Do you take nice pedals to dive venues?

[Lee H]

Firstly, this is what insurance is for!

Secondly, I always want to sound my best. I've paid good money for my gear so I'm going to make sure I use it. There's a similar thread is the bass column where someone is looking to by a beater bass because he doesn't want to take his new expensive bass out if the house. Why buy it if you're not going to gig it?

These things, basses, effects and amps are tools of your trade. Damage through use (or misuse) is a risk you take when you take them out of the house. Insure it, gig it and enjoy it.

Ok, I understand the beater bass concept. and maybe I understand it better then most people do

it was an excuse to have another bass. I didn't "need" another bass. I just needed the excuse to justify buying the parts and assembling exactly what I wanted.

 

[jasonmitsch]

To me, the beater bass topic is moot in the effects forum. If you don't like the strings+pickups+amp combo you own, what makes you think anything will make your sound significantly better.

 

[ga_edwards]

Ok, I understand the beater bass concept. and maybe I understand it better then most people do

it was an excuse to have another bass. I didn't "need" another bass. I just needed the excuse to justify buying the parts and assembling exactly what I wanted.

To me, that's not a beater bass, that just another bass in your collection, something many of us have. A beater bass, or beater effects for that matter are ones you take out to dodgy gigs so that your nice ones don't get ruined.

My point was, is that instruments are tools - use them. Why would you want to play lesser quality to put on a show than you practice with? Why would you invest hard earned money on a quality instrument or quality effects if you don't gig them?

Gig them, if they get damaged, claim on the insurance. If your gear is not insured and you gig regularly, then that's just foolish. Get it sorted.

That said, if you regularly play in venues where there's always a high risk of property damage, or gear being vomitted on, I personally would seriously consider if I want to play in such a hell hole and where my life took a wrong turn!

 

[Lee H]

To me, that's not a beater bass, that just another bass in your collection, something many of us have. A beater bass, or beater effects for that matter are ones you take out to dodgy gigs so that your nice ones don't get ruined.

Hey now...that was the best excuse I had for building my orange Jazz... Don't go shooting it down

and it really is not my fault that one ended up looking nicer then a lot of the other ones I have owned. Or that it sounds great, and has great components... The right parts just turned up for great deals...



It is my lie..I can tell it any way I want it...LOL

 

[jumblemind]

My point was, is that instruments are tools - use them. Why would you want to play lesser quality to put on a show than you practice with? Why would you invest hard earned money on a quality instrument or quality effects if you don't gig them?

Gig them, if they get damaged, claim on the insurance. If your gear is not insured and you gig regularly, then that's just foolish. Get it sorted.

That said, if you regularly play in venues where there's always a high risk of property damage, or gear being vomitted on, I personally would seriously consider if I want to play in such a hell hole and where my life took a wrong turn!

The rowdy bars are some of the most fun to play (and generate a lot of wedding gigs), and the puke parties have me walking home with nearly a mortgage payment in my pocket, but I realize there's a wide range of bass players in different situations here.

Not sure if insurance industry is different in the UK, but it's prohibitively expensive to insure instruments/gear for me. The amount of money I'd pay in premiums in a year would more than pay for a second set of all my rigs and basses, so I just keep the cash and "self-insure". The real issue with the insurance answer, however, is that a lot of gear can't easily be replaced even if you have a policy in place from a company that will actually give you your money when you claim a loss. If someone walks off with a nice effects pedal, or spills beer on it, I may be out of that pedal for weeks waiting for a reorder. Or maybe it's a pedal that's not been made in years and can't be repurchased. I still want to own that stuff and use it for recording and for nicer gigs where I know the quality will matter. For my average "help keep the lights on" gigs, most people won't, and often couldn't, notice the difference between a $300 pedal and a $50 pedal. Heck, my guitar player doesn't even notice when I'm even using any of my pedals.

To which one could reply, "then why bother with pedals at all." And that's a fair point in my case.

 

[Nephilymbass]

In almost 20 years of gigging Ive never seen a pedal get puked on or stop working because of sweat. But as far as worrying about theft it's a whole different story. I use a pod hd for effects only and bought a used footcontroller for it for 40 bucks. If the controller stops working I'm only out 40 bucks and the processor is in my rack where it is much less likely someone would steal it considering my rack probably weighs over a 100lbs

 

[Joe Louvar]

Nope, I avoid working at dives (no money in it)(and 98% of the time I plug my bass straight into my amp and don’t use effects anyway) - so, no!!!

Thinking about all of the sessions I've spent cleaning beer and puke off of my homemade pedal board and Boss stomp boxes, I'm wondering what I'm going to do with the nice PTNano with quality boutique pedals I've been assembling for myself. I have no problem hitting the wedding circuit and some of the nicer venues with stages, but what about those rough places? The dive bars and the sorority parties? (where honestly 90% of the beer and puke comes from, way more than frat parties even)

I've been sort of keeping the old beater board with a pared down setup of stuff that I'm not too precious with (though I kind of want to keep everything simple and just own a few pedals). Anyone do something similar? Do you just leave stuff at home? Do you have lower end versions of your boutique sounds? Or maybe you have some sort of custom plexi glass puke-guard?

 

[bigsnaketex]

I play some places where I will not take my "good board" so yes, to answer the OP's premise - I do that. I keep my pedals in a big 4 drawer file cabinet and put together a board specific to the gig. I keep the power supply's on the boards at all times so it's simply placing what pedals I want where and it takes all of 2 minutes.

I've never take the "one size fits all" approach to playing bass at a gig. I use different effects pedals with different bass guitars as well. Humbucker basses don't like the same pedals as single coil basses.

So not only do I get to decide what I'll wear to the gig, I also get to decide what I'll play and how I'll sound that night.

 

[ngh]

my board is all "nice" pedals. and I have never had any real trouble with puke and such. but my board itself might be responsible. I built it into an old briefcase. and the lid functions as a "puke guard" of sorts when it is open. it has saved me from a few beer related catastrophes. it also makes people in the audience that i am keeping tone secrets from them which always cracks me up.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

I'm all-or-nothing about my gear: If it's safe enough for me to play there, then ALL my gear goes with me. If there's a real possibility that someone is going to puke on me or my gear, then NOTHING will get me to take the gig.

'Nuff said.

 

[jumblemind]

I play some places where I will not take my "good board" so yes, to answer the OP's premise - I do that. I keep my pedals in a big 4 drawer file cabinet and put together a board specific to the gig. I keep the power supply's on the boards at all times so it's simply placing what pedals I want where and it takes all of 2 minutes.

I've never take the "one size fits all" approach to playing bass at a gig. I use different effects pedals with different bass guitars as well. Humbucker basses don't like the same pedals as single coil basses.

So not only do I get to decide what I'll wear to the gig, I also get to decide what I'll play and how I'll sound that night.

I'm lucky that our band has a uniform so I never have to think about what I'm going to wear, and I guess I'm kind of wanting the same thing for my rig. But while our uniform looks good in any situation, the same bass/rig won't sound and perform the same in all situations, so your approach probably makes the most sense.