Greg Edwards69

It’s been in our regular set for years. Great fun to play, and sing with those big harmonies. It never fails to get the crowd joining in. We do a little bit at the end to give our drummer a little spotlight too.

Nearly forgot to write a report We were back at the Cow & Telescope in Southend on Saturday night. We played out debut there a couple of months ago but we must have left a good impression as we were invited back for this prime Saturday before Xmas when another band had to pull out. Apparently a number of other bands requested the slot but the venue wanted us. I did wonder what sort of turn out it would be, given it was the Saturday before Xmas but also the first day of a long break at home for many people. My fears were unwarranted as we had a great turnout. And everyone was up for a proper party. Singing, dancing and joining in from the start. The usual Christmas songs went down well and our super-sub, Sophie, I reckon did her best yet with us. Fab night and back slaps all round.

I've just checked the manuals for these two pedals. The BC-1X manual states that the effect is always engaged when powered on: The CEB-3 manual has no such statement, however, and neither manual suggests a way to change it - there's no hidden dip switches, for example. Based upon the BC-1X behaviour and my previous experience with my old V-Wah, I suspect this the default behaviour of many Boss pedals, annoying as it is.

It's a bit dated, but sounds like the old Boss ME-50b might suit you more than the current generation of digital multi-fx.

I really don't understand why Boss designs their pedals like this. I had a V-Wah pedal that did the same thing - every time I powered it up the wah was engaged. I stopped using it when I had power problems on one gig. They ought to include a dip switch inside so you can decide whether the effect is engaged or not when power is applied, or at least remember its last used state.

Decent one at the Crumpled Horn in Upminster for us on Saturday. It’s a little cramped for bands, but dropping he backline this year gave us a little more space compared to when we played there last Christmas. Due to the space restrictions, we set up sensibly, in sections rather than bringing everything in all at once, which helped us set up in record time. So we had the luixry of 45mins spare to relax before we started playing. We played well and our super sub Sophie once again dial a great job standing in for Jenny on co-lead vocals. Good crowd from the start who were up for a party and dancing (although there was one bloke who was calling out for mustang sally even before we started. Got the usual “one more song” requests, but we had to stop eventually as we had to pack up and get home before it got to silly o’clock. Next stop, back at the Cow and Telescope in Southend on the 23rd for our last gig of the year.

Other more informed experts will be able to explain it better than I can. But my understanding is that ground reinforcement/coupling is only effective within a certain radius of the speaker. i.e. if you're relying on a couple of small cabs to fill the room, the excited low end you hear by having the cab on the floor probably won't be heard out in the audience. Also, treble frequencies are directional (meaning the speaker has to be pointing directly at your head to hear them clearly) and bass frequencies are omni-directional (meaning they can be heard from anywhere). Hence why you can always heard muffled, bass from outside a nightclub. Raising the cab off the floor and tilting the cab to point at your head will give you a much better idea of what the audience is hearing. Likewise, guitarists would also do well to do the same thing. For one, it stops the stage being swamped with low end, and two, they'll hear their treble better. Too many guitarists don't realise how piercing their treble is - and painful for the audience - because it's firing at their own knees.

That's great to hear it's doing the job for you. Fingers crossed the adhesive is strong enough that it doesn't ping off during an energetic performance!

This thread, combined with Saturday's gig has got me thinking. We've gone totally IEM this year and only abandoned the backline around 6 months ago - so vocals, bass, guitars and keyboard are all going through the PA, but only the bass drum is mic'd, the rest of the kit is generally loud enough for the types of places we play. FWIW, we're all hearing the same mono mix - Aux 1 from a Yamaha MG20xu desk into a splitter that spits out to several Xvive U4 receivers and a couple of wired feeds (Behringer P2 and the drummer uses a small mixer). On Saturday, our drummer recorded a few songs from his phone, perched just behind him on his right. The drums sounded pretty good, but obviously, the rest of the mix wasn't there as the PA is in front. We've mentioned using an ambient mic to compensate for the isolation effect and usefully, one of the guitarists has a boundary mic somewhere (we tried it when we first tried going IEM a few years ago, but abandoned the idea after realising the cheap G4M kit was crap). From the drummer's recordings, I'm thinking sticking it directly behind him would sound quite good mixed into the IEM feed. I also said to him that those recordings would sound really good if they could somehow be mixed with the IEM feed. So..., I'm wondering. With the Zoom recorders, can you use them to send the ambient sound to the desk AND record the IEM feed from the desk simultaneously? Or will it only record what it is hearing from the mics?

