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 21 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]

11 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! 

 

8 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 perfectly flat EQ, remember a little goes a long way and 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 18 hours ago by peteb

[MacDaddy]

1 hour ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

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

 

The erection section...

[Bluewine]

9 hours ago, Raslee said:

It was a pretty great gig lastnight on the ska scene, first outing for the Sandberg VM SL - interestingly, I ended up playing it passively with a Sadowsky Pre and Tonerider Duke installed. The bass was light, but by god those Dr Martins were heavy! 

 

 

 

Great crowd photo and I love the way they band is lit up.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

5 hours ago, peteb said:

 

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! 

 

 

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 perfectly flat EQ, remember a little goes a long way and 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. 

 

 

Great information,  even if it is over my head. I'm way out of date. I just dial in a low stage volume and enough high and low end I can hear. Then I just hope the sound engineer has me where I'm supposed to be.

 

Daryl

[dmccombe7]

14 hours ago, peteb said:

 

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! 

 

 

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 perfectly flat EQ, remember a little goes a long way and 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. 

 

I was first made aware of the paraEQ sweep thing when i was considering an EBS TD-650 head and it mentioned a particular set up to allow the sweep till you find the annoying frequency and all of a sudden it started to make sense. I even tried it in the studio who have EBS heads into Ampeg 810 cabs and it worked a treat. It really was quite a simple way of removing a troublesome frequency.

Think next time i have an issue with a specific frequency i will experiment with that again. I almost always use a gramma pad these days so my sound is pretty steady in most venues. Out of curiosity i have tried without the gramma pad at some venues as a comparison and prefer to use it virtually all gigs. 

Think i just need to spend more time tweaking things at gigs pre-sound check. Sometimes its hard to get time to do that. 

Dave 

[cetera]

OK...... I'm still on a HUGE high so please bear with me if I'm little over-effusive...

On Saturday night my brand new Doobie Brothers tribute show 'The Doobie Experience' played it's DEBUT show. It was at the lovely Shoreham Ropetackle Arts Centre and quite honestly we really couldn't have had a better evening, in every way!

First of all, on arrival, we found out it was all but sold out (200 tickets!) with people having to stand all around the edge of the seated area! Then, we were meeting our own dedicated sound man for the first time and were thrilled at how good he made us sound, out front and in our IEMs!  It turned out I'd worked with him a couple of times previously (with the Spandau/Duran show I'd depped in) so I knew he would nail it! He'll be with us now on most of our shows and has all the settings saved!

 

Best of all though, the actual show was AMAZING - we played great (just a few tweaks will need to be made going forward), the sound was fantastic and the audience loved us! We actually had people actually queuing to shake our hands and thank us afterwards! It's those kind of nights that really make everything worthwhile. I can't wait to do more!

 

Gear-wise I kept it more traditional (no Spectors! ) and played my Fender FSR PJ bass through my old GK400RB head and LFsys Monaco cab. Only effects were Chorus (1 song) and Phaser (1 song), both care of my Zoom B3. IEMs were KZ-ZS10's and my Sennheiser G4 system.

Here are a few short phone clips from the night that show the different Doobie-styles we covered:

 

Rockin' Down The Highway:

 

 

 

Another Park Another Sunday:

 

 

 

One Step Closer:

 

 

 

China Grove:

 

 

 

What A Fool Believes:

 

 

 

Sweet Maxine:

 

 

 

It Keeps You Runnin:

 

 

 

Long Train Runnin':

 

 

 

Takin' It To The Streets:

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by cetera

[dmccombe7]

Superb @cetera, so many great songs to choose from.

Once toyed with the idea of a Doobies tribute but couldn't get the right musicians up this way.

That band is so good. Fantastic FOH sound too.

Well done.

Dave

[cetera]

7 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Superb @cetera, so many great songs to choose from.

Once toyed with the idea of a Doobies tribute but couldn't get the right musicians up this way.

That band is so good. Fantastic FOH sound too.

Well done.

Dave

 

Cheers fella!
Yep, it's been a year in the making and many auditions were had... It was tough finding the right people to cover the main Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons and Michael McDonald roles!

[MichaelDean]

It was a really fun one on Saturday night at the recently renovated Exchange basement in Bristol. It used to be a big corridor with a tiny stage, but they've opened up the space and now there's a bigger stage and increased capacity.

 

We were opening up for a local band's new album release and I got to try out my Spector NS Icon 5 live for the first time, which was nice. The gig was a sell out and I was surprised at the number of people who came to see us. My brother and his mate came along too, so that was really nice to have them there as well. 

 

On the Spector front I tend to pick rather aggressively at a gig and with the curved Spector boddy and big pickups, I lost count of the amount of times I smacked my fingers into the pickups. They were feeling a bit sore the next day 😅 That's going to need some work if I'm going to play it live more! It sounded great through the usual Boss GX-100 -> Laney Digbeth and then the venue's Barefaced Super Twin.

 

We played well and individually had lots of complements after the gig too. Should be getting some professional pictures back from that gig at some point once we hear back (and pay) the photographer.

 

The other bands were Row of Ashes and the headliner Epimetheus. 

 

[cetera]

3 minutes ago, MichaelDean said:

It was a really fun one on Saturday night at the recently renovated Exchange basement in Bristol. It used to be a big corridor with a tiny stage, but they've opened up the space and now there's a bigger stage and increased capacity.

 

We were opening up for a local band's new album release and I got to try out my Spector NS Icon 5 live for the first time, which was nice. The gig was a sell out and I was surprised at the number of people who came to see us. My brother and his mate came along too, so that was really nice to have them there as well. 

 

On the Spector front I tend to pick rather aggressively at a gig and with the curved Spector boddy and big pickups, I lost count of the amount of times I smacked my fingers into the pickups. They were feeling a bit sore the next day 😅 That's going to need some work if I'm going to play it live more! It sounded great through the usual Boss GX-100 -> Laney Digbeth and then the venue's Barefaced Super Twin.

 

We played well and individually had lots of complements after the gig too. Should be getting some professional pictures back from that gig at some point once we hear back (and pay) the photographer.

 

The other bands were Row of Ashes and the headliner Epimetheus. 

 

 

Who owned the GK800RB under your Laney? Spectors SLAY through those heads! 🔥🔥🔥😎

[peteb]

12 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Then I just hope the sound engineer has me where I'm supposed to be.

 

I have tried to put together a rig that helps a good sound engineer get the bass done in the soundcheck as quickly as possible. I also try to make it as idiot proof as possible, to make it difficult for a not very good engineer to f*** things up! 

 

3 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Think next time i have an issue with a specific frequency i will experiment with that again. I almost always use a gramma pad these days so my sound is pretty steady in most venues. Out of curiosity i have tried without the gramma pad at some venues as a comparison and prefer to use it virtually all gigs. 

Think i just need to spend more time tweaking things at gigs pre-sound check. Sometimes its hard to get time to do that. 

 

Bear in mind that most venues aren't so bad that you have to do more than minor tweaks, assuming that you have realistic EQ settings to start with. I also use a gramma pad when feasible (i.e. 95% of gigs) and I have a HPF at the front of my signal chain. I rarely get any problems these day and any tweaks needed for the room tend to be pretty minor ones. 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by peteb

[MichaelDean]

39 minutes ago, cetera said:

 

Who owned the GK800RB under your Laney? Spectors SLAY through those heads! 🔥🔥🔥😎

That was the guy from Row of Ashes. He was running a Stingray through it.