DavidE Posted November 27, 2008 Posted November 27, 2008 I showed up for last night's gig at 8:30 to find that there was no p.a. We were supposed to start at 9:30. Panicked, I called my singer who called our sound guy... no answer. Finally he answered the phone and he was set up in another club pretty far away where our singer has his usual Wednesday gig with other guys.After running home to get my p.a. gear to at least get through the night poorly, we were able to get a real sound company to show up and get us going over an hour late. We started late, but it ended up being a fun night. Our first set was an hour and 45 minutes! I felt like Paults..... ;-)So, what's the point of this???? I wondered why I couldn't hear my delay, why my boost didn't seem to be working and why my chorus sound really didn't do anything. Turns out I had my pedal wired up wrong so none of those effects were in the signal path. I didn't figure this simple mistake out until the last song of the night at 2am. DOH!!!!
tomteriffic Posted November 27, 2008 Posted November 27, 2008 We were running very late due to a bad accident on the Interstate. My rig at the time had a Mutron III auto-crazy wah and my cab was loaded with very vintage low-wattage Alnicos. The cab was loud enough for the gigs we played, but I had to be careful about the levels in order to avoid blowing those speaks. We got there, I set up in a panic and didn't check the settings on the pedalboard. They didn't usually move much but I always checked them anyway. Sure enough, something got twisted on the Mutron and the first overly-extreme "AAW!" took out the cab.
cspot Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 "I do..." LOL!!! Took me a couple seconds for that to sink in....
unfun75 Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 I went a whole set with my mic unplugged back when I was in high school. We were too nervous to notice. I wasn't the lead singer, thankfully.
veatch Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 I was at a bar where a buddy of mine was gigging at. It was a two band show, and the sound guy was supposed to be there for both groups. Welp, the first band gets done, and my buddy comes up to me and sez: "Can you run the board? The sound guy has another gig..." I wasn't planning on staying for the whole set, but friends are friends, so i said, "Why not?" Well, unfortunately, the board was zero'd out before the sound guy left, and nothing was labeled. There was no time for a check between groups, so it was literally wing it. Oh, and to make it more of a challenge, no headphones, so i couldn't even solo a channel to see what was where. By the end of the first song, i pretty much found everything. (or so i thought) Never got any squeelz, and nobody was muted. So, i guess it could have been worse. But it wasn't until the second to the last song that i realized the mic i *thought* was on the lead guitarists cab was actually his vocal mic. At the end of the gig, my payment was one beer (waitress never came back) and a few compliments. Not bad for 90 minutes of work...
serial Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 We were playing a gig that is about five miles from my house, but about an hours' drive for our drummer. I got there around 830 for a 930 start and was the first one there-the drummer's usually there by then. He rolls in about fifteen minutes later after I'm set up (as is the sound guy). He unpacks everything and now it's a little after 9pm. He realizes that he doesn't have the crossbar for his drum kit, which all of the cymbals and riding toms, etc bolt on to (he has the two "legs"). A former drummer lives in the town, but he emailed me that he couldn't make the gig b/c he was going out. I called him anyway and amazingly, he was home, but just on his way out. Even more amazingly, he had the same kit frame, AND it was broken down already since he'd just set up his electric kit in his basement studio. I ran over to his place, picked it up and got back by 945 or so. We started up at ten pm, but there had been a big snow/ice storm, so the crowd had been delayed a half hour or so anyway and we had a great night. I was a bit shaken up and stressed out to say the least when we finally got going.Forgot guitar picks and my mikestand last weekend b/c I was in a rush and had to turn around halfway to the gig. Checklists sound like a really good idea!
Willie G. Moseley Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 +1 on "I do"...while I tell people the Missus is the only wife I've ever had and I'm the only husband she's ever had (i.e., we both believe in the permanence of wedding vows, and have been together 24 years), I wonder how many males, for their first marriage at least, weren't thinking with their heads and hearts, but were thinking with another part of the male anatomy....'Course, letting something that should be a hobby or part-time income turn into an obsession/escape (like playing in a bar band) doesn't help a marriage either.
wwlaidback Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 I've seen some bad ones on major television broadcasts. A couple of years ago, Keith Urban was featured on the CMA awards to play "Where the Blacktop Ends." You could hear everything on the set, except his guitar. He was playing "air lead guitar" with no sound, and putting on quite the show. I was embarassed for him. I sent an e-mail, and the crew said he was hearing everything just fine on his headphones and didn't know there was a problem, but there wasn't any broadcast due to technical malfunctions. The viewers got the big air gap and it really sucked. I saw the same thing happen to Ted Nuggent on another show also featuring Joe Perry and Steve Tyler, where all the guitars went dead. Ted did one of his high pitched gymnastic splits -- but no sound. Joe wasn't getting any sound either, and Steve tried to pick up Joe's guitar with his microphone without any luck. I never thought I'd see the day when these guys couldn't play lead.
hamerhead Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 When we were still doing our own sound, the bass player always hooked up the PA because, well, it was his. One night we were running a little late setting up so we skipped the sound check. We're about halfway through the opening song and it was sounding pretty good on stage. I look at my wife (in the crowd) and she's pointing at her ears. Then I look over at the bass player's wife (who's at the board) and she looks frantic. Dumb bass player never hooked up the mains! We couldn't tell because the monitors were blasting, but out front, nothing. He never did that again, but it sure rattled him.
Siaip Ciuvas Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 explain pls to stupid foreigner "I do..." thing? Talking about mistakes under pressure - I have made one I still remember from time to time, but after the set. We where performing in local Nissan / Sony-BMG talent contest, and it was one song per band, really big pressure to do it quick and get off. We finished the song, packed our instruments and my really nice Dean Markley foldable guitar stand, who was following me last two years, left there. Tried to contact organizers, but no luck. Really nice thing and the sad side is that its not for sale here, so I could not buy a new one
Willie G. Moseley Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 "I do" = the bottom-line commitment statement from traditional (Christian) wedding vows; I wouldn't know about wedding vows from other major religions.And BTW, to fine-tune something I posted about "I do" earlier, the Missus isn't the first woman I was married to, nor was I the man she was married to, but as noted in the previous post, we believe in (and practice) traditional wedding vows. I've wisecracked a lot of Rodney Dangerfield lines regarding the first time I was married ("My wife gave me trouble even before we were married---at my bachelor party, she was in the movie...").
Thundernotes Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 I was playing an outdoor blues gig a couple of years ago. We took a break, so I tucked my bass (Carvin Bolt 4) into its gig bag and went for a drink. A few minutes later, the clouds opened up and it started pouring. We rushed to grab everything off the deck and bring it inside. I threw the gig bag over my shoulder........but it wasn't zipped. The bass did a face-plant on the deck and punched in the control cavity. It broke two of the pots off the preamp circuit board inside and never got fixed right. I replaced the preamp and it sounds great again, but the body bears the scars.
wwlaidback Posted November 28, 2008 Posted November 28, 2008 Like the cartoon... It's about like our microwave Thanksgiving dinner.
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