How was your gig last night?

[taunton-hobbit]

If I were still playing out that would be a 'must have' .

 

😎

[asingardenof]

10 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Out of curiosity what actually happened with the amp/cab when it failed. 

What were the symptoms. Might help us BC'ers to advise where to look.

I bought the tester from Amazon yrs ago. Works off a 9V battery but the battery lasts for well over a year as its not something you will use much until a cable fails.

Here's the new version of mine with added computer cable testing by looks of it at £61.

Dave

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MFL-Rectangular-13-Plug-Checker-Indicators/dp/B0972J2ZR9/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1AN2XNHUZBD9K&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.eZNIhqKHAqdqQPWZ8EkC2Wm9mCQAhEoLbDKNn_KLEywi-46-_mliQeRlRZkt9TcxwbDRxWdBBAtQSDXSgY4kMNdnkV-Cu9K_m3AZzL9NZeWaDpcU9VpEq2yj-LwIDXrwj0-TmjGdzn-HFmyWezMXe2aRAXW9199K1kx-TYgrdZxAOfc8JCgePrM13CL6FqOEgV5BGFR2dCBbCX6NC32_fzKWVkect1DAqi9aq9bE9ACHSyxAYrLtwKvt8_GZyUsTqoFcSCZ-ouZckOiB0Enykhca2PruhOZZ0KW3_Qz999k.AGnMSfGF0vkXHHlbwvbHm6SaNINWa7M2LxmKtzw-wvM&dib_tag=se&keywords=cable+tester&qid=1708898376&sprefix=cable+tester%2Caps%2C110&sr=8-5

 

It was intermittently and frequently cutting out for a couple of seconds at a time during our first set on NYE, but as it was always during songs with the full band playing it was annoying but livewithable. The start of our second set was A Town Called Malice and there's no hiding place during the bass solo in the middle!

 

On the night I tried (in order):

 

1. Checking all the power and patch cable connections on my pedal board.

2. Checking the instrument cables at either ends.

3. Checking the amp power lead was still plugged in.

4. Checking the speaker cable was still plugged in.

5. Bypassing the pedalboard using both instrument cables

6. Changing bass

 

Step 6 worked (although there was a little blip with the second bass at one point) so I thought it might be a loose connection within the bass, but I took it apart post-gig and all of the connections were sound; plus as I say it had glitched once with the other bass as well.

 

So I sent the amp back to PMT under warranty and thence it went to TE, who examined it and declared it free of defects. In the meantime I used the first bass and cab at a band rehearsal with my ABM and a different speaker cable (the ABM takes Speakon but the Elf doesn't) and everything worked fine. With the benefit of hindsight I should have used the cable I used on NYE, but that's now my suspect for testing at next rehearsal on Sunday. I will buy a new cable before then as well to make sure I have one I know works!

[Linus27]

Great gig on Friday night at the brilliant Login Lounge in Camberley. We've played there a few times and it can be a bit hit or miss with the audience but this time it was pretty busy. The sound is always fantastic though and the sound guys really know what they are doing.

 

During my soundcheck, the soundman said I was getting quite a bit of buzzing from my setup. I suspected it was my pedals but by going direct into my MarkBass LM IV and Barefaced Two10, the buzzing was still there. I'd just recently added a Sansamp BDDI v2 onto my board and suggested trying the DI on that. At that point an older guy who I think was the main sound man who wasn't working came over and asked what's up. The main sound guy explained and said we were going to try going through the Sansamp. He said that its probably their DI and going through the Sansamp will give a really clean sound and the Sansamp is an awesome bit of kit. He seemed to know what he was talking about and low and behold, no buzzing and my bass sounded incredible all night. Just as he walked off, he turned back and said, oh and by the way, your fretless playing sounds amazing 😁

 

We played amazing and the sound on stage was incredible, especially my bass. After the gig, I then got a couple more people come up to me and compliment me on my fretless playing so I went away super happy.

[casapete]

Three gigs for me this week.

First of two with ‘The ELO Experience’ was at Newark on Friday. A fine medium sized theatre that

we’ve done annually for a long time. Had a slight technical hitch at the beginning of the first set,

but managed to overcome it and all went well.

