Is it the gear or is it the room

[Thunderbird]

I do not gig but I think no matter what instruments we play we try to find fault in something so we can justify buying a new piece of gear at least I do 😮

[Billy Bongo]

Years ago, when Napoleon had just retreated from Moscow, I had a regular gig on a local RAF base. The building was a Nissan hut from WW2 and made of tin. The reverb was terrific, but on the occasions you don't want reverb it was impossible to dial out, even with the limited EQ gear we had. It could be mitigated by using only the neck pickup on my Bison and as a (then) plectrum player using a felt plectrum. One twiddle on the treble meant reverb, so it was either full reverb or double bass - nothing in between. It was better when we filled it with wool clad 'erks' (ground crew usually)!

 

So, after this lengthy ramble, it's the room. Every room is different. Adapt or die.😊

[fretmeister]

Room a lot of the time.

 

That being said, sometimes I wish my amp had more EQ options. 

[Dan Dare]

On 12/12/2021 at 08:52, Billy Bongo said:

Years ago, when Napoleon had just retreated from Moscow, I had a regular gig on a local RAF base. The building was a Nissan hut from WW2 and made of tin. The reverb was terrific, but on the occasions you don't want reverb it was impossible to dial out, even with the limited EQ gear we had. It could be mitigated by using only the neck pickup on my Bison and as a (then) plectrum player using a felt plectrum. One twiddle on the treble meant reverb, so it was either full reverb or double bass - nothing in between. It was better when we filled it with wool clad 'erks' (ground crew usually)!

 

So, after this lengthy ramble, it's the room. Every room is different. Adapt or die.😊

 

I had a similar experience around the time of the Boer War. We played in a hotel which had been built in a sort of faux Art Deco style. The ballroom was shaped like a cylinder cut in half along its length (we joked that it was a Nissen hut). There were few soft furnishings and walls/ceiling were hard plaster. The sound was appalling in the way you describe. Massive natural reverb - I had decent eq on the PA, which made virtually no difference - and any low frequencies caused huge booming. Probably the worst gig, soundwise, I've ever played. We tried to adapt, but I think it's fair to say we died...

Edited December 13, 2021 by Dan Dare

[chris_b]

I've been playing one venue since the 80's and the sound is terrible. It has a concrete floor, brick walls and concrete ceiling. If you put the bass amp right in the corner then the sound is bad. Leave a 4' gap to the corner (the stage is big enough for that), and the sound become workable.

 

IMO there are amps and cabs that make bad rooms easier to handle, eg Bergantino, Barefaced and my old Mesa EV cabs, and some that do not work well in bad rooms. So having favourite amps at home or in the rehearsal studio is one thing but you might need a totally different amp to sound good on a gig.

[Silvia Bluejay]

3 minutes ago, chris_b said:

IMO there are amps and cabs that make bad rooms easier to handle, eg Bergantino, Barefaced and my old Mesa EV cabs, and some that do not work well in bad rooms. So having favourite amps at home or in the rehearsal studio is one thing but you might need a totally different amp to sound good on a gig.

Having said that, would putting most of the bass on the PA, while keeping the amp just loud enough for you and the band, improve things? It might, as the bass channel on the PA would be EQ-able to suit the terrible-sounding room, and at least the PA has two speakers, therefore a fighting chance to offer the audience an acceptable sound.

[chris_b]

1 minute ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Having said that, would putting most of the bass on the PA, while keeping the amp just loud enough for you and the band, improve things? It might, as the bass channel on the PA would be EQ-able to suit the terrible-sounding room, and at least the PA has two speakers, therefore a fighting chance to offer the audience an acceptable sound.

 

You might be right. Oh for access to a good FOH system!

 

The bands I play with only put vocals through the PA, but I think I've tamed most bad rooms with my current gear.

[gjones]

I played a blues club which had a raised stage, which must have been hollow as it amplified the subsonic frequencies so much, that the drummer couldn't stand it.

 

I reduced the bass on my amp to zero and it still sounded like a whale farting on stage.

 

As soon as you stepped out front, the bass frequencies disappeared and my bass turned into a twangy banjo.

 

Luckily there was also a decent PA at the venue and the sound engineer put me through the PA and added extra bass on the desk.

[TimR]

Played in a Porshe showroom once. 

 

Granite flooring, very high ceiling, and  floor to ceiling glass walls.

 

Luckily the drummer played at his normal volume, so no one would have had a chance to hear how bad the acoustics were for rest of the band. 

[Stub Mandrel]

The Bassist's Friend.

 

[NJE]

I gave up worrying about ‘my tone’ and the specific tone of my amp and basses a while ago.

 

I would have some nights when my setup would sound incredible and others where it was inaudible or shocking, and  it was all down to the room/floor/stage.

 

Going through FOH helped a lot and so did having a quieter stage, but on the whole I just focussed on being in tune, in time, and learning the songs properly. As long as I do those things, no one really cares.

 

I found a video of a gig the other day and thought it was a gig someone sat in for me, because I couldn’t see myself and the bass tone was great. I then spotted my old bass and I remembered the gig. I couldn’t hear myself properly most of the night and I remember the room being awful, the sound seems to swirl around. Shows that what you think you hear isn’t always what gets heard out front.

Edited December 13, 2021 by NJE