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Joined: Aug 2006
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Was invited to play with a band Sunday night. My first time Playing with people in almost 30 years. A friend was just brought in as the new drummer. He suggested me as a rhythm guitarist. I was pleasantly surprised that i hung in there fairly well. I knew none of the chord patterns for the songs, but when told by the lead guitarist, the changes i was able to keep up for the most part on all but one song.
I did not have a decent amp since i have been using software at home for the last few years and only had a Roland micro cube So i was down at guitar center and as i mentioned in another thread i bought a Fender Mustang III modeling amp. Here where it gets kinda interesting.
So I show up and set up my amp, and the lead guy comes in with a Marshall half stack, the bass player hooks up to a 6 foot tall Ampeg rig, and the singer is patched into a set of 4 foot tall PA speakers on the top of two massive subs. there is a full drum kit, and we are in a two car garage "man cave"! I am thinking i will be lucky to even hear my little Fender with one 12" celestion speaker. Believe it or not the little rascal busted right through the mix never set over "3" on the master volume. Great tone, in fact the lead guy asked me to turn down a tad once. (don't they always) grin!! I spent about an hour on my computer with Fenders Fuse software setting up the first 30 patches grouped by 3 or 4 cleans, followed by a couple nastier patches, and so forth. That Fuse software is great, and i look forward to really learning what it can do.
I gotta say this lead guitarist was very good, he could play anything, and well. Very innovative! The Bass player is solid as a rock, and anchors to the drummer like a barnacle. Oh and My friend the drummer he is pretty solid himself. I am certainly the weakest link (right now) Grrrrrrr!
Long story short I was invited back next week for a second look. Here is where the work begins. I already have charts on four of the songs done, and am practicing the chord changes. One cool thing is that they do a lot of original material, so they did not expect me to know it. Learning the songs should not be to hard as they are not super complicated. I hope to make the grade and play with these guys for a good long spell.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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Joined: Mar 2004
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Joined: Jan 2011
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Apprentice
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 163 |
What are you doing telling us?!? Go practice!
(congrats)
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Joined: Jan 2002
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Wear hearing protection. That much volume in a garage is very likely to damage your hearing.
Oh, and congrats! Sorry, my priorities aren't straight - well maybe they are.
-Scott
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Joined: Dec 2003
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Yes congrats and wear ear protection!
Life is short so make sure you spend as much time as possible on the Internet arguing with strangers.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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No kidding on the hearing protection. Hopefully over time i can get the guys to see the sense of dialing it down a notch, volume wise.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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Joined: May 2000
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Loudness and Volume are two different entities...
Volume is the terminology used to describe the overall Amplitude.
Loudness, on the other hand, describes the area of the sonic spectrum that the human ear recognizes easily.
A small amp that develops that Loudness curve, following what is known as the Fletcher-Munson hearing curve, can blow an amplifier system of much more power rating but much less attention to the Loudness Curve right off of the stage.
Many of the classic era tube amps, like the Fender Termolux, Reverb (NOT twin, plain "Reverb"), Bassman, etc. only developed an honest 20 watts "or so" yet were able to cut through like that. Ditto the early Ampegs, Gibsons, Epiphones, etc.
This has led to people declaring such dumb and nonscientific statements such as "tube watts" simply because they do not understand certain other design considerations such as the Loudness Curve, or the Speaker Efficiency issue, or the intentionally limited bandwidth of many amplifiers designed to amplify guitars and not the full "twenty to twenty" audio range.
And then there is the total misunderstanding of the decibel and the fact that the dB scale is logarithmic.
That leads people to think that their amplifier must be "twice as loud" as that "other" amp simply because theirs is rated at 200W and that other amp is rated at 100W when the actual ability to generate Sound Pressure Level between the two amps is almost identical.
log10
A good accessory for your Champ would be to pick up a Shure SM-57 microphone, 40-foot mic cable and a short mic stand or boom capable of reaching the front of the amp's speaker. This for those gigs where the venue is rather large or especially for the outdoor performances. Hook it to the PA and Spank That Plank.
--Mac
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Joined: Oct 2008
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congratulations Rob... sounds like you are in for some fun times! Keep us posted!
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Joined: Jun 2005
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I've been in the same situation this year. My regular jazz gigs have dried up and for whatever reason I've been getting calls for a lot of classic rock and blues. Some of this stuff I haven't done since they were hits and some I haven't done at all so I've spent a lot of time on Youtube working stuff out. If I didn't love this so much it definitely would not be worth it but hey, I'm playing with this stuff all the time anyway so it's great fun for me. I worked out Elizabeth Reed from the Allmans this June and loved every minute of it. Never heard that tune before but it's a good one for sure.
Lately a sax buddy called me to come in with a decent classic blues and country band but no guitarist. He assured the girl singer I could cover a lot of that on piano and it's worked out well but again I had to learn a bunch of her stuff too. I worked out the steel parts for Patsy Clines Walkin After Midnight. Nice old country tune and my piano work with the pitch wheel and volume pedal sounds pretty good. She will take a break and then we will do Mr. Magic or Night Train. Good versatility. She likes us to do four instrumentals per set but I keep them in the blues rock category. No Green Dolphin Street here!
Anyway, good for you Robb but absolutely yes, watch the volume in a garage. A box of Hero's ear plugs are like six bucks at the Guitar Center. Take some with you next time.
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Joined: Dec 2005
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Rob,
Great on your new gig. Sounds to me like you held your own.
Re-invite dots that i.
Great thing to happen.
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
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