Stoner/DOOM Bassists thread part 36 - Old School Death Metal Wannabes

[Toastfuzz]

I'm not a sports fan at all, and used to be a real TV junky, but I've happily lived without cable for 1.5 years now. I do however have a extra-fast internet plan, so Netflix / Hulu / "etc." sources of media are all I need. Reality shows are such a waste of your life, if you ask me. Theres about 3 regular shows I watch and I can always find sources of them without having cable.

If you want just phone and internet, but no cable TV (thats where the big money is anyway), try to negotiate a package where you have the most basic form of cable, but get good phone / internet. I apparently get 14 or so channels, but the cable box is wrapped up in my attic not plugged in... was cheaper to bundle in the basic cable than to just get internet on its own. Makes no sense I know.

Originally Posted by father of fires

Here’s a question for you all.

When I moved into my house a while back we never got cable or a house phone. We were so busy getting settled that we didn’t miss it. We would rent movies or buy dvd box sets online to watch after the kid goes to bed. My son can watch the same movies over and over and for the 1 maybe 2 hours a night I get to myself I’d rather be playing guitar, watching some new blockbuster (I f'n love Redbox and ****** movies), or reading (quite rare these days).

I had internet for a while but I cancelled it when I was done grad school. I have a smart phone and if I must use my computer I can tether if need be.

My wife wants to open an at home daycare in the near future and we’ll need a house phone to get certified. House phones are ultra expensive so we’ve been looking at cable/phone/internet packages from the cable companies and they are getting quite aggressive with the deals.

I guess I’m just wondering if it’s worth the $100+ a month for this stuff. When I was young and lived alone I had all the premium channels and cable modems and all that jazz. I’ve gone over a 1 ½ years without it and I don’t really miss it. I fear that any productivity I may have had since I moved to my new place will be erased by South Park reruns.

So…here’s a quick poll. Do you guys have cable? Is it worth it to you? Do you just have it because you're supposed to?

[Ancient Tone]

Originally Posted by father of fires

Think of it as bad gig exercise. Being able to play when you can’t hear the band will save you at some point in your career.

Also, I find it’s good to be able to play without looking at your strings because there are some super dark stages. Like the Sidebar in Baltimore. Delmarva folks know what I’m talking about.

Yeah sidebar gets really freakin dark, especially if your a drummer at the back of the stage. nice lil venue though.

Originally Posted by father of fires

Here’s a question for you all.

When I moved into my house a while back we never got cable or a house phone. We were so busy getting settled that we didn’t miss it. We would rent movies or buy dvd box sets online to watch after the kid goes to bed. My son can watch the same movies over and over and for the 1 maybe 2 hours a night I get to myself I’d rather be playing guitar, watching some new blockbuster (I f'n love Redbox and ****** movies), or reading (quite rare these days).

I had internet for a while but I cancelled it when I was done grad school. I have a smart phone and if I must use my computer I can tether if need be.

My wife wants to open an at home daycare in the near future and we’ll need a house phone to get certified. House phones are ultra expensive so we’ve been looking at cable/phone/internet packages from the cable companies and they are getting quite aggressive with the deals.

I guess I’m just wondering if it’s worth the $100+ a month for this stuff. When I was young and lived alone I had all the premium channels and cable modems and all that jazz. I’ve gone over a 1 ½ years without it and I don’t really miss it. I fear that any productivity I may have had since I moved to my new place will be erased by South Park reruns.

So…here’s a quick poll. Do you guys have cable? Is it worth it to you? Do you just have it because you're supposed to?

I have the package cable/phone/internet and it started at 100$ a month but every company adds on so many extra fees and other BS that your bill will be 140-150$ easily. My suggestion is to just get a phone / internet bundle, they usually run about 60$ a month and if there are TV shows you want to watch its 8$ a month to get hulu or netflix, even if you got both you cut your bill in half and have immediate access to what ever you want, including shows that you would have to pay 20-30$ a month for premium channels for. I'm about to go that route as our 2 year contract for the bundle is about to be up in december.

