How was your gig last night?

[neepheid]

Last night I was back in covers band action with Nine Lives at Wilsons in Aberdeen.  Night got off to an odd start, when some people noticed me and the drummer getting stuff out of the car and asked "who's playing tonight".  I replied "Nine Lives" and they replied "Excellent!"   Had a joke with the bouncer that they must have us mixed up with another band.

 

Anyway, the gig went well - it was a bit of an awkward setup because some people were in the bit where we usually put our stuff, playing darts.  How very dare they!  So there was a lot of shuffling stuff around while we set up.  Still, we got set up and ready to go at the billed time.

 

Gig went pretty well, had some very enthusiastic dancing in the first half.  Second half dwindled down a bit towards the end, but we did a thing we've done on and off and played a softer song as the second last one and we had a couple of lovebirds up dancing to that, so it worked.  Then blew the place to bits with Whole Lotta Rosie, along with my usual wireless walkabout.  Never ceases to amuse and entertain people, and as long as people still get a laugh out of it, I'll keep on doing it, lol.

 

Gear was the Epiphone Les Paul (not so) Standard, followed by the Fazley Hot Rod (the "Ratlet") with a Lace Aluma P in there because it was lying around and I was bored.  Usual yellow and black amplification.  Footwear was pink suede Vans slipons.

 

[DGBass]

First gig of this year for Blues Delux at a regular local bar in Stirling. Sunday afternoon set finishing at 7pm, very chilled out as we were again playing to diners and people out for a quiet drink, so it's more or less a usual Sunday crowd. The gig started off quite ropey. First song it was obvious the levels were all a bit askew. Second song we had recovered the levels but for unknown reasons our guitarist played the song in the wrong key before stopping midway through to tune his guitar and joining in for the last verse chorus almost in tune. Then the bar staff came up to us as we were about to start the third tune and said there had been a complaint from a customer about the loudness of the band, and would we mind turning everything up!? So we did, and the rest of the gig was rock and roll. We stopped briefly to do a short acoustic set in the middle of the gig with our singer and guitar player on acoustic. Also got complimentary beer from the pub for the first time ever. Not sure what that was all about. Rig wise I'm in a really happy place at present. Silverstone II and a TE AH250 GP12 SMX almost sound as if they were made for each other. The dual band comp is I think the secret sauce that makes it all sound so good. Back up amp was a GK 400RB IV and used it on the second set just for the hell of it. Playing my Sadowsky a lot more recently and it also adds something new and good to the sound. To sum up, ropey start, but a rock n roll finish with free beer, and an early night. ☺️

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by DGBass

[dmccombe7]

36 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Last night I was back in covers band action with Nine Lives at Wilsons in Aberdeen.  Night got off to an odd start, when some people noticed me and the drummer getting stuff out of the car and asked "who's playing tonight".  I replied "Nine Lives" and they replied "Excellent!"   Had a joke with the bouncer that they must have us mixed up with another band.

 

Anyway, the gig went well - it was a bit of an awkward setup because some people were in the bit where we usually put our stuff, playing darts.  How very dare they!  So there was a lot of shuffling stuff around while we set up.  Still, we got set up and ready to go at the billed time.

 

Gig went pretty well, had some very enthusiastic dancing in the first half.  Second half dwindled down a bit towards the end, but we did a thing we've done on and off and played a softer song as the second last one and we had a couple of lovebirds up dancing to that, so it worked.  Then blew the place to bits with Whole Lotta Rosie, along with my usual wireless walkabout.  Never ceases to amuse and entertain people, and as long as people still get a laugh out of it, I'll keep on doing it, lol.

 

Gear was the Epiphone Les Paul (not so) Standard, followed by the Fazley Hot Rod (the "Ratlet") with a Lace Aluma P in there because it was lying around and I was bored.  Usual yellow and black amplification.  Footwear was pink suede Vans slipons.

 

I do love that Epi LP bass.

Dave 

[Jackroadkill]

45 minutes ago, neepheid said:

played a softer song as the second last one

 

Tell me, is this tactic still known as "the arse grabber"?

[neepheid]

3 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

Tell me, is this tactic still known as "the arse grabber"?

 

I didn't know it was called that, but it's definitely called that from now on, lol

[peteb]

First gig of the year, with the Zep tribute in Cottingham on the east coast. A bit rusty with a dep guitar player as our BL / guitarist is still out with serious back issues, but all-in-all a pretty solid performance. A decent crowd with 160 tickets sold and a great reaction. 

 

I didn't bother taking any pictures as it is pretty much the same rig as the last 60 / 70 gigs. I did note that the (very good) sound engineer (actually a husband and wife team) DI'd from the Caveman preamp / DI on my board rather than from the amp. Some do, some don't, but seemed to sound good out front either way. 

 

Next gig in Scotland with the same dep guitarist in a few weeks... 

 

[peteb]

10 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

I'm wondering if the SS or now using the TT800 have more edge than the valve amp and people just pick up on it. Valve amps have more depth of tone IMO but they don't have that fast attack or edge of a modern amp.

 

To be honest, that really isn't my experience! Modern Class D amps do not seem to have the response or attack of hybrid amps or, from what I understand given my limited experience of them, valve amps. That's the reason I got rid of my Class D Mesa amp - sounded great in a room on it's own, but didn't have the response I needed live. This was particularly noticeable when I was playing onstage with a band with a lot of keys and stuff going on, less so in a blues / boogie band with two relatively clean guitars! 

 

7 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Me too Neil. I got it from our very own @wateroftyne with regards the WB-100 and it has worked wonders when using the VM4. Definitely an improvement. For me i love a graphic EQ as i can see at a quick glance where my tone is and i know exactly what to adjust from there. With paraEQ i never know what freq to boost or cut. A lot of trial and error ensues until i find it.

I think i need to know my amp better and the mid frequencies that really enhance a bass tone for what i like. All dependant on what bass i use too of course.

 

 

 

The advantage with a para EQ is that if you are in a room with sound issues, you can find what frequencies are causing the problems and sweep the EQ centre for that band until the issue goes away. I used to find that with my Mesa mpulse that in certain rooms, it was often the low-mids that caused a problem. If you changed the frequency then you could usually get around the problem with the sound of the room pretty easily. The problem with para EQs is that you can get a truly awful sound if you don't understand how the various frequencies work together! I used to follow the manual's suggested settings (for 'Driving Rock', if I remember correctly) and then tweaked until I got the sound that  I wanted. As ever, you don't necessarily need a flat EQ, but you probably don't want any massive boosts or cuts so that you can hear a coherent representation of every note that you are going to play. 

 

Edited 59 minutes ago by peteb

[MacDaddy]

1 hour ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

Tell me, is this tactic still known as "the arse grabber"?

 

The erection section...