Solo and Duo Acts

[Howie22]

Last night I had my first full-on gig in about 8 weeks. I've played a couple of other shows where I used a house PA, but this was the first one where I had to haul all my stuff out. It always makes me a bit nervous when I haven't played in a while - usually about forgetting something or some of my equipment not working.

All day long yesterday I kept thinking to myself "maybe you should take two guitars to tonight's gig."  I rarely take a backup guitar to a gig. The only time I typically do is if I've had some kind of work done on my guitar and want the other there just in case. Anyway, I had just played a small house PA gig the night before, and my guitar was fine. I only went with one.

I get everything set up and start getting my sound dialed in before I start. Things sound good. Then, all of a sudden, it sounds like I've switched on some type of distortion pedal. I was getting a dirty blues-type distortion on my acoustic? I know my preamp will distort when the battery gets low, so I bypass that going straight to the board - still there. The guitar is howling with feedback through the monitor. I'm starting to panic - I'm supposed to start playing right about now. I try a different channel - still happening. I tweak knobs, volumes, etc. Still happening. Right about now I start thinking. . ."Why didn't you listen to that little voice? It tried to tell you to bring a backup."

Finally I grabbed a different guitar cable and went straight into the board. Clean sound, so I didn't temp fate and just went with it. Wound up starting about 10 minutes late, and I'm pouring sweat from panic.

I guess it was ultimately the cable, but I'm not sure it wasn't something inside the guitar that corrected itself? It's a very nice EWI cable and only a few months old. I'd be hard pressed to think it went bad. If I'd have had more time and another guitar, I could have possibly pinpointed what was wrong. I guess I'll break out the PA later on and do some experiments to see what's up.

The gig turned out awesome. One of the best night's I've ever had in that venue!

[daddymack]

redundant systems are necessary for exactly that reason...I wouldn't ever go to a paying gig without back-up for everything [except the PA and vocalizer] guitar/cables/mic/tuner...why risk it for one more trip to the car?

The voices in my head lie all the time so I don't listen to them anymore...

[Potts]

LOL... bring one guitar. I noticed last night that I don't even have a back-up mic cable. That would suck.

[Voltan]

i can hear the voices in all of you guys heads...  

[Howie22]

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Potts wrote:
LOL... bring one guitar. I noticed last night that I don't even have a back-up mic cable. That would suck.

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Because of playing in the trio, I have all kinds of cables for nearly every connection possible.

As I said, I don't typically bring an extra guitar. I decided against it primarily because my set up space in this venue is seriously tight. There's nowhere to put an extra guitar, and it was way too cold to leave it in the car.

I always wonder what would happen if my PA head decided not to work anymore?

[Notes_Norton]

I carry extra cables for everything. Plus two wind synthesizers and an extra sound module. I can cover the sax, flute, and lead guitar parts on the wind synth, so that is all the backup instrument I need. I use backing tracks, and we only need 2 laptops, but we bring and power-up 3.

Unfortunately, I can't bring a spare PA set, but I have a spare mixer, power amp, and fx unit at home. Plus from dealing almost exclusively with a local Ma and Pa music store, I have the owner's cell phone number in my pocket - plus an offer from him that if anything fails on the gig, give him a call, he'll open the music store and deliver whatever I need (you don't get that kind of service from GC or an Internet store).

Insights and incites by Notes

[daddymack]

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Voltan wrote:

i can hear the voices in all of you guys heads...  

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mine only speak to me!! But, as I said, they lie...

[daddymack]

my training as a Boy Scout: Be Prepared!

I even carry stuff I don't need but my band mates might, like multi-voltage wall warts, instrument stands, amp stands, batteries, tubes...plus a multimeter.  I used to even carry a soldering iron, but gave it up a few years back. Better to have too much, than not enough.

[Voltan]

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daddymack wrote:

my training as a Boy Scout: Be Prepared!

I even carry stuff I don't need but my band mates might, like multi-voltage wall warts, instrument stands, amp stands, batteries, tubes...plus a multimeter.  I used to even carry a soldering iron, but gave it up a few years back. Better to have too much, than not enough.

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i carry a case with extra extension cords, mic and instrument cables, microphones, new sets of strings, batteries, picks, fuses, straps, etc... and if what is needed isnt in there i also keep a flask of the Balvenie 12 year old double wood scotch in the glovebox of the car...  hell, with using the K8's and K10's for PA i have been known to carry an extra set of PA cabs in the Prius...

[iamjethro]

I carry extra cables, batteries, picks, strings, straps, 6-way power strip etc.  Any of the guys that play with me even know to just ask where the "bag" is if they forget something or something goes out.

All my stuff is marked with green electrical tape too,  i always get it back at the end of the night.

[Bob Dey]

Bad cords are the number one sound problem. Always have spares and check for bad cords first when buzzing or no sound occurs. 