 

Saturday night saw us at The Corn Exchange in Kings Lynn. Another of my favourite venues that

seats around 750 and it was virtually full with a lovely crowd, all up for a good night. Had some of my 

family come along who I’d not seen for a while, including my nephew who brought with him 

some superb sausage rolls and brownies from his cafe in Cambridge which the band and crew devoured.

The square outside the venue was taken over by a visiting fairground, so the town was very busy all

evening. Bit tricky getting our vehicles in and out but well worth the hassle.

I”m counting down the gigs before I leave the band now, so just 9 more to go. 🙁

 

Final gig for me was tonight with my acoustic duo Milestone at our regular venue ‘The Lookout’ in

Scarborough harbour. A really high tide when we arrived looked a bit of a worry at one point but

didn’t block our way to the venue. An absolutely cracking evening, my guitarist mate Gary was 

on top form and dazzled the audience with his playing. Some great requests as ever, including

’Galveston’ , ‘ A certain smile’ and Bat out of Hell’ ! We’re back there in two weeks time, can’t wait.

 

 

[dmccombe7]

10 hours ago, asingardenof said:

It was intermittently and frequently cutting out for a couple of seconds at a time during our first set on NYE, but as it was always during songs with the full band playing it was annoying but livewithable. The start of our second set was A Town Called Malice and there's no hiding place during the bass solo in the middle!

 

On the night I tried (in order):

 

1. Checking all the power and patch cable connections on my pedal board.

2. Checking the instrument cables at either ends.

3. Checking the amp power lead was still plugged in.

4. Checking the speaker cable was still plugged in.

5. Bypassing the pedalboard using both instrument cables

6. Changing bass

 

Step 6 worked (although there was a little blip with the second bass at one point) so I thought it might be a loose connection within the bass, but I took it apart post-gig and all of the connections were sound; plus as I say it had glitched once with the other bass as well.

 

So I sent the amp back to PMT under warranty and thence it went to TE, who examined it and declared it free of defects. In the meantime I used the first bass and cab at a band rehearsal with my ABM and a different speaker cable (the ABM takes Speakon but the Elf doesn't) and everything worked fine. With the benefit of hindsight I should have used the cable I used on NYE, but that's now my suspect for testing at next rehearsal on Sunday. I will buy a new cable before then as well to make sure I have one I know works!

Open up the speakon connectors and tighten up the terminal screws. I've had this with PA speakon leads.  A loose connection screw on a cable could open circuit with vibration. I know we should all routinely check our cables but we don't 

Let us know what you find. Curious now. 

Dave

[Cat Burrito]

12 hours ago, Jackroadkill said:

@Cat Burrito, that's a great review; your duo sounds great.  If I'm ever in your area, or you're in mine, I'll make a point of coming to see you play.  I was in a very short-lived Goth duo in High Wycombe, once, but I think I'd prefer to see you guys doing it properly rather than remember that little project!

Thank you. We don't do *much* outside our local area live wise as it has to not run at a loss but we have been as far as Lancaster and played Southampton, Bristol and are in Camden for the Goth festival All that is Devine. I think the genre is very broad and our angle has always been take the music seriously but not take ourselves too seriously. We have some fun videos on YouTube that are worth searching out - fighting zombies, burning witches and destroying the planet. Worth searching out Deadlight Dance on YouTube to see our collaboration with the film maker Haunting The Atom. I'm amazed at how many goth acts are around at the moment, many of which are really good. 

[E sharp]

Sorry - unable to link in clip , so scrubbed the post

Edited February 26 by E sharp
.

[asingardenof]

10 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Open up the speakon connectors and tighten up the terminal screws. I've had this with PA speakon leads.  A loose connection screw on a cable could open circuit with vibration. I know we should all routinely check our cables but we don't 

Let us know what you find. Curious now. 

Dave

The issue occurred with a ¼" jack lead. The Speakon lead I used with the ABM worked fine.

[dmccombe7]

2 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

The issue occurred with a ¼" jack lead. The Speakon lead I used with the ABM worked fine.

Ah sorry my mistook. Could be worth opening the jack to see if cables are all securely attached and soldered joints are ok.

