Huge Hands

3 vocals plus guitar (I'm assuming mic'd cab) = 4 mics into the monitor(s). That can be problematic on a small stage if you're asing for a lot of level from the wedges. I'd need to know more about the layout - i.e. do you get a wedge each, or are you all sharing one?

Is the guitarist loud? (not many aren't ). Is his amp right next yours or the drummer so could be picking up rumble, or is it near the wedges so could be feeding back? My tip: Always try and keep monitors as simple as possible. The more stuff you try and cram in there, the less useful it becomes to you. Only ask for what you need.

Over the years, with rock/punk etc bands I have found guitar in the wedges to not be a common request, although you do get them. This is because the guitarist is usually more than loud enough himself. We regularly have to get ours to point his amp away from the band. No matter how many times we threaten to beat the living s**t out of him, he still gets louder and LOUDER!!!

Finally, if you reckon the other bands sound ok, then chances are yours will too, unless you are asking for something completely different to everyone else, or your backline is way louder than with everyone else.

Bear in mind that the over-all sound out front is coloured by the backline on stage. If you show up and whack the amp up because you're not used to it, then you will cause a problem for both on stage and FOH sound, especially if your settings are completely different to the bass player before you.

The sound guys should be in a good position of knowing the rigs, but once you plug in and play, it is down to you to run that amp properly alongside your band-mates.

Sorry sparky, I'm not having a go at you, it's just that as an ex-monitor and FOH (and both off one desk) guy, you get sick of bands turning themselves up way too loud and then trying to blame the sound guy for being unable to make it sound good out front or on stage over the top of the din.

Just found a PA firm who will deliver/collect a rig for about £300 and the charity is willing to go for it.

If anyone wants to beat this price, or knows someone who will, then please let me know ASAP.

It is saving no-one but the small charity money.

[quote name='paul, the' post='202074' date='May 19 2008, 01:28 PM']Mr. Cogbill used Vaseline in the studio.


Suit you sir.[/quote]

I believe his highness Mr Pastorius used chicken grease....

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='200910' date='May 17 2008, 10:19 AM']"Just seen this and my pay [b]check[/b]....."[/quote]

tBBC, are you an American in disguise?

At the cheaper end of the scale, my Cort C5 has tight string spacing, which is one of the reasons I'm now thinking of getting something else.

I had a look at a Squier p5 recently and it was like a workbench in comparison!

Welcome.

If your precision was second hand in '63 (i.e. older than that), I'd have said you'll be very popular around here!

I played a gig with Labella flats for the first time last week.

I don't think I sweat badly, i.e. my fingers weren't damp, but I did find the strings got more sticky as the gig went on (played 4 sets with 10 min breaks after each one).

I felt like I was having to work harder to play the faster stuff.

Just my experience. Hasn't put me off though. Have kept them on the bass!

Nice job! Looks good in the case, and glad to see that there is still lots of quality engineering going on in the old homeland!

I would have liked to have seen how he shaped the holes. Rack nuts are often fiddly to fit into properly factory machined holes, never mind "adjusted" ones.

Glad you got it sorted Mr of-Tyne!

[quote name='Hamster' post='200912' date='May 17 2008, 10:24 AM']Ummmmmmm - cake [/quote]

Stottie cake???????

No, I won't shut up about it. Any geordies coming to West Sussex in the near future? I need a proper bacon sandwich!!

Oh, er yes, happy birthday to one and all!

Thanks Dave. That's a damn shame!

Gentle bump:

No one else? I didn't mean this to sound like we were asking for a freebie, more like mate's rates. I can probably get some money out of the charity, once I know what is being asked for. We as the band are doing it for free as a favour to the keyboardist's missus, but we wouldn't expect to get a PA and all that effort for nowt, we were just hoping to keep the cost down so that more money could go to them at the end of the night.

Any leads to cheap rental places in London or enthusiastic amateur soundies with their own rig would be appreciated.

Cheers!

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='199617' date='May 15 2008, 02:37 PM']what bar is it?[/quote]
Its the Latin Square bar (just up from the Venus - er, ahem, gentlemans club)

Here goes, cap in hand:

Our band is playing at a bar on Farringdon Road (London) on Saturday 24th May for a charidee (not arf!) event. Our keyboard player's missus works for the charity and is organising it. She was led to believe the venue had a PA that could handle a band, but we went to check it out the other night and it just has a CD player and a couple of nondescript hifi speakers.

I was wondering if anyone could either a) lend us a PA, or b even better has a soundy with their own gear on a night off who might fancy doing it?

I may be able to negotiate a reimbursement from the organisers, but I don't think it would be enough to either buy a PA or rent one at top professional rates. I could be wrong though, I don't know how much these things are!

At minumum, we would need the PA to handle 3 vocal mics and a sax for about 100 people. If we could get some sub action and run a bit of the band through it as well - even better!