[Miko Man]

Voltan,

Lots of room in a Prius. I can get a pair of PRX 618sxlf subs, 612m tops, stands, a mixer, mics, cables, etc, and still have room for a passenger. I'd rather keep the flask in the back, under the rear deck, however, due to the state "open container" law. Mark C.

[Howie22]

So, a quick follow-up here. . .

I haven't played since that last gig. So, before my gig this weekend, I did a pretty thorough check. I plugged my guitar into my small mixer (using headphones) to check the guitar, the cords, the preamp, etc.  Nothing was wrong. It all sounded fine. 

After that checkup, just in case, I went ahead and changed the battery in my guitar.

I Played my gig on Saturday and took a small backup PA just in case - no problems whatsoever. Same PA. Same channel. Same guitar. Same preamp. Same cords. All was fine.

I must have just had something set weird on the board and didn't realize it?

[pogo97]

Was Mars in the house of Venus?

[MDLMUSIC]

I always bring extra stuff like cables and cords, but for things I don't have a spare for (like my keyboard or PA), I just think of what I could do if it goes on the fritz. I always bring an acoustic guitar that I can sub for the keyboard if necessary. I have done gigs by plugging my mic into a guitar amp for an emergency PA. And if that doesn't work, I just sing with my outside Principal's voice, which is tremendously loud.

[Potts]

I don't bring anything extra really...I recently just purchased a second mic cord and tossed it in a bag. I steal stuff from my live rig for my little studio and never replace it.

I got to the gig the other night and realized that I have a $1500 guitar, another $5k in shit, and I had 1 flimsy pick. Spare picks are important. I'm serious when I say that if my guitar or PA dies I have more important things to worry about than playing that night.  I know it sounds stupid but thats just the way it is.

[Howie22]

Okay, the problem resurfaced at yesterday's gig. I had plugged in my guitar, set the levels, and everything was fine. We did a quick soundcheck, then went off to do some other stuff before the parade started. When we came back and played another tune, I thought I'd turn up my guitar. I picked up my preamp to check the settings, put it back down. . .then nothing. I pushed and pulled on cords, shoot stuff, rattled stuff, etc. Nothing. I went straight into the board again and it worked fine.

So, I guess the problem is the preamp. Whether it needs a new battery, or if something is wrong with an input? I don't know at this point.

[tlbonehead]

I can't imagine just bringing one guitar to a gig. Same with not having extra cables to fit all possible scenerios.For full band gigs I run dual amps onstage so I no longer carry a spare amp. I can always just go mono to get thru the night.

[Shaster]

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Howie22 wrote:

Okay, the problem resurfaced at yesterday's gig. I had plugged in my guitar, set the levels, and everything was fine. We did a quick soundcheck, then went off to do some other stuff before the parade started. When we came back and played another tune, I thought I'd turn up my guitar. I picked up my preamp to check the settings, put it back down. . .then nothing. I pushed and pulled on cords, shoot stuff, rattled stuff, etc. Nothing. I went straight into the board again and it worked fine.

So, I guess the problem is the preamp. Whether it needs a new battery, or if something is wrong with an input? I don't know at this point.

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Except that in your initial post you said that you bypassed the preamp and you still had problems. Could it be a combination of things, or could it be that you reintroduced a bad cable into your system. Like the one going from the pre to your mixer? Or perhaps it's the output jack on your guitar? Have you tried cycling all the inputs and outputs of your various components (inserting and removing a jack several times)? Do you regularly change your pre battery? What pre are you using? Can you reproduce the same issues at home, or with a different guitar?

[Howie22]

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Shaster wrote:

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Howie22 wrote:

Okay, the problem resurfaced at yesterday's gig. I had plugged in my guitar, set the levels, and everything was fine. We did a quick soundcheck, then went off to do some other stuff before the parade started. When we came back and played another tune, I thought I'd turn up my guitar. I picked up my preamp to check the settings, put it back down. . .then nothing. I pushed and pulled on cords, shoot stuff, rattled stuff, etc. Nothing. I went straight into the board again and it worked fine.

So, I guess the problem is the preamp. Whether it needs a new battery, or if something is wrong with an input? I don't know at this point.

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Except that in your initial post you said that you bypassed the preamp and you still had problems. Could it be a combination of things, or could it be that you reintroduced a bad cable into your system. Like the one going from the pre to your mixer? Or perhaps it's the output jack on your guitar? Have you tried cycling all the inputs and outputs of your various components (inserting and removing a jack several times)? Do you regularly change your pre battery? What pre are you using? Can you reproduce the same issues at home, or with a different guitar?

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That's true. I am guessing with the way I was so quickly trying to figure everything out, I could have been running that into a channel that was turned down, etc. That first night was a blur.

It doesn't make sense, because I did pull out the PA at home and tested EVERYTHING, and it all seemed to work fine. It just doesn't make much sense.