Playing outdoors, and how some pedals like different amps and whatnot

[Mark Wein]

This is actually a crosspost from my own forum but I thought it might be nice to share here too. I had a gig Saturday night at the Newport Harbor Yacht club for one of their beach events and didn't realize I would be playing on a tiny triangle of a barge tied to the dock. I was not happy when I got there and was especially not happy when some dimwit tried to dock his boat to the stage using the cleat right behind my amp. We survived and groceries were bought for the Wein family but it was a bit of an adventure.

 

I've been gigging with my Suhr Badger 30 after the speaker in my newer (well, 1976) Fender Deluxe Reverb started crapping out a month or so ago. I've been moving things around on my pedalboard to suit the Deluxes which included using a Wampler Tumnus in place of the RC Booster and swapping out the Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe for an Oddfellow Caveman and then a Nobels ODR-1 a few weeks ago. After a couple of weeks worth of shows where I was really struggling with my tone I decided at the end of Friday's gig to make some changes for Saturday and bring the RC Booster and Caveman back which turned out to be a good call. I was incredibly happy with my sound which is amazing because I usually hate playing outdoors for this reason. Saturdays gig ended up being a little @baimun style on a barge in Newport Harbor. Having no walls or even floors and ceilings for reflections I figured my sound would be extra terrible but it turned out to be awesome. Judging volume was a little tricky because the band was pointed back at the shore and directly into the fronts of a street full of million dollar homes but we seemed to do OK. The show was a reminder that not all pedals like all amps. The more mid-rangy stuff likes the older Fenders and pedals that are flatter work with my Suhr, which is a bit more Marshally.

 

As an aside, the MXR Reverb pedal is killer and replaced the much more expensive offering from Strymon last month. Between a basic and almost inaudible verb that I use for a little depth on my clean sounds to cranking the mix to play some surf music on this gig it's the best and most usable reverb I've ever owned. And I've owned pretty much everything on the market in pedal form over the last decade or so searching for what I dig.

 

I played my McFeely 454 for most of the gig but I broke a string towards the middle of the second set and ended up playing my Squier CV strat with the Kinman Noiseless pickups for the rest of the night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WRGKMC]

I used to do beach parties every weekend on the Jersey Shore during the summer months. Most of the time we'd point out over the ocean and boats would pull up off shore and anchor out there. Some shows became so massive having more then 5000 people on the beaches and of course we were regularly plagued by cops coming by to shut us down. We had our sets so well timed we'd end the last song just before they came by with the final warning.

 

The key to good sound is all direct sound. There's nothing for the sound to bounce off of so the sound coming from your cab beams in a straight like a laser. You can do better raising the cab up vs having it on the ground. My preferred amp is a Marshall head and an open backed cab loaded with 25W alnico Jensen's. I can crank it up and get big sounds at lower volumes.

 

Pedals tend to be on the warmer side. A Warm Comp that has adjustable tone gives me the string touch I need, Tube screamer or Blues breaker for classic and blues tones, Governor for leads, Chorus for movement and echo. I sometimes use the amps reverb to add the missing room sound.

 

Main thing is to go easy on drive so the amp doesn't sound small. Cleaner is bigger when it comes to tone.

[DeepEnd]

Sounds like a good time was had by all or at least most. I'd be very nervous playing in the middle of a harbor with even remotely decent gear. Glad you made it through unscathed.

[Mark Wein]

I used to do beach parties every weekend on the Jersey Shore during the summer months. Most of the time we'd point out over the ocean and boats would pull up off shore and anchor out there. Some shows became so massive having more then 5000 people on the beaches and of course we were regularly plagued by cops coming by to shut us down. We had our sets so well timed we'd end the last song just before they came by with the final warning.

 

The key to good sound is all direct sound. There's nothing for the sound to bounce off of so the sound coming from your cab beams in a straight like a laser. You can do better raising the cab up vs having it on the ground. My preferred amp is a Marshall head and an open backed cab loaded with 25W alnico Jensen's. I can crank it up and get big sounds at lower volumes.

 

Pedals tend to be on the warmer side. A Warm Comp that has adjustable tone gives me the string touch I need, Tube screamer or Blues breaker for classic and blues tones, Governor for leads, Chorus for movement and echo. I sometimes use the amps reverb to add the missing room sound.

 

Main thing is to go easy on drive so the amp doesn't sound small. Cleaner is bigger when it comes to tone.

I usually have this amp sitting right side up and elevated but to be honest I was afraid it would tip over into the water.

[WRGKMC]

That's why god made Bungee cords. Get some screw in hooks and Bungee it to the deck.

[Mark Wein]

Hehe. I wish we had a "like" button here for your comment.