[The_Janitor]

We have been playing in near-dark to compensate for the low-light thing. I have no problem with that, my fingers know where they are most of the time.

It was kind of a wake-up call, and bad gig practice is a good way to think about it. It's just a temporary thing until guitar dude gets his rig sorted out, but it's good to know how much not hearing guitar can throw a wrench in the gears.

I do not have cable, but super-fast innnernets w/ netflix, hulu subscriptions, and we rent movies online via Blockbuster and Amazon. All of those services have apps on the PS3, which makes it easy and convenient. I'm glad I paid extra for the wifi router, so everything (laptop, android tab, ps3) is all instantly connected as soon as it's turned on.

[thombo]

Laz, if the guitarist that your drummer can't hear plays a full stack, he can break it up and point on cab toward the drummer... or you can rock the new Cult of the Lost Cause amp setup (which is not unlike Young Widows or Russian Circles), and put amps all over the stage! Of course, then you'd need another cab so you could use your ampeg and your orange.

[Lazarus.Bird]

I ****ing hate playing in the dark. I've been "this close" to buying LEDs many times, but I never hold onto a bass long enough... One part of a song I was sliding from the 5th fret to the 21st fret, but I had to change that because its just too damn hard to do when you can't see your fretboard.

Does anyone bring their own drum "monitor" for the drummer? We need to change how we've been playing. Looking at the stage from the crowd, from left to right, we go Guitar 1, me, drums, Guitar 2, and singer stands up front. Drummer is having a hell of a time hearing Guitar 1, which is a problem because he takes a lot of cues from him. Guitarist 1 is talking about bringing a little combo amp, splitting his signal before his amp, and sending it to both his amp and this little combo amp for the drummer.

I'm wondering if we just need to switch things up on how we have our stuff set up on stage. Never really ran into this issue with my other bands. Maybe just swap me and Guitarist 1, angling his cab towards the drummer a bit.

Wrote that while you were posting, thombo. Our guitarists just use half stacks.

[father of fires]

Originally Posted by Lazarus.Bird

I ****ing hate playing in the dark. I've been "this close" to buying LEDs many times, but I never hold onto a bass long enough... One part of a song I was sliding from the 5th fret to the 21st fret, but I had to change that because its just too damn hard to do when you can't see your fretboard.

Does anyone bring their own drum "monitor" for the drummer? We need to change how we've been playing. Looking at the stage from the crowd, from left to right, we go Guitar 1, me, drums, Guitar 2, and singer stands up front. Drummer is having a hell of a time hearing Guitar 1, which is a problem because he takes a lot of cues from him. Guitarist 1 is talking about bringing a little combo amp, splitting his signal before his amp, and sending it to both his amp and this little combo amp for the drummer.

I'm wondering if we just need to switch things up on how we have our stuff set up on stage. Never really ran into this issue with my other bands. Maybe just swap me and Guitarist 1, angling his cab towards the drummer a bit.

Backline the amps and put the drummer in front of them.

Think of past bands and how good or bad the drummer could hear. Go with the setup that worked.

[Jason Hall]

Originally Posted by Lazarus.Bird

We've actually been having issues playing live. Drummer can never seem to hear the guitarist he cues off of very well. Of course he's a drummer, so he doesn't mention this until we've already soundchecked and played half the set.

My drummer's talked with me about it before, and it all comes down to the soundman setting up a monitor for the drummer so he can hear the guitar/vocals. Some clubs around here just don't bother and just worry about the singer/guitarist's monitors. I dunno, if I was a drummer I'd probably bring a powered monitor with me just in case my sound guy wasn't doing his job so I could set it up myself.

[beebassdude]

monitors? i thought this was the doom thread?

[ampegfuzz]

Originally Posted by Toastfuzz

This might be cool, if anyone's lookin for an octave downer:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid/

I would if it was smaller.

[Jason Hall]

Originally Posted by beebassdude

monitors? i thought this was the doom thread?

