Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Well after going ampless a few weeks, our band goes back into a larger room and we are bringing back the amps.

I got out my Mesa Triple Rec loaded it with 4 EL 34s and have some really sweet tones going. I got out the big pedal board and loaded my Whammy Pedal back on there. What a fun pedal. I use it for recording but its real noisey so I ussually leave it at home, but weve started playing some old Van Halen again and I need the Whammy.

Last night I got a wild hair and pulled out the Mesa Roadster which has 6L6s in it. I tryed running it stereo out of the Whammy and my Line 6 Delay Modeler, but even with a hum canceler its still to noisy. So I hooked into the effects return of the Roadster. This eliminates the front section of the Roadster amp and just dumps the preamp signal of the Triple into the power section of the Roadster. That way I only need one pedal to control my amp, plus Im slamming one power section with EL 34s and the other with 6L6s. Im going to spread the cabs apart on stage for that big fat sound.

Anyway, Im lucky this weekend we are in a room big enough to do this, next week back toone of the smaller lower volume clubs so I will be back with the POD Pro for that gig.

Our soundman will have a fit this weekend with my bassist bringing his 8x10 cab and me running 2 amps, it will drive him crazy. But hey its only rock n roll, and if you cant have fun doing it why bother.

Another update.

I didnt take both amps sat night. Just the Triple Rec and a 4x12, but man it sounded great. It was the perfect room for my amp.

Sometimes its good to get away from something to remember how good it is in the first place.

Talkin with you guys is what got me plugged into the tuber I have now.
I just cant see going back at this point. While I practiced last night I hooked a Crate Bass amp to the Sub out on my RX1200 and puched the crossover. Flatlined the eq on the amp. Sounded pretty good.

George as youve seen from earlier post Im always tryin different stuff.I really still like the idea of an preamp straight in the pa, cause its so simple. I can walk in with all my stuff at one time. But you have to have a killer soundman who really understands what your doing. I took our guy into one club and really worked with him and had everything sounding good with the preamps. My bassist was not totally happy but we were getting there. Then we did one of those quick setup shows. We had 30 minutes to set up and then the club manager said no sound check. Which I thought we had the same settings from the previous gig, well my brilliant sound guy had leveled the board. you know set everything back to noon instead of leaving it alone. We turned on and couldnt hear sh*t, he had the guitar and bass so loud in the monitors that it was outrunning the mains. Plus he turned it on loud, we can play loud but most places I prefer to start low in the first set and then work our way up as the night goes. What we found this weekend with the amps was that if Andy and I run our amps conservatively then we dont have to worry about our stage sound or bass and guitar in the monitors. We just set a comfortable level on stage, and get the vocals hot in the monitors.

Sat things sounded good with the amps again, so I imagine Im back to them for a while. But if I had a better soundguy who wouldnt overdo everything you ask we would still be using the preamps, it is simplier and way more controllable.

Anyway just an up date. I have a Mesa Roadster Combo, that I will use at the next show. Its 100 watts tube, 4 channel 2x12 sealed back combo amp. Its small but it weighs close to 100 lbs. Im still trying to get a handle on it. This past weekend I used my half stack and Ive got it happening, Ive got the right tubes and the channels balanced.But as you can see Im constantly trying to sound better and find that elusive Holy Grail Tone. If I ever find it I dont know what I will do!   

Back to the amps again.

Im lucky I have a collection of amps to use.

Ive got some gigs coming up and Im taking out my Mesa Roadster 2x12 combo. I have been trying to use too much treble and gain on this amp. The last few nights Ive been experimenting with it at gig volumes and have cut both way back and am getting a really good sound.

For you younger guitarist on here. I know when you practice at home at lower levels you wind up turning gain and treble up. Well I do anyway. But when you get to higher gig volumes it tends to be too much. So next time reduce these levels down a bit and you may find that your guitar actually cuts thru the mix a little better.

After playing guitar for 35 years Im still a work in progress.

No sound check.
Thats like ubsurd.

We have a gig in a small shop comming up next month. Have a 16 song set ready to go.
The owner wants us to use the house system. I want to use ours.
I feel we have an optimum set up at the time for what we are doing.
I dont want to risk the sound to a system I am not used to.

George,Im actually used to deals with no sound check. Some places we play are basically restaurants til 9pm and then they turn into a rock club. They dont want you in there saying Check for an hour and then blasting them with drums, bass or guitar to get levels.Ive seen bands fumble around for an hour or more trying to get their sound set. A pro band with their own pa shouldnt need a soundcheck in my opinion. I feel we should be able to quickly eq the room, make sure all the mics are working, which all you have to do is tap them. Make sure the monitors are happening within a couple of minutes. We have a set soundman, and ussually start with a couple of the same songs. Within a song or two he should have a handle on it.Of course Im no help cause Im always using different equipment. If a room has a house pa and someone who knows what they are doing I'll use it instead of my own. Thats just my 2 cents. But my band sounds Pretty consistent no matter what we do.I think its all about your comfort level. When I was using the preamp our soundman would for no real reason just kill the guitar in the monitors. I would have to play by feel instead of really hearing what was going on. Since Im wireless I just would move out in front of the mains. The key is the crowd never knew all this was going on. As Ive said before you want or I want to look effortless in our delivery.On the other hand, we did a big show a few months ago at one of those kiddie clubs with 3 other bands. I had my amp real low and all the sudden it dies. Well it was actually the monitors kicking in and out for our hour and a half set. I wore that soundguy out all night about his equipment. I guess I had a lot on my mind and really took it out on him the whole time on the pa. The crazy thing is the crowd just ate it up. Of course we didnt stop songs or anything we kept rockin. I never stop in the middle of a song live unless we blow the breakers or something. So as I said crowds never really know whats going on.Rock On Bro!

You can tell the soundman is pissed when you walk up to try and buy him a drink and he looks at you with a look that could kill and says
AND WHAT DO YOU WANT! I had that happen one time!

Me too, HJ - he calmed right down when I offered him a drink, though...& one of the other guys took him outside for a friendly lil smoke between sets. He came back with a whole new attitude!

Running sound is tougher for me than actually playing.

Lots of bands just dont have any idea of how to eq their amps, or they just blast the world.

I ran sound for a few years and can sympathize with their side of the coin. When Im working with one I try to work with him and ask am I to loud or what do I need to do. I try to give them definite instructions on what I want. In my case Lead Vocals are the priority, then back up vocals over all the rest.

If my band running amps then we have control of our onstage volume, we just try to balance it out and get the vocals hot in the monitors. Our singer doesnt follow the songs all the time and we key off what hes doing so vocals are the most important thing.

As a guitarist I do find myself telling our guy to put more gtr in the mains a lot more than maybe he should. Lately our bassist has been getting out front and helping reference our sound.

It really is a team effort as in GROUP.

Thanks for the input. Lookslike we will be using the venues sound system after all. It's the way Ray wants it done so, we'll by God do it that way.