SimonK

Looking at what I wrote above I'm pleased I said "...initially it is about keeping it very simple...". I never play a song without at least one carefully chosen killer lick to keep up the interest - normally squeezed in between a verse and chorus. That way you can keep the rest simple, but still have a bit of fun! I also bring a fretless along for entertainment on the really slow songs when it becomes all about the mwah and vibrato... it has to be fun afterall!

For me the biggest challenge of playing in church is getting the feel of the song right. You often have a mix of interesting instruments and even more interesting talent, so initially it is about keeping it very simple and trying to work with the drummer. If the drummer is a bit inconsistent with their kick you can also play a ghost note every time the snare hits which is often a bit more consistent.

I think it was the general principle I was commenting on - that as the speaker moves the air it may actually be the most important part of the rig - rather than commenting on the Fender Rumble per se!

I played a very similar version to that at my wedding in 2006. My bestman and I took off our jackets and played it for one of the hymns - the comment being there couldn't be a service where we were not playing! I mentioned the Rend collective to our drummer today who nonchalantly name dropped that it was his wife's cousins band!

I don't think that is what people are saying, more "value for money" is more important than brand or where somethings was made. Which of course opens up a can of worms when it comes to musical gear/instruments given how hard the major brands absolutely try to make it about name and place of manufacture. I think for some of us there is also a level of disappointment, perhaps wanting to try the new Mesa products but realising they are out of reach even for someone on a pretty decent salary for whom music is a hobby that needs to fit in with other priorities. Similarly I can't imagine many teenage or younger musicians playing Mesa products.

So despite what I said above, after Friday night practice my board felt so empty I added everything back again... and then guess how many I actually used this morning - nothing apart from the tuner and compressor! The bass corner:

My suspicion is that there is an element of national loyalty there - for players in the US buying Mesa or Gibson is supporting their own manufacturing, whereas in the UK we might select other brands and see no need for the markup inherent to a "US" made item. As others have said above, and distinctly the impression I get from the Gibson Garage video, these now feel like brands that you buy once you've received your Christmas six figure bonus, perhaps popping into the Gibson Garage on your way back from the Porsche garage...

...doesn't the tour of the Gibson store kind of show the marketing direction? Both Gibson and Mesa are premium brands aimed at bankers not gigging musicians. They have turned into PRS from twenty years ago.

What about bands that had been going quite well but last played together in March 2020... 🙋‍♂️

I know someone who might just take up the challenge of writing something with a different key signature for each verse - I will see what he says! It's a boss TU3s which is the same as the TU-3 but without the footswitch and yes, always on. The problem I had with the TU-3 was wanting the tuner to both be always on AND have a mute. Initially I had the Murder One alongside the bigger TU-3 to achieve this, but when I realised the TU3s was a thing I got it to save pedalboard space.

I believe the bible only allows 7, 8 or ideally 10 strings, so rock played with a combination of 4 string and 6 string instruments is clearly an abomination... djent on the other hand...

Posted this in my introductory thread but realised I didn't leave it here. This was my attempt at covering both acoustic guitar and various effect options for bass (rotating between the octaver, chorus and filter) in a gig where I needed to play both at different times, however in the week or so since this picture things have already changed as I took the acoustic guitar pedals off for an acoustic only gig, then made a stripped down bass pedal board for this weekend...

Although I use 3EQ stingrays that have pretty powerful onboard EQ, I wanted something that would give me an instant different EQ curve for throwing in a bit of slap in particular. I looked at the £250+ parametric EQ/preamp pedals available, but then realised something cheap, cheerful and reliable would do the job. Will be using it at band practice tonight for the first time and then for real on Sunday.

...of course the irritating thing I have just noticed is that someone has replaced one of the 10" speakers on my 2103x so they no longer match - I've had it for years and thought that was the original design, only noticing today when looking at the advert above and thinking that's funny, the tens match in the pictures whereas mine don't! I shone a torch (flashlight for Americans) through the grill and sure enough you can see it wasn't factory mounted! So if we want speaker mixing mine is 2x5, 1x15, 1x10 + a different 1x10... but still sounds fine and survived tens of gigs and yes, is plenty loud.

