Hey, I finally remembered my password so I can post again. OK, that’s not the reason I was neglecting my blog, but that’s the weak excuse I’m sticking to.
I played a gig with Casa last night at the Vet’s graduation party. We’ve done vet gigs before, and usually they are alcohol soaked and riotous. In stark contrast to this last night was quite restrained, for the simple reason that their parents were present. One girl came up to us before we started and said, “Do you see the lady in the white top and black hair-piece? She’ll probably try and get on stage with you at some point; please don’t let her. She’s my mother.” As it turned out, Mrs Heinz is quite a step up from the usual band interloper, displaying some skill on the tambourine. I imagine her daughter was hiding somewhere whilst her mum was up with us.
In preparation for this gig I cleaned and restrung a couple of my guitars, the strat and my Patrick Eggle Berlin. Taking them both, I soundchecked with the strat but then had a change of mind and used the Berlin. Tip from the top: don’t do this. I had to fiddle about with the EQ and volume to adjust to the Berlin’s humbuckers. At least the humbuckers have coil taps, so I could drop back to a single coil sound when I wanted, although this reminded me why I don’t like coil-taps: the volume and EQ is completely different. You get everything set up on your amp for one pickup combo, then flick a switch on the guitar and now you need to change everything again. I’m starting to think that versatility in guitars is a bad thing, one trick ponies are the way to go.
2 responses so far ↓
Dr Jeffers // July 8, 2009 at 6:31 pm |
I find it hard just switching between two guitars on a gig now, for similar reasons. To switch between a 335 and a strat, to match the volumes i bought a custom-made A/B box, with a passive volume control on the second channel. That way, i can plug both guitars in at the same time, and roll off some of the additional volume of the 335 so i don’t have to mess with the amp. Its not perfect though, as you lose some gain and hence snarl from the 335, which is half the reason you want to switch anyway! Its infuriating stuff. I think having a super dynamic amp doesn’t help. Almost makes me wish for the old Marshall valvestate days- made everything sound pretty much like the same old mush!
Anyways, how you doin chap? I’ve finished me course. Head full of knowledge that the fingers don’t have a clue about yet…
Si // July 12, 2009 at 9:11 am |
I think the only thing to do is have two amps, or at least two different pre-amps… hang on, that sounds like waaaay too much crap to be carting to a gig. Perhaps this is where things like the H&K tri-amp and Trace Elliot’s old Bonneville come into their own, flick the switch on your A/B box at the same time as changing the amp’s pre-amp style to account for the difference.