Members SpaceNorman Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by Piano Whore SpaceNorman, I think you missed this part. You're used to using lots of stuff, would you like having to minimize your rig because the drummer insisted on setting up a jungle gym? I hate cramped stages but they're out there. You're right - I did miss that! Cramped stages are an issue - and everybody has to suck it up to make it fit. A drummer that consumes the bulk of the stage is an issue. My keys rig is pretty sizeable - however, when space is an issue - I can shrink my footprint by taking my rack and stage monitors vertical. When I "go vertical" my rack/monitors end up with a footprint that's not much bigger than my rack itself. I'm also more than willing to turn my keys if it will make for more practical use of stage space. "Going vertical" isn't my favorite setup (I don't get the stereo field that I enjoy so much) - nor is playing in profile to the audience - however, it does allow me to shrink my stage footprint quite a bit. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to make things work. Still, I'm a big supporter of NOT trying to dictate what gear my band mates should/should not use for their rig - and would consider intervening only if it was grossly unreasonable and/or if I felt a bandmate was "hiding behind his rig" to avoid being part of setup/teardown of the band as a whole. If you're a "big rig" sort of guy - it's on you to step up and get there early to get your stuff done - and to learn to setup/teardown quickly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 I say just talk to him. Communication is always the key. if you are playing small bars AND your music doesn't call for THE BIG ROCK SHOW, ask him if it is possible to scale down. I for one got tired of the big kit and the LONG setup in the small bar over a decade ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 I say just talk to him. Communication is always the key. if you are playing small bars AND your music doesn't call for THE BIG ROCK SHOW, ask him if it is possible to scale down. I for one got tired of the big kit and the LONG setup in the small bar over a decade ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Man, I hope nobody ever decides to tell me to leave part of my rig home. I'd probably quit. I haul a stage piano, keyboard amp, Leslie speaker, and spinet organ, and it takes up a bunch of space... especially behind me, because I stand to play piano and sit to play organ.Of course, I work diligently to minimize my use of stage space -- for example, I built a hidden storage area into my organ to hold cords, bricks, and power bar -- but I friggin love my rig and frankly wouldn't want to play anything else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Man, I hope nobody ever decides to tell me to leave part of my rig home. I'd probably quit. I haul a stage piano, keyboard amp, Leslie speaker, and spinet organ, and it takes up a bunch of space... especially behind me, because I stand to play piano and sit to play organ.Of course, I work diligently to minimize my use of stage space -- for example, I built a hidden storage area into my organ to hold cords, bricks, and power bar -- but I friggin love my rig and frankly wouldn't want to play anything else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 I switched to a roland V-drum kit over 10 years ago. Since then there have been some places I have played that I wouldn't be able to fit my entire ludwig kit and I was glad I had a vdrum. (especially in the last 2 years- I played in some TIGHT spaces) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 I switched to a roland V-drum kit over 10 years ago. Since then there have been some places I have played that I wouldn't be able to fit my entire ludwig kit and I was glad I had a vdrum. (especially in the last 2 years- I played in some TIGHT spaces) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dan88z Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by flanc Post this video on his FB page. A friend of mine can jam on a DM like that. He used to bring an old Roland R9 to practice and never missed a beat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dan88z Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by flanc Post this video on his FB page. A friend of mine can jam on a DM like that. He used to bring an old Roland R9 to practice and never missed a beat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FitchFY Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by jeff42 I say just talk to him. Communication is always the key. if you are playing small bars AND your music doesn't call for THE BIG ROCK SHOW, ask him if it is possible to scale down. As usual, do what Jeff says. ^^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FitchFY Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by jeff42 I say just talk to him. Communication is always the key. if you are playing small bars AND your music doesn't call for THE BIG ROCK SHOW, ask him if it is possible to scale down. As usual, do what Jeff says. ^^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by wesg ...I haul a stage piano, keyboard amp, Leslie speaker, and spinet organ, and it takes up a bunch of space... especially behind me, because I stand to play piano and sit to play organ... Just curious - how do you set it all up? Digital Piano on top of the organ? Keyboard amp on top of the Leslie? Back in the day I used to lug around a garage chopped Hammond C2 with a Leslie - along with a Rhodes, a Clav and a cheezy Korg Poly61. I was constantly toying with how to fit it all on stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by wesg ...I haul a stage piano, keyboard amp, Leslie speaker, and spinet organ, and it takes up a bunch of space... especially behind me, because I stand to play piano and sit to play organ... Just curious - how do you set it all up? Digital Piano on top of the organ? Keyboard amp on top of the Leslie? Back in the day I used to lug around a garage chopped Hammond C2 with a Leslie - along with a Rhodes, a Clav and a cheezy Korg Poly61. I was constantly toying with how to fit it all on stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nchangin Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by n9ne Also....over the years, experience has taught me that in most cases, a drummer's skill level is inversely proportionate to the size of his kit. I hate it when there's one song you need to setup one annoying cowbell for that one stupid song and hearing the "more cowbell" phrase the rest of the night. "When I was young in my time, I had a cymbal for every rhyme. Now that I'm old and gettin' gray I only pack a 4 piece on any day" As far as getting your drummer to scale down may want to use a little reverse psycholgy, I know when I was young when they would bitch about all the room I took and the crap I had I went and bought more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nchangin Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by n9ne Also....over the years, experience has taught me that in most cases, a drummer's skill level is inversely proportionate to the size of his kit. I hate it when there's one song you need to setup one annoying cowbell for that one stupid song and hearing the "more cowbell" phrase the rest of the night. "When I was young in my time, I had a cymbal for every rhyme. Now that I'm old and gettin' gray I only pack a 4 piece on any day" As far as getting your drummer to scale down may want to use a little reverse psycholgy, I know when I was young when they would bitch about all the room I took and the crap I had I went and bought more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Norman, you've pretty much got it. The piano goes on top of the organ, with a couple of pieces of 1x4 covered in toolbox tray liner at the back to give it a tiny forward angle. The organ's music rack is removed; the piano has a lip that catches into the lip on the organ that normally catches your music book. So the piano overhangs the organ nicely, and is very sturdy - sturdier than any folding stand I have ever used. The keyboard amp goes on top of the Leslie when I'm in tight quarters, which is pretty much always. I run it a bit cockeyed to the Leslie so that I don't go deaf with the horn at ear-height. Which reminds me, in this configuration I have to use a wedge-style damper pedal, I have a hole drilled in the front of the organ near the expression pedal for the cord, so it can go through the organ rather than around it. Here is a photo I snapped while building the back to give you an idea: I usually gig with the black Leslie. You can't see my piano amp in this picture. When I have the choice and we are putting everything through the PA, I like to put the Leslie on the organ side nearest the audience and furthest from the band... the idea is to get maximum stage-bleed to the audience without raising stage volume. As I said before, I stand to play the piano and sit to play the organ. This works well, I'm lucky that I just happen to have the right length legs for this, as I cannot do the "Hammond Hunch" with my back. I would love to use a more traditional L shape and sit for everything, but there is not enough stage space anywhere I play to allow this..... and I am also not able to twist my torso or neck for more than a few seconds at a time, it causes inflammation of the nerves which control my fingers. Not good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Norman, you've pretty much got it. The piano goes on top of the organ, with a couple of pieces of 1x4 covered in toolbox tray liner at the back to give it a tiny forward angle. The organ's music rack is removed; the piano has a lip that catches into the lip on the organ that normally catches your music book. So the piano overhangs the organ nicely, and is very sturdy - sturdier than any folding stand I have ever used. The keyboard amp goes on top of the Leslie when I'm in tight quarters, which is pretty much always. I run it a bit cockeyed to the Leslie so that I don't go deaf with the horn at ear-height. Which reminds me, in this configuration I have to use a wedge-style damper pedal, I have a hole drilled in the front of the organ near the expression pedal for the cord, so it can go through the organ rather than around it. Here is a photo I snapped while building the back to give you an idea: I usually gig with the black Leslie. You can't see my piano amp in this picture. When I have the choice and we are putting everything through the PA, I like to put the Leslie on the organ side nearest the audience and furthest from the band... the idea is to get maximum