass amp from scratch (mostly), using CAD/CAM tools that are completely free. Doing that when I started playing music ca. 1970 would have been a pipe dream at best. I've been working on audio equipment since the early 60s. To me old stuff is just old, and things that actually work are a lot cooler. In the end real players get it done regardless of the gear challenges though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 [quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1461141881' post='3031737'] 1966, coincidentally about the same time that your musical heroes lost their enthusiasm for gigging. IMO, The Beatles best work came about during their years of 'bedroom noodling' (Ok, their 'bedroom' was in Abbey Road, but even so . . . At least the Stones have stayed on the road). [/quote] I wouldn't compare my circumstance or the type and level of gigs to The Beatles or what was happening to them at the time. Paul has stayed on the road as well. He opened his North American tour in Fresno CA last Wednesday. Blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 [quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1461151475' post='3031867'] I was about to say "there werent any rock bands 50 years ago" till I realised I did my first paid gig in.... 1954! Time flies! October-ish of this years I have 62 years of gigging (at least semi-pro) in! Wow. I remember thinking I would probably quit once I hit about 25..... [/quote] Congrats Yeah, gigging more than ever at 63. What else am I going to do? Blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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