How was your gig last night?

[FinnDave]

Why do some guitarists feel the need to show off their guitar collection during every gig? None of the guys I play with do that, one will often switch guitars during the break, but never between songs unless something goes wrong with the guitar. Nobody except other guitarists cares or even notices what he's playing!

[Monkey Steve]

1 hour ago, FinnDave said:

Why do some guitarists feel the need to show off their guitar collection during every gig? None of the guys I play with do that, one will often switch guitars during the break, but never between songs unless something goes wrong with the guitar. Nobody except other guitarists cares or even notices what he's playing!

couldn't agree more.  The rule should be one guitar each (if there's more than one) and one spare between then in case of a mid-song broken string. 

Seems to be another iteration of "but I need this to get my sound" that they use to justify having their amps at ear bleeding levels

[Bluewine]

5 hours ago, FinnDave said:

Why do some guitarists feel the need to show off their guitar collection during every gig? None of the guys I play with do that, one will often switch guitars during the break, but never between songs unless something goes wrong with the guitar. Nobody except other guitarists cares or even notices what he's playing!

Yes, at the bar club level is there a reason to change guitars between songs other than if you break a string?

Blue

[casapete]

3 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

couldn't agree more.  The rule should be one guitar each (if there's more than one) and one spare between then in case of a mid-song broken string. 

Seems to be another iteration of "but I need this to get my sound" that they use to justify having their amps at ear bleeding levels

Know what you mean, but to be fair to our 6 string compadres some songs do sound best on the right guitar, i.e Fender Strat or Gibson Les Paul,  acoustic 6 or 12 string etc etc. Whereas we can get away with just a bit of adjustment on the old EQ …...😉

[Woodinblack]

50 minutes ago, casapete said:

Know what you mean, but to be fair to our 6 string compadres some songs do sound best on the right guitar, i.e Fender Strat or Gibson Les Paul,  acoustic 6 or 12 string etc etc. Whereas we can get away with just a bit of adjustment on the old EQ …...😉

If you are a guitarist maybe, to 95% of the audience a strat and les paul sound the same. 

An acoustic, that sounds different, and there is justification if something else is in completely different tune. In my last group, the guitarist had an acoustic guitar, his strat for almost everything else, and another odd guitar that he used just for plug in baby, which sounded just right and was apparently easier to play it with.

[Bluewine]

If these guys are doing it for show, forget about it.

Unless your a headliner with a hand off guy or a tech to help you make the switch it doesn't look cool at all. It really doesn't.

 

Blue

[Woodinblack]

I saw Placebo a few years ago, the bass player changed bass at pretty well every song. It was an odd thing, seeing as almost all the basses were different thunderbirds that obviously sounded completely identical. And it was very noticable because it was almost every song. 

I assumed he just wanted to show off his thunderbird collection.

[Stylon Pilson]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

I saw Placebo a few years ago, the bass player changed bass at pretty well every song. It was an odd thing, seeing as almost all the basses were different thunderbirds that obviously sounded completely identical. And it was very noticable because it was almost every song. 

I assumed he just wanted to show off his thunderbird collection.

Or they are awful at holding their tuning, so he needs his tech to hand him a freshly-tuned one for each song.

S.P.

[mcnach]

11 hours ago, Bluewine said:

If these guys are doing it for show, forget about it.

Unless your a headliner with a hand off guy or a tech to help you make the switch it doesn't look cool at all. It really doesn't.

 

Blue

 

He's using two guitars because one has a kill-switch, which he needs, but the other works better for a number of songs. I think this can be addressed by grouping the songs intelligently.

The tuning... it's only between standard and drop-D. Should not take long at all. Could even use a Hipshot d-tuner thingy (I have those on a coulpe of basses): instant retuning.

FRontman being shy... that's a problem.

[Woodinblack]

8 hours ago, Stylon Pilson said:

Or they are awful at holding their tuning, so he needs his tech to hand him a freshly-tuned one for each song.