The band actually consists of drums, bass (and upright bass for a couple of numbers), guitar, keys, sax, lead vocals and backing vocals. The singer also farts about with percussion, but usually uses his vocal mic.

If anyone can help, knows anyone, or can make some constructive suggestions, then please let me know.

I don't know if this will help persuade, but the charity supports Latin American women in this country. I can't guarantee there will be lots of nubile young Brazilian ladies there, but there's a better chance than normal I suppose!

Cheers in advance,

Stew

Grrr! I used to hate these rack cases, the nut would always slide away up the channel behind the rack ear when tring to fit!

WoT, I spoke to the guys at work about the Middle Atlantic racks. Apparently their holes are a tapped hole for their own bolts (no cage nuts required).

Apparently our guys then often drill and re-tap them to the standard M6 size. They reckon the Mid Atlantic steel is too tough to self tap. They reckon you could probably self tap the aluminium sides on your case, but would always recommend doing it properly by tapping out the hole with a die and then using bolts

I don't know if that's of any use whatsoever, and probably too late!

Not really TV, but I used to want to play the bassline on "The Generation Gap" kids game theme on Jamie Theakston's Heart FM breakfast show.

The current version is simpler, but the previous version they used up until last year was great. Big walking thing that was really fast. I am assuming it was a parody of the original.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='196063' date='May 10 2008, 04:35 PM']Thanks again!

Huge Hands... are you suggesting that if I got these self-tappers, I wouldn't need a cage nut or anything on the other side?

That might be a goer, because a ) I really like my Boschma case and b ) I'm now totally skint...[/quote]

Yup. Let me check into it at work tomorrow before I make a fool of myself, unless Mr Hunt's solution beats me to it!

The problem to watch out for is the power rating. If 80W is what it will handle just before it explodes (which some manufacturers will quote to make their gear sound better than it is), then its comfortable handling output may be a lot lower.

Decent home hi-fis can get up to that sort of power, so think carefully about what you need it for. It may only be for practice, but be careful you don't fork out £200 for something that is essentially useless once the drummer starts up. I wouldn't expect it to handle anything other than vocals.

This would be no good for our singer, because no matter how much be beat the s**t out him, the guitarist just wouldn't turn down enough for him to be heard!

[quote name='charic' post='193825' date='May 7 2008, 01:17 PM']Lol is this sound engineer corner or summat?[/quote]
Ha ha, no - I was the engineer and chardbass was in the venue's "house band". He was correctly moaning about how bad the mics smelled after having to share our limited stock with other artists.

It did prompt us to clean them more regularly - unfortunately it kept stripping the black paint off the pop shields!

I did once hear that Charlene Spiteri from Texas used to make someone go out and clean her mic during the first few chords of the first song at a gig - everyone would cheer him because they thought it was her! Not sure if it was just an urban myth though.

I agree with WH. The local Co-op on our estate is selling off loads of Christmas chocs dirt cheap because they're about to go out of date (and it's not Christmas).

Perhaps your local one might be the same?

As the previous poster said, it looks like it's been made to fit a 1U mount, but then overhang so you are forced to give it top and bottom gaps in a larger rack.

From your photo there are no vents on the top casing, which doesn't really appear to back this up. Strange.

The side mounts on your case are probably aluminium, so with a good pilot hole you may be able to use decent self tappers?

Middle Atlantic (expensive pro install racks) often work on a self tapping theory, so you may be able to get bolts (and possibly even correct thread dies) from them.

If you do have to go down that route, PM me and I may be able to have an ask (we deal with their distributor at work).

[quote name='Mrs Tinman' post='195173' date='May 9 2008, 07:31 AM']Hi Stew

I'm pleased to hear that your recovery has gone well and that you're back to playing - I hope the gig goes really well

Yes! [/quote]

Thanks Terri. Sorry about the delay, catching back up with the job has been a nightmare! I'll get on it ASAP!

Check out the Skatalites stuff.

We have done some of their versions of well known numbers.

[quote name='paul, the' post='194139' date='May 7 2008, 07:19 PM']Just listened to your band's myspace tracks. Great stuff! Nice feel on the busier Tell Papa in the verses, too.[/quote]

Thanks. Not bad for a rough mix onto minidisc from a rehearsal studio (using their room's mixer and mics). Just a shame my rusty old PC added a load of noise to them when trying to edit etc.

Ha ha, I claim it's all part of the vintage atmosphere, and manages to hide some, but not all of the duff notes!

[quote name='The Funk' post='193963' date='May 7 2008, 03:57 PM']Jazz After Dark is a great place to gig. Everything is against you and so if you can pull off a good gig, it's because it all came from you. One gig there is worth 20 rehearsals.[/quote]

I completely agree. We play there a lot, and it's great bumping your head on the mirrorball and trying to get through the throng between sets.

Apart from the occasional groups of rowdy Norwegian drunkards that seem to get in there, it's usually a great atmosphere.