lozkerr

Thanks again, everyone. I've decided to snap up @la bam's gear when I can drive to pick it up, unless he shifts it locally in the meantime. There's obviously a lot to work through here, and I can see that we might end up with more than one PA. I'm trying to get as fully tooled-up as possible during the lockdown, so we can hit the ground running when things start up again. Regarding monitoring, I'm liking the idea of splitter cables - one for the FoH PA and another for whatever monitoring system we end up with. I find IEMs work well, as does our front man, but we haven't gone into it in depth as a band. If the others want foldbacks though, I won't stop them buying them 😉

Could you ping me the full spec? Many thanks.

Wow. Thank you very much, everyone! Lots there to think about. @lurksalot, I think you're right about kit coming up for sale - that's why I'm looking now. Plus, I do have a bit of spare cash what with not having to travel dahn sarf every other week. I don't doubt that any PA I buy will be sitting in store for some time to come, but at least we'll have it to hand when things start up again. @Dad3353, the mixer I have is a Peavey PV20 - sixteen mono channels, two stereo aux, two monitor sends and a control room feed. I'm thinking of using the control room feed as the primary audio source for video recording, which would leave two monitor mixes. We haven't really dug into the monitor side of things yet - the front man and I use IEMs but the others generally run with what's available. I'm thinking that IEMs all round would cut down on the gear we need to lug about, so some gentle persuasion may be in order 😊 Our lineup is drums, bass, keys / vox, lead vox and two guitarists. The guitarists have a mix of electric and acoustic; there's even a mandolin lurking in the lead guitarist's armoury. He might have to adapt a wee bit, and stop getting narky when I call him Andy Anderton 😊 @Happy Jack, agreed - I don't think we'd want to lose the backline in any event. We all have DI, so we could vary what went through the PA depending on venue size and acoustics. The main thing I'm aiming for is to get a PA that will cope with most venues that a covers band will be playing. One thing about subs - ISTM that they'd provide a fairly stable base if my idea of attaching lighting bars to the tops was workable. Some LED par cans for the stage plus a few fancy effects for the dance floor shouldn't make the rig top-heavy - they're a far cry from the filament-powered monsters I cut my teeth on way back when. And @itu - oh yes, I can relate to needing cables, more cables and spares. I'm thinking about putting together a sort of standard setup, with cables bundled together, a la Socapex. Maybe make some shorter extensions, with colour-coded connectors. And, of course, have spares. All labelled. Back in the day, I did some voluntary work at a local theatre. The resident tech had had problems with cables going walkies, so he switched to orange instead of black. The thefts miraculously stopped. So ISTM that a PA with about 1300 watts a side would cover most eventualities. Good points about budget, but TBH I'd rather stretch myself a little than buy something that isn't up to the job. I'm thinking a figure of one-and-a-half to two grand second-hand all-in - obviously I appreciate that new kit will cost more. As for transport - well, my own car is a Defender 90 that only just holds my bass rig, so I suspect I'll need to shell out for a tow bar and box trailer, if I can find somewhere to store it. Edinburgh clowncil gets narky about keeping trailers on the road in controlled-parking areas, the peasants. Thank you all so much. I really appreciate the advice. Stay safe, everyone.

Hi everyone, I'm in the fortunate position of being able to work from home, which means that the money that would normally go on train tickets and grotty Travelodges can be put to more productive use. I'm starting to look at PA systems, and I'd be grateful for da BC massif's thoughts on wattage, innit. I already have a 16 channel passive mixer, so I guess it'll be either powered speakers or passive speakers plus power amp. I'm wondering how much power would be right for small to medium-sized venues and thinking it would be better to have too much oomph than not enough, although a full Knebworth would be completely OTT for the Dog and Duck and I would expect a dedicated music venue to have a house PA anyway. But something that's under-powered for a six-piece rock band would just be a waste of money. So I guess the question is - if you have your own PA, how much power does it crank out, and is it enough for your needs? All thoughts and advice gratefully received. Many thanks, Laura

We've been trying JamKazam, but apart from the pi5s-poor UI design and the app's fondness for quitting unexpectedly, lag is a big problem. It has a knock-on effect too - our rhythm guitarist played me a backing track, I added the bass and the lead guitarist joined in. When we played back the recording, both I and the lead guitarist were at least two bars ahead. And that was in spite of our both compensating for the frequent drop-outs. We're going to keep trying, but I suspect JK will only be good for slowly working through tricky bits without everyone having high-speed and low-contention connections.

I gave in to GAS when my Eden Metro conked out during our last gig: Friday 13th: amp dies. Saturday and Sunday: sulk and think about getting it fixed. Monday and Tuesday: browse Eden gear online. Not much more than small combos to be had. Wednesday: go in to local Marshall dealer and ask about Eden availibility. All they have on 'the system' are small combos, so they'll have to ask their purchasing department. Sunday: phone call from dealer with price. I fork out for a new WTP600. Monday: lockdown announced, all gigs cancelled. Impeccable timing as ever 😩

Welcome, Dawn! Always good to see another lady on here!

