How were you using gear WRONG as a noob?

[bassfiddlesteve]

Several people have mentioned scooping the mids as a newbie mistake. By the time I started playing music full time around 1987 my amp was the ubiquitous Gallien-Krueger 400RB head with its three classic voicing filters. I loved how my Fender Jazz Bass (with both pickups at 100%) sounded when the Mid Contour was engaged, but then I began to wonder why my bass always seemed to get lost in the mix. I even added a BBE sonic maximizer to my rig thinking that it would help, but it didn't. A few years later I began to suspect that the voicing filter may be the culprit, so asked the bandleader to listen to the band out front while I turned the filter on and off and he confirmed my suspicion. It actually took me a while to get used to hearing my bass with the midrange frequencies intact. Since then, I've always preferred amps where the mid-cut was a variable control rather than an on/off switch. The later versions of the 400RB went this route, although the current GK Legacy heads are like the originals in this regard.

- Steve

 

[DC Stevens]

“I’m sure I used speaker cables and instrument cables interchangeably for maybe 15 or 20 years. Surprisingly, I lived.”
Same… we too “lived” but lit a guitar cable on fire that we used as a speaker cable on one of the Ovation 4X12 towers during a gig… it was kinda cool briefly when people shouted “fire” but quickly went south when we lost half of our PA system…

 

[Rob Edmunds]

How was I using wrong gear as a NOOB? In about 1970 my parents gifted me with a baby blue Hagstrom FII electric guitar for Christmas. My big sister played organ in a local HS band (Farfisa Combo thru a 1964 Fender Bassman) but her boyfriend was the bass player and he lent me an Ampeg combo amp with a 15 inch speaker. (He had upgraded to a Dual Showman) My best friend had some kind of hollow body bass and a Sears Silvertone twin-twelve. So I was playing guitar through a bass amp, and he was playing bass through a guitar amp.
Wish I had a clue what that bass amp was. I soon got my own Silvertone (but never could get a decent tone with that guitar).
Put away the electrics when I went to college and focused on 'cello and acoustic guitar.
Out of college I inherited the Bassman and bought a short scale Fender bass but had to play with every control up full, and a pick, to try to keep up with guitars in a rock band.

Eventually got things figured out, but that's my NOOB mistake story.

 

[Womber]

Heaviest gauge strings that I could find and dig in hard 100% of the time. And I wondered why I couldn’t play very fast or with variable dynamics.

 

[loucook]

Started as a teen with friends. None of knew anything, and none of us had any money. I was a guitarist at the time. The bass player needed an amp, and the Sears and Roebuck surplus store in our town had one cheap. It had a solid state head and a 2-15 cabinet. After he bought it, he brought it to the next rehearsal. The cab had six or eight 1/2” holes drilled in the side. He told me he did it so the cabinet could “breathe”.

 

[isaac42]

instrument cables AND speaker cables? who knew?

They both have ¼" ends, so they're interchangeable, right?

In fact, I learned the difference early on, but have still used instrument cords for speakers in an emergency. Never did cause me any trouble, but I always worried that it wound.

Now, in the twilight of my musical career, I have lots of spare zip cord sitting around. It's waiting to become speaker cords, but will likely never achieve its destiny.

 

[Ignatius]

Started out on guitar. A friend and I would play together and of course tune up beforehand. It took us about a year to figure out that things sounded much better if we tuned to each other than if we each tuned separately to ourselves.

Cut the ground prong off the amp power cord because many outlets were 2 prong. Sometimes led to a tingly feeling when playing.

The bigger the better for bass speakers, right? I turned down an opportunity to buy an SVT 8x10 cabinet really cheaply. I figured that 10 inch speakers were too small for bass, which is why it was so cheap. I bought a cheesy cabinet with an 18 inch speaker instead. Allegedly a Peavey, which was way cool at the time in South Florida. Turns out it was home built with the Peavey logo spray painted on the grille.

 

[NZBassman]

years ago my band were playing a new years gig in another part of New Zealand
Singer had a friend that lived there and he was a part time musician / part time sound guy
he came as we were setting up and had a listen to us playing and said my bass was too 'bassy', so he fiddled with the EQ on my amp and said "Try it now".... wow what a difference!
I think he turned the Bass frequency down and turned the mids and treble up a bit, but it made all the difference

to this day I still have the bass EQ frequency down on my amp and the mids / treble higher

 

[Ronzo]

As a young budding guitarist, I had an old Japanese “EggSlicerCaster”. Two single coil pickups, adjustable bridge, Hagström-like trem. Action was stratospheric. Went to a friend’s hose to jam. Played his Jazzmaster and loved it - it played so easily. He tried mine and said, “Wow, this is unplayable! Why do you have the action so high?”

“I tried to lower it, butt the strings were hitting the pickups.”

“Don’t you know you can lower the pickups with these screws?”