Failing that maybe the jack socket on the cab has dodgy contacts ?

Just throwing ideas into the pot see what comes out 👍

Dave

[asingardenof]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Ah sorry my mistook. Could be worth opening the jack to see if cables are all securely attached and soldered joints are ok.

Failing that maybe the jack socket on the cab has dodgy contacts ?

Just throwing ideas into the pot see what comes out 👍

Dave

No worries, all advice and suggestions gratefully received!

[asingardenof]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Ah sorry my mistook. Could be worth opening the jack to see if cables are all securely attached and soldered joints are ok.

Failing that maybe the jack socket on the cab has dodgy contacts ?

Just throwing ideas into the pot see what comes out 👍

Dave

The jacks all look pretty intact, well from what I can see since the joints have all been sealed but the seals aren't showing any signs of damage.

[dmccombe7]

10 hours ago, asingardenof said:

The jacks all look pretty intact, well from what I can see since the joints have all been sealed but the seals aren't showing any signs of damage.

Out of curiosity what speaker cables are you using ?

If the speaker cable is ok and its still happening it could be the jack socket in the cab. Does it have a double jack socket on the cab.

If still happening try the other jack socket see if its ok. 

Failing that its down to the speakers i reckon. My next step would be remove the speakers or if you have access to them from the back of the cab to check the soldered connections on the speakers themselves. 

If all that is checked and seems ok then you may have to take the cab to a repair shop to do some in proper checks of the cab.

Dave

Edited February 27 by dmccombe7

[asingardenof]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Out of curiosity what speaker cables are you using ?

If the speaker cable is ok and its still happening it could be the jack socket in the cab. Does it have a double jack socket on the cab.

If still happening try the other jack socket see if its ok. 

Failing that its down to the speakers i reckon. My next step would be remove the speakers or if you have access to them from the back of the cab to check the soldered connections on the speakers themselves. 

If all that is checked and seems ok then you may have to take the cab to a repair shop to do some in proper checks of the cab.

Dave

It's a Klotz SC1PP01SW - one of these: https://shop.klotz-ais.com/sc1pp.html

 

The speakers seem to be OK, as I say I've used the cab since the incident but using a different cable connector type and it worked fine. I'll try the jack cable in the other socket on the cab at rehearsal on Sunday to see if that does anything, but the cable is my main suspect at the moment. If I still get the issue I'll buy a new cable and see if that works (if nothing else I'll have a spare), then if I still get problems I'll take the back off the cab and see what's what.

[Stub Mandrel]

20 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

It's a Klotz SC1PP01SW - one of these: https://shop.klotz-ais.com/sc1pp.html

 

The speakers seem to be OK, as I say I've used the cab since the incident but using a different cable connector type and it worked fine. I'll try the jack cable in the other socket on the cab at rehearsal on Sunday to see if that does anything, but the cable is my main suspect at the moment. If I still get the issue I'll buy a new cable and see if that works (if nothing else I'll have a spare), then if I still get problems I'll take the back off the cab and see what's what.

 

If it's an intermittent fault, and it sounds like it, it could be really hard to track down and could be in something you've already decided is fine.

Two strategies - try and replicated the fault with minimal kit in the signal path, then add things until you get an issue. Second, the cable testers @dmccombe7 suggests usually have an ability to detect intermittent faults, even very brief ones, by lighting an LED if there's even a brief interruption to continuity.

[dmccombe7]

25 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

It's a Klotz SC1PP01SW - one of these: https://shop.klotz-ais.com/sc1pp.html

 

The speakers seem to be OK, as I say I've used the cab since the incident but using a different cable connector type and it worked fine. I'll try the jack cable in the other socket on the cab at rehearsal on Sunday to see if that does anything, but the cable is my main suspect at the moment. If I still get the issue I'll buy a new cable and see if that works (if nothing else I'll have a spare), then if I still get problems I'll take the back off the cab and see what's what.

Good quality cable too but cable damage can happen to the best of them. I'm still hoping its a simple fix for you.

All the best

Dave

[asingardenof]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Good quality cable too but cable damage can happen to the best of them. I'm still hoping its a simple fix for you.