I did wonder if they were that bad. in fact I couldn't swear there were more than 4 different thunderbirds 

[Bluewine]

6 hours ago, mcnach said:

 

He's using two guitars because one has a kill-switch, which he needs, but the other works better for a number of songs. I think this can be addressed by grouping the songs intelligently.

The tuning... it's only between standard and drop-D. Should not take long at all. Could even use a Hipshot d-tuner thingy (I have those on a coulpe of basses): instant retuning.

FRontman being shy... that's a problem.

I saw The Stones a few years ago and Ronnie Wood changed guitars for almost every song. But he's Ronnie Wood.😁

He did seem to favor a vintage Sunburst Les Paul that he had duct taped together. I'm serious, you could see duct tape all over the bottom of the body.

Blue

Edited November 9, 2018 by Bluewine

[mcnach]

1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

I saw The Stones a few years ago and Ronnie Wood changed guitars for almost every song. But he's Ronnie Wood.😁

He did seem to favor a vintage Sunburst Les Paul that he had duct taped together. I'm serious, you could see duct tape all over the bottom of the body.

Blue

 

The duct tape is probably so that the guitar wouldn't talk. That guitar must have seen a lot...

[T-Bay]

15 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I saw Placebo a few years ago, the bass player changed bass at pretty well every song. It was an odd thing, seeing as almost all the basses were different thunderbirds that obviously sounded completely identical. And it was very noticable because it was almost every song. 

I assumed he just wanted to show off his thunderbird collection.

He has them in different tunings and also has a range of different pickups. I have seen them a few times and they have never sounded the same to me. Perhaps you were unlucky with the sound man that night

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, T-Bay said:

He has them in different tunings and also has a range of different pickups. I have seen them a few times and they have never sounded the same to me. Perhaps you were unlucky with the sound man that night

The sound wasn't great, but orders of magnitude better than the support. I could see the guy had a bass, I assume some of the rumble must have been notes, but not entirely sure.

[leschirons]

Good gig tonight. Kept the punters in right until the end which is unusual for this place as it seems to be the bar where people go before going out if that makes sense 😂

Anyway, owner very happy so rebooked us. Two tech problems at the start though. Guitarist's wireless system packed up (bloody things) and my new-ish 50€ super duper custom  3 mtr instrument cable cut out. Luckily always have spare, coiled on top of amp so a quick change over.

[T-Bay]

7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

The sound wasn't great, but orders of magnitude better than the support. I could see the guy had a bass, I assume some of the rumble must have been notes, but not entirely sure.

Wow, I have to say they have had the best sound of any bands I have seen, with them possible exception of Royal blood, on multiple times I have seen them in recent years. The bass has always been distinct and clear. Perhaps a venue issue then by the sound of it.

[HazBeen]

I had the softest volume ever yesterday.... dep gig in local bar, 60s and 70s blues rock. Volume had to remain low so the landlord had us all on in-ear, electronic drum kit....... apparently the sound in the audience was fine, but I could almost hear a penny drop on stage.

I don’t think I will ever get used to the politically correct sound levels......

[Graham]

A bit ropey last night, but then the singer was suffering from a cold and this band don't play often. Second half was definetely better and the punters and bar staff were happy, so can't have been all bad.

I used my recently re-strung Yamaha TRB for almost the entire set and it sounded great, I think it'll be getting a fair bit more use until I can afford new strings for the Lakland.

[ZenX]

First gig with the current band tonight. We've had nearly a year rehearsing some of these songs while we went through three different singers 🙄🙄

Anyway pretty unanimous conclusion amongst ourselves was that we smashed it, both from each other and the people watching. Got into the embarrassing situation where people want an encore but you've played literally all your material. Sold 5 t shirts and got loads of good feedback. Onwards and upwards.

Edited November 11, 2018 by ZenX

[12stringbassist]

The 'frontman being shy' thing...