The Sarah Moore in Leigh-on-Sea on Saturday night. Usefully, about 5 minutes from my home. Arrived in good time for an 8.30 start and 11pm finish but we weren't able to start setting up until nearly 7 before we could start setting up as the landlord had put a couple of handwritten signs on the two tables in the band area saying "reserved until 7pm". So, it ended up being a bit of a rush to get everything set up and soundchecked. Not to mention bringing the wrong mixer and having to wait 30 mins for the right one to arrive. The pub was busy all night and was up for a party from the start. And we had a dep singer (Sophie) standing in for Jen (who has been poorly), who did a grand job and brought a small crowd with her. I've also had a cold brewing for two or three days prior. Just an irritation in the throat, but my voice was shot by the end. One of the guitarists remarked that I sounded like Voldemort. Hopefully, me and Jen will be back fighting fit for the next 2 two gigs later this month.

I don't think it's just clothes and costumes. But many punters just don't get that the band's equipment a) costs money, and b) is not there for them to use and abuse without asking, such as... Getting up on stage to join in grabbing my mic. If invited up, standing on pedalboards. Getting too close to the band, spilling beer, or falling onto equipment. Putting drinks on speaker cabs. or next to power outlets.

Slade, Wizzard, Mariah (yeah, I know) and Pogues/Kirsty MacColl for us. And just one rehearsal this Sunday to dust them all off again. Good shout on "last Christmas", I may suggest it.

The seemingly daft thing is, I'm a graphic designer by trade. You'd think I'd be on top of all this stuff. But in my defence, I come from a print background. I can make things looks pretty, it's the admin side of it I struggle with. It's often been said in my office, where there are only a couple of us under 50, that we're too old to get on top of social media. EDIT: We've been saying about getting a showreel filmed. But I'm now thinking a photo shoot would be more useful - we haven't done one for well over 10 years, and our line up has changed since then, so I've been cludging together a mixed bad of headshots from various places. We've got plenty of live footage uploaded over the years, I reckon that's more honest and marketable to venues than a studio-filmed recording. Even if the quality isn't as good as a professional recording, seeing videos of people dancing to our performances must be more engaging to venues.

You're on to something there. The couple of bands that are regarded by many as the top cover bands in the county charge more than most others and are very busy - usually 2 or 3 gigs a week, just in pubs/bars. They are on top of their social media game. One has a website that is barebones - pretty much just a photo, gig list and merch page selling a single CD, and the other doesn't have a website at all. I know my lot needs to get on top of our SM game to sell ourselves more. We've been trying this last year, but need to get better at it. It's made me think that our band website is less important than I thought. It could be distilled down to a single page with a gig list and links to socials/youtube - more a landing portal to other places than an "end-to-all". I've never been happy with our website TBH but just haven't gotten around to redoing it, or worked out what I need to do with it. I feel a Christmas break project coming on.

The other problem we have is if a number of bands keep doing the same, it doesn't just undervalue their services, it undervalue the pub cover band circuit for everyone. This is one of the reasons pubs are paying bands the same rates they did 30 years ago.

Nice. I'd be tempted to wedge a Mark Stand, or maybe something a little less extreme in between them to tilt the top one to point to my ears.

It wouldn't be the playing to a mostly empty room that would bother me the most. It would be humping all the gear in, setting it all up, breaking it down and lugging it out again. That's a good couple of hours on its own.