All the best

Dave

Fingers well and truly crossed!

[asingardenof]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

If it's an intermittent fault, and it sounds like it, it could be really hard to track down and could be in something you've already decided is fine.

Two strategies - try and replicated the fault with minimal kit in the signal path, then add things until you get an issue. Second, the cable testers @dmccombe7 suggests usually have an ability to detect intermittent faults, even very brief ones, by lighting an LED if there's even a brief interruption to continuity.

I tried the first strategy on the night by just having bass-amp-cab but the problem persisted. My basses, cab and instrument leads haven't given me any problems since, and Trace Elliot have given the Elf a clean bill of health, so the speaker cable appears to be the culprit. I will definitely be investigating a cable tester if I still have issues after this weekend though. 

[Bluewine]

https://www.facebook.com/share/aEz7p16HqTs9pwc9/?mibextid=xfxF2i

[Muzz]

No gig last weekend, and the other proto-band collapsed due to lethargy/inertia on the part of two of the members, but the good news is I'm starting Satdy on a run of 8 March gigs with the 'busy' band...

[dmccombe7]

9 minutes ago, Muzz said:

No gig last weekend, and the other proto-band collapsed due to lethargy/inertia on the part of two of the members, but the good news is I'm starting Satdy on a run of 8 March gigs with the 'busy' band...

Positive attitude. That's the way to go.  

Dave

[MichaelDean]

First gig with the band this evening. Played the first heat of the Bristol Metal 2 the Masses competition, where we had a chance to play at Bloodstock. The last gig I played was probably 2019 and was with a function band, so a very different thing tonight. 

 

Didn't get through, which has bummed me out a bit. A thrash band and the first one with the bunch of early 20s went through. I think maybe doom is a bit of a harder sell. I also had a couple of clangers too, so that might have had something to do with it. I need to practice with my multi fx. I can play the songs, but I don't use it at home. It'd help iron out a few things. Good fun though being back on stage mind you. We decided that the singer shouldn't be in the middle, so we flanked me with the guitarists and I got to throw lots of shapes. 

 

[casapete]

Only one gig for me this week, last night at Burnley Mechanics.

 

A great theatre built in the mid 19th century as a mechanics institute, and then converted into

a theatre in the late 1970’s. Access not easy, gear in via a lift and then onto the stage using

a converted truck tail lift! ( see below ). Friendly crew and good backstage facilities too.

We had a full house of around 450, and they were brilliant. Always a lively crowd at this venue,

and the band played spot on.  Well worth the 3 hour journey over the Pennines, which had

some snow and icy conditions which slowed us down a bit. Home by 1a.m., knackered today 

though so glad I have a quiet weekend. 
 

 

 

Edited March 3 by casapete

[Paul S]

2 hours ago, casapete said:

Only one gig for me this week, last night at Burnley Mechanics.

 

A great theatre built in the mid 19th century as a mechanics institute, and then converted into

a theatre in the late 1970’s. Access not easy, gear in via a lift and then onto the stage using

a converted truck tail lift! ( see below ). Friendly crew and good backstage facilities too.

We had a full house of around 450, and they were brilliant. Always a lively crowd at this venue,

and the band played spot on too. Well worth the 3 hour journey over the Pennines, which had

some snow and icy conditions which slowed us down a bit. Home by 1am, knackered today 

though so glad I have a quiet weekend. 
 

 

 

 

You are going to miss it, Pete.

[casapete]

3 hours ago, Paul S said:

 

You are going to miss it, Pete.

Dead right Paul, it’s certainly going to take a while to adjust.
I’m hoping to continue with more gigs with the acoustic duo though so not fully retiring,

more just down sizing! 

[Franticsmurf]

2 hours ago, casapete said:

Dead right Paul, it’s certainly going to take a while to adjust.
I’m hoping to continue with more gigs with the acoustic duo though so not fully retiring,

more just down sizing! 

I'm going to miss the mini histories of the places you play. I love reading them. I used to play miner's halls and various iterations of working men's clubs in the Welsh Valleys and I loved the old architecture and fixtures/fittings inside. They told a story and I could imagine the places as they used to be in the heyday of the mining industry in those parts.