Similar to the poster's experience, an old band of mine were rehearsing a set and got a cancellation gig at a top local venue. We had to think up a band name at short notice then order the set list. The main singer / guitarist obviously hadn't done any prep on this and froze after the first song at the actual gig, which was totally unexpected. He just looked like he was scared stiff. A quick hiss of "talk to them" just got me a panicked look and I had to step up and put my best Noddy Holder impersonation into place. I have been doing it pretty much ever since.

Not the end of the world. If the lead singer doesn't want to do the chat, someone who has no issues with it can take over.

It always amuses me, watching Cheap Trick - they have the world's best singer - a very very capable speaker between songs at his own shows -- and guitarist Rick Nielsen talks to the crowd at the gigs.

[12stringbassist]

This weekend my old band, The Kerbcrawlers, reconvened after a 10 year gap for two shows. We had only one rehearsal - the night before - as one of our guitarists went to live in Spain 10 years ago.

The rehearsal was particularly hairy for me as my bass amp failed on me (once again - the manufactures had an email the next morning about this) and I had to plug into the PA, but we got through it and came away very happy.

The first night was at The Boulevard in Wigan and we got a decent crowd of friends and family down and had a nice evening playing two sets both well over an hour each. It was just a really great evening - a different atmosphere from your usual gigs. We supported The Quireboys once in a small theatre gig and had that rare level of audience concentration and appreciation. We played really well that night. Everything fell back into place and muscle memory kicked in.

The second night, we played a local venue and had to cut our set lists really short to clear the stage and make way for the DJ, who started at 12. We also didn't have that much of a crowd - because of boxing on TV apparently, but we were doing this gig for us.

Various cameras failed on us and at this point, we only have the one song from the two nights, though we are expecting some audience footage to be passed to us soon.

We really enjoyed the get together and don't expect to be doing it again as full shows.

Edited November 11, 2018 by 12stringbassist

[tonyf]

Bit of a rare nightmare one for me on Saturday night.

Did a gig at Akamba in Dickens Heath, 10 minutes drive from Chez Tony. It's a local club we play at 3 or 4 times a year and love it. Always a hot sweaty one, always a fabulous crowd and (usually) always a fun one to play.

Soundcheck was fraught, we lost the settings from the XR18 a couple of times and had to basically mix from scratch. Not necessarily a bad thing, somehow seemed to end up better starting with a clean slate but was stressful having to redo all the monitor mixes into the IEMs as everyone likes their own thing and it took a little time to sort that out each time we lost the mix. We also noticed really bad intermittent RF interference on one of the (usually ultra-reliable) wireless mics and my Yamaha wireless power button flashing amber and green. Not to worry, as always, I had a standby lead next to my board in case I needed to swap out the radio and go old skool. More on that later.  

Sound check over, zipped home to change rather than hanging about. Back to the gig, onto stage as scheduled with the baying crowd ready to dance off their jerk chicken and several pints of red stripe.

First number, more interference from the radio mic and then halfway through the first verse, no bass. Look down, no signal coming through the wireless. Checked the transmitter, plugged in, turned on, volume on the Ray turned up. 

PANIC!

Bent down and went into the much practiced emergency drill: unplugged wireless out the EBS MicroBass and plugged the lead from that to the bass. Fluid like, just like a trained athlete. 

Nothing. 

PANIC, part 2.

Again. Visually checked bass. And lead. And preamp. And XLR out preamp to DI. Still nothing. We're into the chorus now. With not a trace of bass. Unplug the effects loop so it's just the DI. Nothing still.

Keyboard player (near the XR18) signals me for the other end of the lead and he goes straight into the desk. Couple of tweaks on his Mac to swap from line level to instrument and he give me the nod. Still nothing. Again, a visual check of volume and that I'm plugged in. Zip. Nothing. Nada.

We've now virtually finished the song and the vocalists are brilliantly engaging the crowd in a bit of banter. Typically, it's all good nature and nobody gives much of a toss as they're up for a good time. Me however, it's literally the end of the world and I'm getting desperate. Swap bass. Nothing. Not the bass.

PANIC. Again. 

