mike257

I resolved it by buying a big van and kitting it out for transporting bands - as this gets me more work than my bass playing does these days, you don't appear to be the only one in this predicament!

It's nice to have a compact set up that you can just switch on and go, seen it done before but not done it myself. The acoustics are obviously going to be impacted by jamming your speakers in the wardrobe, but for a home practice/demoing setup I can't see it causing you any problems, go for it!

I've played with a few guys who have the AC30. You enjoy it at home volime then you're going to love it cranked up - they're glorious. Great with pedals in front of them too.

Got to agree with Jake - although you don't neccesarily need massive theory knowledge to get by playing in a band, to teach somebody you need to be able to relate to them in clear terms what you/they are playing and why to allow them to develop an understanding of the instrument. Music theory knowledge is a tool to help us explain and relate the principles of how the instrument works - if you can't explain it, how can you teach it?

I've not been in this situation myself, but I'd imagine that having a decent dep available for one/both of your gigs would be a great move. It allows you the flexibility to be where you need to (musically or financially) without letting someone else down, and also means you can give yourself a night off if it gets too much or something else comes up.

Gotta go with the crowd - from the sounds of things this is very much the wrong band for you to be in. It's not fair on you to keep putting pressure on yourself, and it's not really fair on those guys as sooner or later your differing attitudes will cause an issue. There's nothing wrong with wanting to just play for kicks with your mates, and theres nothing wrong with shooting for the stars, but the two don't go together!

So is this cheaper than hiring a musician to play the keyboard parts? Now there's an interesting slant on the 'backing tracks' debate - "Lets have backing tracks but lets have enough 'musicians' on stage that nobody knows we're using them."

If there's no practical way of bypassing it then you're probably doing right to avoid it. My only (admittedly limited) experience with these boxes saw them trip when the drummer played on his own. Nothing electric had even been plugged in yet! Unless (like Doddy's crew in his post above) you're suitably equipped with electric drums, in-ears etc for playing a quiet gig, you'll likely find it a struggle.

Yeah, they've had them up there for ages - prices don't seem any different to the Joyo ones, although I've seen stores selling the Valco branded ones for almost double the usual.

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1331660239' post='1576800'] Perhaps next time someone asks about the right D B pickup for a Skiffle band I`ll offer an unasked for opinion on whether Skiffle bands are actually music, seeing as a washboard isn`t a real instrument like.... MM [/quote] Can't find a decent washboard player round here, I just run ours off a sampler.

What did you do to sort it? Got the same cab, mines out of action at the moment, only thing making any sound is the tweeter! Hoping its just a wiring thing.

I've always kept it fairly simple for metal. The guitars have had plenty of dirt on them already, so I'm more in the 'keep it simple' camp. My special brew was a Stingray 3EQ with new strings straight into my SVT3 - the only drive was coming from the amp tone, which gave it enough bite for the attack to make its mark amongst the guitar tones. Always left my dirt pedals at home!

There's a bass-specific model, Bass Big Muff which should give you some nice thick tones, although many people have used the ordinary Big Muff with varying degrees of success. The loss of low end with the non-bass model can be a problem depending on the rest of your setup. Might be worth a punt if the rest of the trade suits you, and you could always dispose of it in the classifieds or on ebay/Gumtree if you don't get on with it - there's always demand for them as they are a popular one with guitarists too.

All over the latest Foo Fighters album too, Pat Smear used one for the majority of his parts - using it live too,really thickens the sound out, guess it helps keep the three guitars out of each others way too.

[quote name='merchant' timestamp='1329956291' post='1550561'] Oh no, it's got even more complicated. I have no idea what the impedance of my pick up system is, but intend to run the pedal after fuzz as I don't want the change in volume to alter the characteristics and response of the distortion, so i'll be looking at a low impedance pedal (I assume). Would be great if pedal manufacturers could include a trim pot inside to change the impedance so we could taylor the pedal to it's position in a chain. Plus I need a pedal that is visually quiet. Some of these beasts are hard to ignore. Oh well. [/quote] Impedance is only really an issue with passive (unpowered) pedals. An active pedal like the George Dennis I mentioned in my last post will happily sit anywhere in your chain regardless of the impedance on either side of it.

Just bought a pedal from Rich, great fella to deal with and got it out to me super fast too. Top bloke, deal with him with confidence!

Even on no pay originals gigs, I decided back in my teens that pre gig pints were out. Did it once, and I feel like even one pint can make a noticeable (to me) difference toy playing and awareness, so I don't bother. Would never do it on a payer. Bit of a moot point these days as I own a Splitter van so I'm invariably the one behind the wheel, but I just consider it a professionalism thing. Not judging anyone who sees it differently mind you, I've worked with guys who are useless after a beer, but also with guys who regularly put on a stellar performance after imbibing plenty. I guess it's down to the individual and them having awareness of how it affects their abilities.

I imagine the velcro that is included with pedal boards is cheap and cheerful stuff. You can buy heavy duty velcro from a couple of the big brands (Velcro, 3M) and a plethora of ebay sellers. An effects crazy guitarist I play with sometimes is a firm advocate of the "drill and cable tie" method because he doesn't have to stick anything to his pedals, pry the feet off etc, so they stay in better condition for when he inevitably sells them on for the next one! Another option is using screw fasteners - Johnnyshredfreak.com sell kits to fit a wide variety of pedals. Basically they're little washers with two holes (like a number 8) and you remove the screws from the base of your pedal, screw them back in with these washers attached, then screw through the second hole on the washer into your board. In fact, here's a link: [url="http://www.johnnyshredfreak.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=44"]http://www.johnnyshredfreak.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=44[/url] Plenty of options, sticky or otherwise!

Oh how I wished for a room with a window when I was in Elevator Nice vid, sounds great!

Another vote for second hand here. If you're looking at a serious move into function work, hopefully you'll be swiftly moving up to weddings/corporate stuff and I'd aim to get something upgradeable. For me, that means avoiding powered speakers or mixers and going for separate mixer/amps/cabs. That way, you can put cash aside every few gigs and upgrade a piece at a time whilst retaining connectivity and compatibility with the other parts of your system. I can't help but see powered speakers as dead money when it comes to upgrading as you're effectively having to replace two components in one if you need something bigger.

Needs more checkerboard!