“No…”

And that was my first lesson in guitar setup. My friend and I lowered the pickups - I hadn’t a clue how to do that - lowered the action, set the intonation, and balanced the pickups by adjusting height by ear. My friend said, “No one ever told you how to do this? It’s easy. Every guitar player should know how to adjust their instrument.” I wasn’t a dumb kid, and I had used hand tools before. I was ignorant. And I was ashamed of that.

I got books out of the library which taught me the “why” of every adjustment. I had no money to “give it to a tech for a setup”. I had to do it on my own. I learned. And, even though my first electric guitar was a POS, I made it play as well as it could. Embarrassment turned into enlightenment.

Thanks, Marty, for opening my eyes and telling me that basic instrument maintenance is easy, and that every musician should know the basics of that. And thanks for being gentle about it.

 

[picker1974]

I had no idea what intonation was and set all the bridge saddles the same because it “looked better”.

 

[chadds]

I was a noob about banana plugs. I’d been playing for decades. Show up outdoor gig with two SWR SM-400s & four Goliath Jrs. 2x10s. One set of banana plugs was flipped by me. The resultant out of phase turned what should have been a roar into meh! I couldn’t understand it. I figured it out later.

 

[Jinobass1]

I remember working hard and saving money as a teen to buy my first bass rig. I got a used SWR Goliath 410 that didn’t fit in the front seat of my old Camaro… UNTIL I MADE IT FIT!!! Completely trashed my interior. That cab weighed a ton. Or roughly 100 lbs to be exact.

I also bought a used SWR Bass 350 or Basic 350 or whatever it was called. The one with the red face. Anyway, I ran it with the “Aural Enhancer” contour all the way up, and a complete smiley face scooped EQ on both my amp AND my Ibanez SR’s active EQ. No mids. Fieldy didn’t need mids and neither did I!

…until my amp would struggle in the mix, overheat, and then shut down. Over and Over. If I could go back in time and slap that kid I would!

Do you guys have any similar stories of “doing it wrong”? These new guys now are lucky to have access to all this knowledge at the click of a mouse.

Had a similar experience: coming home & carrying w/SWR Goliath 4/10 Cabs to 3floors and @ da gig SM400 would over heat and using Octaver and distortion that would blow the speakers and I would get Alex (Alex Aguilar before he sold it to Double Dave’s )in midtown NYC to Re-Cone them! He’d re-coned (SWR Big Ben 8x8,1-15 combo,Eden 4x10,,but not Hartke’s but bunch of speakers)So be careful of Octaver and distortion combinations^_^

 

[Zenbassie]

distortion that would blow the speakers

That is strange. My memory of the SWR Goliath was that you couldn't kill it with an axe. Still, I never used pedals, I guess.

 

[GreyEagle]

Began criminally abusing my 1st rig (a 15 watt Univox 1-15") and my bandmates (a hard rock band) by plugging in 2 LPB-1's & a Univox Super Fuzz! I was seeking volume at ANY price - except money! Of course I DID get a real rig eventually (like ASAP).

 

[EarlTroutman]

I played both guitars and basses when I started. My third or fourth guitar was a Gretsch Country Gentleman. Had not one iota of knowledge about set ups but it came set up good (I think). Anyway one Saturday I'm goofing off with it and notice this little screw head. What's that? I dono. Lets see if it does anything. Turned it all the way around one time. Hmmmm can't tell that it's doing anything. One more turn might make it do something. Made it almost all the way around one more time when . . . POW! Snap! Hmm that didn't sound good. What have I done? Yeah . . . that's what I did. Got a new one and got my hands slapped. Which they needed. I'm so embarrased.

 

[MrLenny1]

Cranking the Vol. too high and the smiley face EQ.

 

[Marko 1]

using instrument cable for a speaker cable

Me too... but the young girl at Radio Shack said they were the same thing.

Also, I let the guitarist/BL talk me into ¼ Pounders for my Jazz V. It's okay now, I've since put the originals back in.

 

[isaac42]

Me too... but the young girl at Radio Shack said they were the same thing.

Also, I let the guitarist/BL talk me into ¼ Pounders for my Jazz V. It's okay now, I've since put the originals back in.

Hey, if you can't trust young girls at Radio Shack, then whom can you trust?

 

[bigtone23]

I find it funny that my 80s noobness initially set the EQ with a good amount of mids, and less low bass, but with more lower mids/upper bass to keep it fat. As the 90s progressed, I started scooping the mids and boosting more low and high end. Got lost in the mix and went back to my 80s sensibilities.
That and using any sort of overdrive or distortion. I tended to overdo the gain early on. Found that more slightly more subtle gain levels worked better in the mix.

 

[ElMon]

Brought a Musicman 5 (worked all summer for this setup) and my 1000-watt Carvin Rig w/a 410 and a 115 underneath, to a regional show-choir competition, where the only other bass player was rocking a small crate practice amp, which was MORE than was needed for that tiny high school stage. Max Headroom Von Schleppen MacBackenCracken was my stage name back then.