stage-bleed to the audience without raising stage volume. As I said before, I stand to play the piano and sit to play the organ. This works well, I'm lucky that I just happen to have the right length legs for this, as I cannot do the "Hammond Hunch" with my back. I would love to use a more traditional L shape and sit for everything, but there is not enough stage space anywhere I play to allow this..... and I am also not able to twist my torso or neck for more than a few seconds at a time, it causes inflammation of the nerves which control my fingers. Not good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by modulusman One of the drummers I play with brings 11 cymbals to every gig. I hear ya. My current drummer has the huge kit too. But he's a big dude and that's what he wants to haul around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by modulusman One of the drummers I play with brings 11 cymbals to every gig. I hear ya. My current drummer has the huge kit too. But he's a big dude and that's what he wants to haul around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by dparr Less is more. Just look at the set Ringo played on. In his case: less is less. Lol "ya wouldn't let me play would ya" -- Ringo Starr referring to having many of his drum parts replaced by studio aces like Bernard Purdie. Sorry man but Ringo is pretty weak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Originally Posted by dparr Less is more. Just look at the set Ringo played on. In his case: less is less. Lol "ya wouldn't let me play would ya" -- Ringo Starr referring to having many of his drum parts replaced by studio aces like Bernard Purdie. Sorry man but Ringo is pretty weak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6StringSling Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 As a guitarist, I would've probably had an initial problem with someone telling me that I needed to bring fewer guitars and/or pedals. Back in the day I had wah/volume, distortion, octaver, harmonizer, Mu-Tron, phaser, flanger, chorus, reverb and delay pedals. I would've eventually had to admit that overall, distortion, chorus, and delay were all I really needed. Just 6 months ago I had 28 guitars. Now I have 8 because I got a JTV-59 modeling guitar for my 50th. It doesn't have a trem so I have to either fake it or forget it. Some songs I can fake it well enough with my Pod HD500's model of the DigiTech Whammy Pedal being controlled by the board's expression pedal or I can program the HD500's patch to control the JTV-59 and use the volume or tone control knob to do a dive or trem effect. Some songs, like the solo for Crazy train, have a quick tap or two on the bar and that's just way too fast to use the pedal or knob so I have to skip it. If it's not an integral part of the song that the audience (not other musician's!) will miss, then why should I worry about it? I'd rather be able to do it but at some point I'd have to ask myself "Does it really matter?" to the point that I need to bring an extra guitar with a trem just for that. Because the next thing that would happen is that I'd start bringing extra gear for songs that I really only needed for playing a short, maybe seconds long, passage.So I guess the question is, does he really need all of it or just need to show off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6StringSling Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 As a guitarist, I would've probably had an initial problem with someone telling me that I needed to bring fewer guitars and/or pedals. Back in the day I had wah/volume, distortion, octaver, harmonizer, Mu-Tron, phaser, flanger, chorus, reverb and delay pedals. I would've eventually had to admit that overall, distortion, chorus, and delay were all I really needed. Just 6 months ago I had 28 guitars. Now I have 8 because I got a JTV-59 modeling guitar for my 50th. It doesn't have a trem so I have to either fake it or forget it. Some songs I can fake it well enough with my Pod HD500's model of the DigiTech Whammy Pedal being controlled by the board's expression pedal or I can program the HD500's patch to control the JTV-59 and use the volume or tone control knob to do a dive or trem effect. Some songs, like the solo for Crazy train, have a quick tap or two on the bar and that's just way too fast to use the pedal or knob so I have to skip it. If it's not an integral part of the song that the audience (not other musician's!) will miss, then why should I worry about it? I'd rather be able to do it but at some point I'd have to ask myself "Does it really matter?" to the point that I need to bring an extra guitar with a trem just for that. Because the next thing that would happen is that I'd start bringing extra gear for songs that I really only needed for playing a short, maybe seconds long, passage.So I guess the question is, does he really need all of it or just need to show off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Could be part of the show. Cool until it keeps your band from gigging or pushes a frontline guy off to the side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted December 31, 2012 Members Share Posted December 31, 2012 Could be part of the show. Cool until it keeps your band from gigging or pushes a frontline guy off to the side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.