Victory is ours!

[pklima]

Ever win a battle of the bands while playing with the bass amp turned off or volume at zero? I did, sort of.

We had a long holiday weekend here and the children's choir I play with entered a couple of patriotic song competitions. I brought my Ergo EUB both times and at the first one I was completely inaudible because the DIs weren't working properly - the soundman couldn't get a signal though I could hear myself through the monitors (pretty quietly but definitely there). After maybe 60 seconds of this I told the onstage tech to forget it and I'll just pretend to play, so I did.

We won and what's even funnier is that afterwards another choir's bassist (DB) came up to me to ask me about the bass I was playing 'cause he could use an EUB too. He's probably gonna buy one the next time he's in the States. We certainly didn't win for sounding best or pulling off the most complex choral arrangements but having a large number of really young kids, energy and enthusiasm.

The next day, same bass, same soundman, same equipment, same crew but in a different town there was no problem getting a signal. I had brought a preamp thinking that maybe the signal just needed to be boosted (the Ergo has a passive piezo pickup) but planned on miming again if needed. As I learned afterwards the problem was that the first town didn't provide them as much electricity as was needed. The competition was stiffer, though, and we didnt' win.

So, we won with me miming and lost with me playing audibly. I'll take it!

Next time, though, I'm hauling my DB. It'll look better and is more familiar to soundmen in situations when there's no soundcheck. We've also won previously at a Christmas carol competiton where I brought my DB because there was no amplification.