Last shake of dice and I reach into my bag and try a second lead. Now this is where it gets REALLY freaky. Into the bass, volume up and Brian plugs the new one into the desk. BOOOOOOOOM. The open E of wonderfulness. 

Crowd cheer, band give me a "thank the fook for that, lets get back on track and we're having words in the break" look and off we go for a pretty uneventful rest of the gig. In fact. straight into the desk from the bass without the effects and DI, it sounded absolutely fabulous through the in-ears. The intermittent interference on the singer's wireless mic continued for a couple of more songs so he eventually sacked it off and went back to a wired backup. Kinda made me feel a little less of a liability. But not much.

Anyhooo, this is the first time in 100s of gigs that anything has gone wrong for me. I'm always ABSOLUTELY meticulous about my gear and making sure everything is maintained and there's backups of everything. But, in this case, the pedal board down AND a seemingly faulty lead? Don't much believe in luck, but if I did, that seems pretty unlucky.

Back to the venue, in the postmortem afterwards, the chief suspect is the amount of recent work they've had done on the lighting and stage area. With all the additional kit, could this have meant a lot more pull on the power to the front of stage maybe not as clean a supply to the 240v outlets supplying all the digital gear in our PA and pedalboards? Dunno. Not an electrician but just a suspicion based on the fact that there's all this additional stuff and we've never had the number of things go wrong in the dozens of times we've played there before.

Anyway, based on the fact that the bass sounded SOOOOOOO good straight into the PA, it's started me thinking about selling the pedal board and getting small rack with a power conditioner, a REALLY good DI and a wireless and just going bare back into the PA. Keep it simple. Job done.

[Paul S]

17 minutes ago, tonyf said:

 

Did a gig at Akamba in Dickens Heath, the PA. Keep it simple. Job done.

Unusual name - I have a number of large specimen 'tropical' plants in my garden bought from a nursery called Akamba.  Turns out to be the same people.  I knew they had diversified but had no idea there was a music venue as well. 

[tonyf]

Just now, Paul S said:

Unusual name - I have a number of large specimen 'tropical' plants in my garden bought from a nursery called Akamba.  Turns out to be the same people.  I knew they had diversified but had no idea there was a music venue as well. 

It's been there for years both as a garden centre/adventure and a music venue. It's such a great place, really quirky but in a good way. Chris and the team also run a charity out in Africa and there's lots of events throughout the year to support that, including the annual music festival which we've done for the past 4 or 5 years. Always a great day.

[cheddatom]

Friday night was the Salty Dog in Northwich. They had a house kit that was already set up. No other drummers on the bill but also nowhere to move the kit to, and obviously someone had gone to the effort, so once I again I felt obliged to leave my drums in the van. It was actually a good kit and well tuned, and the stage was a shallow hollow wooden affair which I always like as it adds extra "weight" to the drums and bass. Our bassist is ace and he was pretty loud tonight. For whatever reason, it sounded just right without my earplugs in, and I played the whole set like that, which is the first time in at least 10 years. The venue was packed for the headliners - Steve Ignorant's Slice Of Live - I've seen them loads of times but I always enjoy it. He so engaging, and the band are fantastic. Awesome backing vocals, and the bass player is super stylish with a beautiful vintage sound. He keeps it simple, but plays some very melodic lines, and isn't scared of getting up past the 12th fret. So that was an ace one - I've tried to attach a photo of our bassist with me in the background

Saturday night I was still raging from being woken up by Bailiffs. I should have been tired from lack of sleep but adrenaline was firing me up. I was expecting to do an hour long set starting at 10ish but we didn't get on stage until 10:25 and were then told we had to be done by 11. It was a real shame 'cos I was really fired up. It was a weird one really. The "headline" band were on before us. They sound checked before us, left all their gear on the stage, left us with a brief check as punters were coming in. The sound guys had loads of technical problems. The sound in general was just rubbish really but as people were coming into the venue we felt we had to get off - and move our gear out of the way for the headliners to play before us. It all seemed the wrong way around to me and was just a bit of a let down.