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Freaked out by a full stack

hrodbert696

hrodbert696

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Jan 15, 2010
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Like old Hampshire, but New
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#1
Not really humor, just sharing my humiliation - the new band (of about six weeks) hit an open mic last night. I normally play through what I think is a pretty robust 220-watt 1x15 Ampeg combo. I've played open mics before, using one kind of half-stack or other provided by the house, and no problem. But this one last night was my first time with a full stack behind me - an SVT-3 and a pair of Goliath cabs if I remember right, 4x10 and 1-15. This is on a postage-stamp sized stage.

I glance back at the settings and it looks like everything's cranked to 11. It sounded great when the house band was playing. I plug in and get instant feedback. Get that under control, but it seems like I can't so much as brush my finger against a string without the gods of thunder raining hammer blows around me.

Meanwhile the band jumps in on the first song - Just a Girl - and I'm so thrown off by figuring out dynamics with amp, I'm totally lost. I KNOW the song, we just did it in practice and it was perfectly fine. But I'm hitting random notes, can't figure out where I am or what I'm doing. By about halfway through our second song or beginning of the third I think I finally figured things out and got through without more drama (we played five altogether). But man, was I beet-red walking off the stage.

Sigh. Moral of the story; I obviously need to go spend a couple grand on a bigger rig so I can get used to them...:ninja:
 
#4
Back when I was a much younger idiot, I used to roll the provided backline up to 10 on all the knobs before I left. In my foolish youthful mind, it was a way of "getting back" at those who left the knobs in odd configurations for me. Looks like someone there has a similarly mature sense of humour.

Or maybe it was me, did you travel back in time and play this show 22 years ago in Edmonton?

:D
 
#5
hrodbert696 said:
Sigh. Moral of the story; I obviously need to go spend a couple grand on a bigger rig so I can get used to them...:ninja:
Click to expand...

this is actually not at all surprising.

you don't say how experienced you are as a performing musician/bass player, but this is the kind of thing that experience teaches - not to be thrown off your game by the unexpected, like a huge bass sound when you are not used to it, or any one of dozens of things that can happen at a live gig - of any size.

it's also totally understandable for you to be thrown off by volume that is orders of magnitude louder than you are used to. Again, experience will help you get past this kind of situation without losing your cool on stage.

First time I ever hit a big stage with my bass going through a pro FOH system instead of my own rig (30 years and 1000s of gigs ago), I had a similar reaction. I knew the music cold and thought I was totally comfortable with being on stage, but was thrown off by the new-ness of the big stage/FOH sound and it took me several songs to get my cool back.
 
#6
I had the same issue on the 3rd when we played out. I was playing some stack that was nearly as tall as me, didn't touch any of the knobs when i plugged in at all. The FOH guy came and turned me down after the first song but apparently we were still too loud going into the mic'd amps. There were a few songs where I could barely hear my drummer, and i kept moving closer to my lead so i could hear more of him and less of me. I only totally dicked up one song, but I was embarrassed about it.
 
#7
pfschim said:
this is actually not at all surprising.

you don't say how experienced you are as a performing musician/bass player, but this is the kind of thing that experience teaches - not to be thrown off your game by the unexpected, like a huge bass sound when you are not used to it, or any one of dozens of things that can happen at a live gig - of any size.

it's also totally understandable for you to be thrown off by volume that is orders of magnitude louder than you are used to. Again, experience will help you get past this kind of situation without losing your cool on stage.

First time I ever hit a big stage with my bass going through a pro FOH system instead of my own rig (30 years and 1000s of gigs ago), I had a similar reaction. I knew the music cold and thought I was totally comfortable with being on stage, but was thrown off by the new-ness of the big stage/FOH sound and it took me several songs to get my cool back.
Click to expand...

JaamE said:
I had the same issue on the 3rd when we played out. I was playing some stack that was nearly as tall as me, didn't touch any of the knobs when i plugged in at all. The FOH guy came and turned me down after the first song but apparently we were still too loud going into the mic'd amps. There were a few songs where I could barely hear my drummer, and i kept moving closer to my lead so i could hear more of him and less of me. I only totally dicked up one song, but I was embarrassed about it.
Click to expand...

Glad to know I'm not the only one to have had this kind of experience. I felt like such a dweeb. That is definitely teh stage I'm at: I pretty much know how to play, well enough at least, it's how to execute on stage without getting distracted I'm trying to learn now.
 
#12
Always play a few notes or a quick run (nothing obnoxious) when you plug into a supplied backline. If its too loud - or the tone is not to your liking -- fix it. If you don't feel comfortable adjusting the settings on the bass head, or if you don't have the time to do it, you still have your bass. And that should have at least two knobs you are familiar with - volume and tone. You can ALWAYS turn down or change the tone of your bass - even in the middle of the song.

Don't get flustered. Just make the sound coming out of the amp match the sound in your head. Louder/Quieter. More Bass/More Treble. These are quick fixes that you can do from your bass while playing.

Treat it as a learning experience. No need to be embarassed. Use it as inspiration for next time.
 
#16
This happened to me just this past Monday at a blues jam.The house bassist has this HUGE 810 stack powered by a unknown Crown amp and preamp. This thing is incredibly loud! I'm playing along and everything kind of quiets down dynamically, all except me. I found it very hard to control my volume, even though I was lo9ve tapping the notes, on my Peavey Cirrus 6'er. Some rigs are too much for the venue.
 
#17
funkytoe said:
Always play a few notes or a quick run (nothing obnoxious) when you plug into a supplied backline. If its too loud - or the tone is not to your liking -- fix it. If you don't feel comfortable adjusting the settings on the bass head, or if you don't have the time to do it, you still have your bass. And that should have at least two knobs you are familiar with - volume and tone. You can ALWAYS turn down or change the tone of your bass - even in the middle of the song.
Click to expand...

In my case it was an amp i had never seen before and really didn't know what the knobs did at all. I didn;t want to mess with stuff I didn't know anything about, esp when it wasn't mine.
We were part of a showcase thing, so it was band off, band on, as fast as possible. I have no idea what the band before me was playing, just that *usually* my Dean is quieter than other basses. I think maybe my pedal has a little bit of amplification in it. I did turn down when I came on, but to my ears the ;tone' knob doesnt make any differance.
 
#18
Solid advice. When ever you turn an amp on first turn everything to 1. Not only might you blow the amp up at full volume but you can damage your, and everyone in earshot's hearing. I've noticed that a lot of people turn the amp all the way and then play with the bass to get the right volume. I tend to keep the bass all the way up and dial with the amp.

It prevents blowing up a few hundred dollars worth of speakers when you hit the V knob on you bass.
 
#19
BawanaRik said:
Solid advice. When ever you turn an amp on first turn everything to 1. Not only might you blow the amp up at full volume but you can damage your, and everyone in earshot's hearing. I've noticed that a lot of people turn the amp all the way and then play with the bass to get the right volume. I tend to keep the bass all the way up and dial with the amp.

It prevents blowing up a few hundred dollars worth of speakers when you hit the V knob on you bass.
Click to expand...

+1, I find it's much easier to just run your bass flat out (or if you have any clicks in the knobs that you can feel) and adjust the amp to suit the venue. And if the backline is provided I'm sure it's okay to touch the volume knob.

Either that, or get a SansAmp for yourself and use that for your tone shaping at every gig regardless of gear :)

Peace,
Greg
 

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