A makeshift amp

[tulk1]

One of my fav local players was not busy this past weekend. We asked if he'd like to tag along to our gig at the Buffalo Bar in StJo. Sure!! He met us about half way there to ride the rest of the way with us. I get out to help him load his gear and he goes, "brought the Tele. Hope that's okay". And I'm like ... uh where's your amp? He didn't bring one. Wasn't sure he was going to play, but brought his guitar in case.

 

So ..... what do we do? No extra guitar amps. And I have to start most of the songs so I can't just give up my amp and only play banjo. We had several extra monitors and monitor amps, so it's off to the trailer to see what we can rig up. He spots our PV powered mixer that we use for smaller gigs and goes, " I'll just use that. Good as gold!"

 

So, he did! Ran his pedal board direct into the PV mixer, out of that into one of my JBL JRX112m's, blocked the horn, mic'd up the speaker with his e609 and proceeded to tear it up!! And the tone? Figgin' awesome!!! Just goes to show, sometimes it IS all in the hands of the user. He made that rigged up system sound like a monster guitar amp. Talented people really p*ssmeoff. .........

 

 

+ = Amazing guitar amp with the right player.

[DetroitBlues]

Wow. That's incredible. While my Pocket Pod supposedly could do the same thing directly into a PA, I seriously doubt I could make it sound right. To see someone take a PA like that and turn it into an amp. Simple astounding...

[TalismanRich]

Talented people really p*ssmeoff. .........

 

Hmmm. I think I mumbled something along those lines after hearing you, and Randy, and Rob, and Vince, and Eric, and Mark, .....

[barrymclark]

haha. killer story.

 

Just goes to show... if the player is good enough (to be read as not me) then the gear starts to be less and less a part of the equation. They can make soggy broccoli awesome.

[JeffB]

They can make soggy broccoli awesome.

I can create a mental picture/video for most things but Im struggling with that one.

[fxdx99]

Smile - cool story, Kenny. Way to improvise - using the pedal board in the path and micing the speaker on the monitor sounds like it would work fine. You did better than I that night... rather than start another thread I'm gonna tag on here (hope that's all right).

 

Fri/Sat night did a duo w/Tony, singer in the band. Kinda new place that wants to build up music. Tony went out that evening and bought a small PA for the place. Found one on craigs list, downtown, rush hour and we're running late. Simple powered head, 2 spkrs... has been run hard and put away wet in it's life. Figuring out all it's little idiosyncrasies - this channel doesn't work, why isn't this speaker on, output jack is loose, etc and we're later. Okay, no acoustic guitar - the eq on his guitar preamp is shot. Finally, all's working, turn on the PRRI and... nothing. Tony play a song, I'll go fix. Bring it to where there's light, rectifier tube is shot. Crap... I always bring a spare amp, at least the lunchbox. Well, always except for this time. Crap. Plug the bad monkey into the mixer. Yuck and... crap. Close enough so run back home for the Allen. Play out the night (phew).

 

Sat morn - starts snowing as we're jamming. Santa shows up - really. Sure looks like the real deal. Full attendence of musicians, nearing 20 which for this small place is full. Fun day, lotsa music, some good, some so-so - lotsa sound mixing. Always lotsa guitars. Keeps snowing all day. Icey roads, driving sucks, slow going. Cars in the ditch as it's just too complicated to recall 6 months ago that snow and ice are slippery for cars. These drivers must be from Wisconsin... Play a little guitar, mostly socialize as how much mid-range 'let's use every part of the space in a song can one take.

 

Sunday afternoon, roads clearing. A jam hosted by a buddy. Guitar centric, but bass/fiddle/mando/keys as well. I brings drums (I'm a hack drummer). Fun to bang, haven't played them in a long time. Kinda get a bit back a bit. Yeh, I just wanna bang on the drums all day (but I don't wanna haul them around...).

[tulk1]

I have 3 of those powered heads that have multiple problems. One, we never know which inputs are going to be bad today. It sits in a corner of the garage. Another, the mic cables vibrate out of the head, so it stays in the basement practice area. The other is our normal practice head - does pretty good. Except one day it kicks booty, the next (without changing a thing) the EQ shifts and we have to reset. Nearly every time we use it. Fortunately, the drummer has the PV we used the other night. It's a kick *ss amp, if somewhat limited in it's application (either stereo out, or single out/single monitor). Altho' we did just expand it to use as a guitar amp.

 

Except for your hassles with the cruddy PA ... and the snow ... sounds like you had a cool and fun weekend. Tracy and I just did an acoustic show last week. First one we've done in a long time. Went well. Used our new guitar amp, er ... PV powered head and it worked well.

[pegleg32]

I love you guys gig stories. Always good fun and/or sometimes frustration of the moment to be laughed about later. Keep em coming.

[fxdx99]

Sat morn - starts snowing as we're jamming. Santa shows up - really. Sure looks like the real deal.

 

Dear Santa, there's this Heritage 357 on my list. I've been a really good boy... kinda. Sometimes.

 

[tulk1]

 

Dear Santa, there's this Heritage 357 on my list. I've been a really good boy... kinda. Sometimes.

 

I've met Santa before. Yeah, I think that's him!!

[Trouble]

I've seen people run direct to the pa with acoustics, I've been lucky so far never had an amp go out at a gig. I do remember a couple times in high school when gear was scarce, Get together with a few people and not enough amps, and since I was using a Randall bass amp at the time that always got confiscated for bass or vocals, I remember several occasions running my guitar through an old home stereo system. I'm not going to lie and say the tone was great, but it amplified the guitar. I had an old Tiesco back then, funky unstable quirky guitar that I hated. I miss it now!