Oh, yeah.. right. Tell your guitarist to get another cab and another full stack to go with it. Maybe another full stack if that isn't enough.

[beebassdude]

Originally Posted by jasohall

Oh, yeah.. right. Tell your guitarist to get another cab and another full stack to go with it. Maybe another full stack if that isn't enough.

1. in doom, there is never enough amps or cabs. ever.
2. there can always be more.
3. if your drummer cant hear someone on stage, you arent loud enough lol.

[ampegfuzz]

Originally Posted by beebassdude

1. in doom, there is never enough amps or cabs. ever.
2. there can always be more.
3. if your drummer cant hear someone on stage, you arent loud enough lol.

+1 I wish I could bring both cabs to every stoner gig

[NKUSigEp]

Originally Posted by mc_muench

Your point is?

Because we totally do have lives...

No point. LOL

It's kinda funny too because generally the pace of this type of music is rather modest.

[beebassdude]

Originally Posted by ampegfuzz

+1 I wish I could bring both cabs to every stoner gig

why cant you? car space?

[Toastfuzz]

Stage space is more of an issue around here than car space or anything else. Especially if the headlining bands have their backline/drums set up already, often you're stuck jamming into a narrow 4' deep stage where the singer can barely stand in front of the drums.

I notice that every time you guys play, Dave's cab is set back farther away from him, and Joe's cab is usually in line with and directed in front of the drums. You outta just switch Dave and Joe and their rigs.. use Joe's cab as the drum monitor and depend on soundman to bring his guitar to FOH and vocal monitor. You may not like being so far away from that Matamp cab though, or you'll have to get used to listening to the singer monitor. I get that its hard to set Joe's rig up exactly how you want for stage monitoring and still have your cab in a good place. FWIW the mix out front always sounds good, so you're pretty free to rearrange yourselves on stage however works.

[ampegfuzz]

Originally Posted by beebassdude

1. in doom, there is never enough amps or cabs. ever.
2. there can always be more.
3. if your drummer cant hear someone on stage, you arent loud enough lol.

+1 I wish I could bring both cabs to every stoner gig

[ampegfuzz]

Originally Posted by beebassdude

why cant you? car space?

Most venues won't allow it. Or no room. But it all fits in the car, 2 basses and room for a passenger .

[beebassdude]

Originally Posted by ampegfuzz

Most venues won't allow it. Or no room. But it all fits in the car, 2 basses and room for a passenger .

i dont think weve ever had a venue tell us no to the amount of gear we've had. some you can tell dont "get it" and think its silly, but we've never been told no. id be pissed if a club tried to dictate what we do or do not put on stage.

so un-doom lol.

[thombo]

Originally Posted by Lazarus.Bird

Wrote that while you were posting, thombo. Our guitarists just use half stacks.

well there's your problem! get louder!

[bassboysam]

Originally Posted by Lazarus.Bird

I ****ing hate playing in the dark. I've been "this close" to buying LEDs many times, but I never hold onto a bass long enough... One part of a song I was sliding from the 5th fret to the 21st fret, but I had to change that because its just too damn hard to do when you can't see your fretboard.

Does anyone bring their own drum "monitor" for the drummer? We need to change how we've been playing. Looking at the stage from the crowd, from left to right, we go Guitar 1, me, drums, Guitar 2, and singer stands up front. Drummer is having a hell of a time hearing Guitar 1, which is a problem because he takes a lot of cues from him. Guitarist 1 is talking about bringing a little combo amp, splitting his signal before his amp, and sending it to both his amp and this little combo amp for the drummer.

I'm wondering if we just need to switch things up on how we have our stuff set up on stage. Never really ran into this issue with my other bands. Maybe just swap me and Guitarist 1, angling his cab towards the drummer a bit.

Wrote that while you were posting, thombo. Our guitarists just use half stacks.

No one should ever take queues from a guitarist

The only solution i can think of would be to angle the cab more towards the drums or just get a small combo that he could use as a monitor....