Tengu

What is the name of the band, and do you have any preference for age range?

You might want to work on a few runs here and there but I wouldn't start out by trying to play more. When you get around to playing live you will find that the energy of the gig will add a little to your playing. If you start too complicated you run the risk of totally over-playing in the live situation. Your playing style reminds me of mine. I'm normally so laid back I could do with a mattress. Quite often, though, I embellish lines during a gig, mostly to tick off the guitarist.

My band played at the Drakefest event in Portsmouth yesterday. They provided FOH and monitors and we just brought our backline. I normally run everything through FOH and use backline for just on stage sound but this time we got to crank our amps up and really rumble the floor. Everyone commented on how good it sounded. We do also get comments about our regular set-up and how good the sound balance is. In most of those cases, however, I can hardly hear what I m playing on stage. Oh well, as long as the punters are happy.

That logo was put on by a machine so trying to do it free-hand would never look the same. I suppose you could print the picture you have there and create a stencil but you would still need to be very precise. It might be easier to try tacking down a replacement from somewhere. I'm sure there must be places online that sell spares like this.

Rowlands Castle is just a couple of minutes from where I live. I might have to take a trip up there and check things out. I have played there once or twice and played with Herbie a couple of times at the old open mic night that Keith used to run.

More likely the one in London Road, North End.

The insert socket is TRS with the sleeve being ground, tip is signal send and ring is signal return. Normal insert cables will have a stereo jack at the mixer and two mono jacks at the other. So you have one jack going into your effect (or whatever) and another in the output, in order to return a signal to the mixer. If your recorder has an in and out (monitor?) for each track then you just need an ordinary insert lead. If not then you need some other way to return the signal back to the mixer. Plugging in the insert lead effectively breaks the signal chain at that point so you need to wire your cable in such a way as to send the out signal right back to the mixer. You can do that by using a stereo plug on the mixer end and soldering a link between the tip and ring. At the other end you have a mono jack that is connect just to the tip and sleeve. I hope that makes sense. Bear in mind that doing this is effectively splitting your signal and thus you will need to increase the gain in order to get the same level.

This is from the Berserker tour in '84. I always liked Andy's playing and he seems like a top bloke. He always looked a bit embarrassed when it came to the solo at the end of this song. Typical bassist, I suppose, not really comfortable in the, literal, spotlight.

[quote name='chris_b' post='730872' date='Jan 31 2010, 06:04 PM']Put "cable coiling" into Youtube. There must be 30 different clips. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqbYyaUY5Sk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqbYyaUY5Sk[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUjNaRgKg4Y"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUjNaRgKg4Y[/url][/quote] Forget the second link. Both their methods are wrong. The first link shows the proper method quite well.

[quote name='oldmanrock' post='730867' date='Jan 31 2010, 05:59 PM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLwwB29uQRg"]Try here[/url][/quote] That is the way I do it. The rest of my band think I'm nuts but I have cables that I have owned for over 15 years. They also think I am weird for carrying a Gerber multi-tool and miniMaglite on my belt, but it doesn't stop them borrowing them every gig.

You can't go wrong with one of these. [url="http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipment/alesis-3630-dual-channel-compressor-limiter--1155"]http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipment/ales...r-limiter--1155[/url] I use a couple as inserts on the FOH desk for my bass and all our vocals. For less than a ton it is an effective unit. Plus it has lots of shiny lights.

I was taught to use a Stanley knife to strip the outer sheath and then any decent wire-stripper is good for the individual signal wires. I even have a small notch in one of my front teeth from years of doing it the cheap way. For the outer insulation you make a cut around the circumference of the cable, being careful not to cut into the internals, and then cut length-wise from there to the end of the cable. You should then be able to peel the excess insulation off like a banana. That is particularly useful if you want to expose a larger length as you don't tug on the internal wires and screening.

I presume that the reason you have two wireless receivers is because you switch instruments during a gig. How about changing the frequency of the transmitters so that they are both the same and only use one receiver? As long as you ensure that you mute the transmitter that you are not using you would have no interference.

Does your amp have both line and DI out then? Did the sound man connect your Line Out to a DI box or run it straight to his desk? Given the choice between a DI and a Line I would take the former every time. Or mic the amp if there is room.

Get your mate to re-solder the jack sockets and pots anyway. The sockets are only secured by the solder and experience some stress over time. It is unlikely that you would see anything even under magnification. I had a similar problem and touching up the solder joints worked a treat.

Line out is a far hotter signal, .5 to 2 Volts compared to millivolts for Mic level. It is usually provided to drive another amplifier rather than sending to a mixer. Most sound men will want a Mic level, balanced signal that matches everything else arriving at their desk and if you are connecting via a snake then it will be down balanced XLR connections. If I don't mic a guitar amp I will run a short lead from the line out of the amp to a DI box and from there to the desk. A line out is normally a feed from the preamp so is more likely to be post EQ. You would have to check the individual unit's documentation to be sure.

Mine is lined but purely because it was the only one available in my price range at the time. I can't really see the lines during gigs so I could probably get away without them. I'd like to try an unlined one once I have more experience with the fretless (I've only been playing it for about a year).

My rig is mostly there for onstage monitoring so the tone isn't so critical. I tend to go clean through without any EQ or pre-shapping. The desk gets a pre-EQ signal, regardless, which leaves the sound guy with something he can set as he likes for FOH. If I am in a venue where a flat EQ is difficult to hear or the rest of the band are overpowering my amp I will switch in the EQ and boost the mids.

Like Bob, I am short sighted so I couldn't make eye contact even if I wanted to. I do try to look up more but every time someone takes a picture that I am in (normally by accident) I find that I am staring at the fretboard. Not that it matters a great deal to our audiences as I am usually standing behind a singer and a guitarist.

Do you have other equipment plugged in and turned on at the same time? Has it only started humming since you brought it into the practice room? It could be a short somewhere but it is more likely that an earth lead has come loose somewhere. Try unplugging everything and then plug it all in and power up piece by piece. If you still get the hum with just the combo plugged in check the earth lead in the plug, the socket and any extensions you have connected. If you are comfortable opening it up you could try looking inside to see if any earth leads are loose. Does the amp have a ground lift switch? If so try toggling it. If the hum is not present with just the combo plugged in just started powering up stuff one by one. Do the same checks with each new device. Be very careful.