I hope you were coming through out front. My experience with some mixes is the guitar and bass drum are so bass heavy that I could stop playing and no-one would notice. Actually, I did this one at a rehearsal when we were trying out new PA and IEM gear. The mix was so bass-heavy that I couldn't identify a single note I was playing, so I stopped playing. The others thought it sounded great until they saw me with my arms folded. They were clearly listening to themselves and not the whole mix. I would say take a friend who knows their stuff and get them to stand out front. Or get a long cable or wireless and venture forth into the crowd. RE getting sweaty: I keep a bandana and bottle of baby powder close by at gig, especially for this reason.

Thanks for that. It still might do the job as a "hope I never need to use it" backup. They're currently in the amazon black Friday sale for £55 quid. I might just get one at that price.

Just looked up the specs. Max SPL 134db peak. -6db @ 35hz and -10db @ 30hz. That's just as deep and powerful as some 15" subwoofers. It'll be fine. To err on the side of caution, you could always put an hpf filter at the end of your chain, around 40-50hz or so.

Apologies for the zombie ressurection! I have a couple of questions regarding the Sonicake Boom Ave - I'm thinking about getting one as an inexpensive backup to my Helix. Does the compressor add a significant volume boost the more you turn it up? I had a Valeton Dapper that did this and I wasn't keen on the amount of make-up gain it applied. Does the Octaver track well enough down to open E? Is the pre-amp of the Ampeg variety and does the top end sound good direct from the XLR to a mixing desk? Again the Valeton sounded a little harsh. Thanks in advance.

I used to get that a lot in certain venues. I called it "one loud note syndrome". I used to carry a Gramma pad for hollow stages too in an effort to alleviate the problem to an extent, but I also realised it was often the room causing the issue. Funnily enough, since we've abandoned the backline and gone straight to FOH and IEMs the problem has disappeared. There's one particular pub we play at that has the stage is what is effectively a huge bay window. This area is on a hollow floor with a low ceiling. But the rest of the pub has a much higher ceiling. I always used to struggle with getting a decent sound in this place - including "one loud note syndrome", and the backline would cause all sorts of problems, sending rumbles up the mic stands and getting feedback. The PA, however, sits just in front of the stage in the open. Since ditching the backline we no longer get any of these issues.

Back at Birchanger Sports & Social Club on Saturday for us. It's one of those venues where you never know what sort of audience you're going to get. Could be youngsters one week and a sea of grey the next. It's also one of these large buildings split into open plan sections, which luckily for us, one of which was hosting a 50th birthday party with around 80 guests, who were well up for a boogie. And there was plenty of buffet food left over at the end of the night... I was ravenous. It's quite a nice setup for bands, loads of lights and a fairly decent stage - although even though it's wide it's not quite deep enough and there's a metre-wide step cut out in the front just where the drums usually go, so we have to flip our usual positions. Not a big deal, but can feel a little odd at first. Once we got into our stride around 5 or 6 songs in, we had people dancing, including a couple of kids around 8 or 9 years old break dancing! We managed to keep the dancers up through the rest of the night. Oh and Shipyard on draught for only £3.60 a pint.

Was his name Eddie Van Halen?j

Each to their own I guess. Our needs and the types of gigs we play are probably quite different. Heck, I don't even bring an amp/cab anymore - just straight into the PA with IEMs. My main preset is versatile enough to cover 90% of what I play, and anything thrown my way. The other 10% has specialist presets for those specific needs. But that's just me, someone else may find it restricting. I have a thick screen protector from "Gear by CEBA" on my Helix LT for this reason. They also make versions to cover the entire top surface of the unit to offer even greater protection. But regarding Boss stompboxes, I hear you. If I was in a different band, out on the road and only needed a couple of specific effects, I'd probably use them instead of a digital device. More road worthy and easily replaceable. And hey, if it's good enough for Billy Sheehan to use live in place of his old analogue rack gear... Yeah, I don't get that either. I don't use the full potential of my phone, computer or camera either, but I have them set up just the way I like them to do what I want them to do. The Helix et al is more than just the amp and effect models. It's the complete package of routing options, crossovers, global eq, and discrete control over each output that makes it ideal for me. I do wish it had Bluetooth though!