Suburban Man

Well, you know that your 3kW PA will work off one 13A outlet, so if you just say - 'we need Two 13A outlets' - then I would have thought that should be enough for most venues. If they say 'How many kW' then 5kW (22 Amps) would be a good estimate without actually putting a meter across the mains and dynamically measuring it. That's going to be 5kW Peak, so the actual current that you draw at any given moment will be less than that.

All good stuff from Dad. Your 3kW PA system should (just) work off a standard domestic 13A outlet (13A x 230V = 2.9kW) but would probably be better being fed from a 16A unfused socket. The In Ears rack will probably draw a fraction of an amp, so its down to the amount of backline that you carry and your lighting which as Dad says, you just have to add up to get a grand total. I don't know how you usually plug into the venue power system but a 'pro' electrical solution would be a couple of those big blue 16A BS4343 plugs - often known as 'Commando Plugs' - which have the advantage of not containing fuses. One for the PA, one for everything else. Might be overkill for some venues however...

YES! Exactly so: half and half and half again (repeat until in a suitably neat bundle) followed by a loose tie to keep them together. There is a logic to this, since you are twisting the cable, but in different directions, so the net result is zero twists.

AllParts is a Uk company that specialises in guitar hardware and components: https://www.allparts.uk.com/ Although they are US-based StewMac will mail parts to different countries: https://www.stewmac.com You will need to find out EXACTLY what you want however- 250k pot or 500k pot, if its volume it will be 'log' rather than linear, and since it looks like its a dual pot you will need someone with decent soldering skills to remove the old and put in new. Good luck!

Yeah, you're right. Rule Two - there is no Rule Two...

Rule One of Bass Playing - the correct note at the correct time. Rule Two - the 'wrong' note at the correct time is also permissible - who in the audience is going to know its wrong??? Rule Three - wrong note at the wrong time indicates that you need to find a new instrument to play

On an active preamp the battery connection is usually made across the earth side - in other words when you put the jack plug into the bass its the ground/earth part of the connector (not the tip) that joins battery negative to preamp negative. You can just cut the hot/signal connection if you want, but it leaves a nice little RF antenna in place of your neatly grounded pickup. That may or may not cause a noise problem, but grounding the hot/signal connection definitely stops any cr@p getting into the nice high-gain front end of you amp as well as muting the pickup.

Andrew at Richmond Guitar Workshop - ex Chandlers Guitars I believe [email protected]

Apart from the 'Producer Switch' option, which is always a good one 🙂 I'm a big fan of a 'mute' switch. Just a 2 pole on/off that shorts live and earth on the outgoing jack socket. It won't save battery, but it sure will mute.

I recorded Mike Pender's Searchers ('we split for musical reasons') at a live gig about 30 years ago and the band members all seemed to be 'getting-on' then, but I guess if you can still sing and play a bit its not a bad back catalogue to run through and they absolutely hit the button on every song. I particularly remember the recording because I naively asked when they were going to do a run through so that I could sort out the levels and was told that the band and their PA engineer didn't need to do a run through - so I just had to sort out the mix during the first number - straight down to stereo in those days.

Well if you got it from a guitar spares shop then the chances are that its the right value. 47k would be 47,000pf which is correct. If it was 474,000pf then its ten times too large a value.

If you remove the capacitor altogether you should find that the tone control ceases to work. If it is still acting like a volume control then the spare tag has got earthed, or the wiper is being earthed somehow. You could try swapping the tone control connections so that the wire to the tip goes from one of the outer tags and the capacitor that goes to earth is soldered to the centre tag. If the capacitor was the wrong value then that would also 'mute' the output, like say if it was 0.47 instead of 0.047

Apologies to all those of you for whom I'm stating the bleedin' obvious, but having seen comments on other threads about online sound quality there is a major difference between what works as a live sound and what works in an online feed - with or without video. Apart from any number-crunching that your application may do which renders your in-house mix somewhat restricted in dynamics you also need to mix in the magic of 'Atmos'. In other words if you take a PA feed directly off your mixing desk and use it online with no alteration, it will sound very flat. The additional ingredient that you need is to add in a couple of 'Atmos' mics. Ideally these are omni's set up in the rafters of your venue. They will only go into the online mix where they will add in the sound of your adoring crowd applauding and singing along to your songs (aka congregation if you are a worship band). They also add in the room reverb of the venue - which is what makes it sound as if you are playing live in a particular place, rather than in a studio somewhere. They may also pick up a few comments that you didn't want the world to hear, so that's why you want to put your atmos mics up high, or at least as far away as is humanly possible. Annoyingly, although a bit is vital, too much atmos will muddy up the sound something rotten - so play carefully folks.