Aye, that's her. Fabulous player.

They're perfect for the sweet innocent girl-next-door types too.

I see your gig bag and raise you a new Eden WTP600. Ordered the day after all the gigs we had pencilled in were cancelled 🙄

Have to agree. He does seem too far up himself, but Piers Morgan is way ahead in the punchability stakes. If we must lamp an Irish muso, there's aye Bonio. I'm fully expecting his charity single Ventilation to start polluting tinterwebz any day now.

Town Called Malice for me. Keeping time's OK but keeping the staccato constant through the riff is another matter. Lockdown should keep me busy trying to nail it properly, though.

Oo, my Jazz has the same plate on it. Who's up for a wee jam? All together now - a one, a two, a three, a four.. Ooh, the virus isn't fun, isn't fun When you gonna make me real ill, Corona? Ooh, you make my bottom run, bottom run Gonna come in for the kill, Corona

Aye, I know exactly what you mean. I was raging and almost crying in equal measure when it conked out. The combination of Metro plus 118 extension cab gave me a sound I really love, and I'm hoping - hoping - that the WTP600 will be a near-enough direct replacement. It's only single channel, but being able to turn the valves off should give similar flexibility to the Metro's twin channels. The Bass Gallery have a Metro for sale that looks like it's had a much easier life than my old workhorse and I was very tempted to snap it up, but it's still a few years old. They're wanting £650 for it, which seems quite reasonable, but for £350 more I can have a spanking new amp with warranty, and I can still use the Metro as a 210 cab.

That's what I've gone for. WTP600 head is on the way!

First gig for our six-piece 80s covers band last night. It was a fundraising night at Edinburgh College in Granton. We went down a storm, in spite of my backline playing up. Lots of people dancing and enjoying themselves. It was livestreamed to YouTube too. All in all, a great start for the band. I'm looking forward to our next one!

Apologies for resurrecting a long-dormant thread, but I'd like to call on da Basschat massif, innit. Last night, my Eden Metro started cutting out during a gig. The sound went completely, and though it came back intermittently, I ended up using DI into the PA. I'm now pondering the options, as the combo is now over 20 years old and it hasn't had the easiest of lives. Should I a) Get it checked by a technician and hopefully fixed, but knowing that something else could conk out next time, or b) Get it fully refurbished, which would likely be far more expensive than option a), or c) Remove the amp, fit jack and Speakon sockets to the back, thereby transforming it into a 210 cab and buy a new head? I'm inclining towards c) at the moment, so I'd be most grateful for any advice on which option would give the most reliable rig. Many thanks.

Jesus wept. No wonder you refused that gig! That's horrendous. Mind you, it is Leith...

Oofty, where was that? I'm struggling to imagine even a drunken ned wanting to have a pop at a bloke your size!

Think I might have earned a yellow card - I've just bought a replacement footswitch as the old one's carked itself and I have a gig next week. I could manage without it - it only mimics controls on the amp - but I've got used to having the controls on my pedal board. There's no additional functionality though, honest guv.

And of course, coping with the hot-desking fad. Not the electric-heater-under-the-office-tw@'s-paper-trays that was popular around the turn of the century, but the ability to locate a desk among a group of people whose work is entirely different to your own. If you're a software developer, you either work on your own projects or have a wee kip while seemingly concentrating hard on a screen full of code that will just be gobbledegook to the admin people around you - or if you're in PR, you plonk yourself among the geeks and play on YouFaceTwit all day. And of course, you always use the printer that's furthest away from where you are. That lets you master the art of carrying a piece of paper while walking briskly, thus making you seem Big and Important. When it's time for a brew, you pull out that elderly phone stuffed full of MP3s, plug in your earphones and conduct an intense but one-wordy conversation with Iron Maiden. Need to watch the volume, though. For added points, start a detailed reply as you walk out the room. Plus, when printing stuff for home, make sure you submit it in a batch and make the final document something to do with work. Make sure there's no-one near the printer before you send it. Then, as your set lists and charts are printing, if anyone approaches you, you take it off the printer looking really annoyed, make some comment about 'don't some people focus on their business objectives' when your own document finally appears and flounce off with your home stuff while making some comment about reporting misuse of resources. That's so no-one can reasonably ask you to chuck it straight in the recycling bin. There we are, kids. Laura's Thursday Tips for a more satisfying working day. Tune in next week for tips on how to leave boring meetings and still look good, how to deal with food thieves and how to provide your odious manager with a managed exit. Book and motivational speaking tour coming soon!

Aye, those are really handy. I only use a few of the features, mainly the sustain, defretter and overdrive, and getting a decent compressed sound involves a bit of faffing about. Likely it's just me being daft, though. We've got our first gig in a couple of weeks, so I'll see how happy I am with it after I've heard the recording.

How are you finding it? I have one and it seems to do a lot of things fairly well but I keep wondering if I should have gone for separate pedals instead.