General Music Chat

This last gig we did I set up everything and turned everything on. Something wasn't working. It took me about fifteen minutes to figure out which damn wire was shot. Next time I'm NOT setting everything up but one thing at a time and testing it as I go along. This way I'll know IMMEDIATELY what's not working. It might take me a little longer to set it up but I'll rest easier knowing it's ready to go at showtime. You can never assume that everything is still working even if it all worked at the last gig...

Ooh, I can feel the panic.

That's when I get shitty, everything plugged in and nothing is working..

(gulp)(sweat)(gulp)

Bob - that's about what I had Saturday night, but it didn't take long to figure it out. took me longer to dig out a battery than to find out the main power plug on the pedal board was getting bad contact. A shot of contact cleaner and it's working again, but my Ibanez SD 9 distortion pedal is on the blink again. Distortion works, but turn it off and it shuts down completely, no cleans. The Boss pedal is replacing it until I can get it fixed.

But I usually start with it all wired up and if I have a problem, unplug everything and go one item at a time until it stops working. This time I had to use a partial pedal board running on batteries because the power splitter was cutting up. All wires have been fixed now and all contacts got a shot of cleaner this week, should be ready to go next time.

The only reason I had problems at all is this gig caught us by surprise, we had last minute notice and had just a couple of days before discussed going through the entire system and finding bad cables and such, but hadn't done it yet. Its been done now...and we also reset the EQ, swapped some speakers and the PA now sounds great.

Do ya ever just get tired of jackin with all this crap?
I mean, like the other night my guitar just wasnt sounding right.
Could not really put a finger on the problem, tweek this knob, then that one.... hummmm, then in mid song nothing. Dang battery in the wireless transmitter dead. A simple thing I should have picked up on right off.
Aw screw it I said as I flung it across the room.
Hand me that guitar cable behind ya Steve.
Plug n play.
Some times I think KISS is the best method.

I hear ya George, I played that night without my wireless, had enough headaches already without it. Any time I'm not having trouble I use it though, it's great to be able to move around and not trip over guitar cables all night. But I never trust a used battery, a new one goes in every second gig, the used ones work fine for the stomp boxes at home, multimeter has been running 3 years on one, I've given away several...

Yes it does become tedious at times, but it goes with the territory as they say. Without amps, cables and stomp boxes we'd still be playing lutes by candle light.

Also, what kind of hours are you on? I'll be headed back home in a day or so, wouldn't mind meeting somewhere along the way if you happen to be able to get away for a few minutes. But let me know when you'll be up and around, don't want to call and wake you up.

Been working M-F lately. Get up at 0500 usually home by 1700 and down for the count by 2100.
With a son in middle school tennis, band and robotics the other in orchestra (thank God football season is over ) and possibly track.
And my grandson who I pick up from daycare on occasion. I am like the mustached soccer mom from hell these days.
Give me a call though caint never tell when I'll come up for air. LOL

Will do, you must be online now, I might go ahead and get in touch this morning. Soon as I finish checking mail etc...

Are you kidding?

I use 1 guitar all night.

But I always bring 3, just in case.

Yeah, you could say people get sick of jacking around with crap that is less than 100%.