With the reputation Trace had for being absolute top of the range I would hope they put more thought into it than that - they certainly marketed them well as I think they were a flagship product for most of the 90s:

I totally accept that with modern drivers two of the same cab will, on average, be better than mixing cabs, but the TE example I've posted strikes me as potentially an exception because here someone has actually sat down and designed three different sized speakers to work together? Regarding the cross-over and bi-amped comment, I do agree when it comes to PA systems and wanting to split middle/high frequencies from low frequencies using cabs designed to produce very different frequency responses, thus making more efficient use of power amps. But my suspicion in lieu of finding any actual frequency response curves of these two cabs in particular, is that they probably overlap significantly certainly at higher and mid frequencies, the main difference probably being at the low end with (at a guess) the 15 inch going down to 30Hz and the 2103x probably only going down to maybe 100Hz. So efficiency would be less of an issue whereas sounding "fuller" and getting better dispersion may have been what the designers were trying to optimise in this particular case?

That's awesome - and worth framing in the same way as noise abatement notices from the council! I both play in a church on Sundays, and used to be in a covers band that practiced mid-week in a big old Anglican church - I do recall someone once coming in while we were playing Deep Purple's Hush and say something similar... I think we told them we would only play songs about God from then on and promptly started Stairway to Heaven next...

Sorry to dig this one up, but something written in another thread got me searching for discussions on mixing cabs as I've recently been using this combination: ...and combined they defintely sound "fuller" than individually. A bit of digging into old TE catalogues and around the interweb tells me that the top cab - 2103x - with both 2x5 and 2x10 drivers is voiced to work specifically with a 1x15 inch cab as here, albeit I'm mixing TE eras (I believe the top cab is early 90s and the bottom is late 90s based on no green fuzz & green fuzz). So I'm guessing this rig may be an exception to the don't mix drivers debate?

Just listened to the Rend Collective's version - please tell me your band will be using an upside down bin and a banjo - that's an awesome version of the hymn!

It's funny how although we know that it is the speaker & cab that actually moves the air that our ear subsequently detects, as musicians/guitarists/bass players we get so fixated with other things that we stray away from the basic principle that if the speaker & cab is crap, it doesn't matter what you plug into it, the sound will be crap! If we chose gear with our ears rather than heart we would probably all be rocking the most expensive cabs and somewhat cheaper basses... One thing I would say, however, is if you want to cut through a mix and get maximum volume for size of cab I would go for a 4x10 over a 1x15 every time. The maths shows it will be about twice as loud (as mentioned above, 176 sq in for a 1x15, 315 for 4x10) and to my subjective ear I think they cut through mixes better (but accept others will have different views on this one point). I think if you look around there are plenty of people down-sizing and getting rid of 4x10s given the apparent new craze for 2x10s and 2x12s.

It's funny, we always do the 4/4 "Celtic" version of Be Thou My Vision and when someone tried to do it 3/4 the other week I got totally confused! Our "set" list this week is: City on a Hill Here I Am to Worship Living Hope O Praise the Name My Lighthouse Probably fretless on the middle three while the first and last have slappage and maybe even Fuzz potential!

Yes it's a momentary mute that allows me to switch basses without pops, and also keep the tuner in line which I find particularly helpful with the fretless especially if the monitor mix is less than ideal (looking down to check that what I think is a G actually is a G!!). Also have a Line6 G30 wireless mounted under the board next to the 1 spot pro power supply. Putting the wireless under the board does not seem to affect reception and frees up some space - albeit space isn't a problem this week!

Just got the song list for this week and am going with a stripped down pedalboard. The GEB-7 will hopefully provide some instant slap tone, and the Muff is there for aspirational purposes!