I'm a guitar player and was ready to poor gas on my bass player, light him on fire, and back over him with my van the other day.
His last whining spell was about how we lug around more equipment than the Beatles did when they started out. I asked him what piece of gear he thinks we should eliminate.
His complaints were mostly directed at me. Since we're in a cover band, and we're 3 piece, I need these tones: "Fender through a Fender", "Fender through a Marshall", "Gibson through a Fender", and "Gibson through a Marshall". Therefore I bring a small Fender combo amp, and a Marshall half-stack with a spare head. He's pissed that I bring the spare head into the bar instead of leaving it in the van. Tube amps don't like etreme wheather, and other people don't mind "borrowing" yours for life.
For guitars I use a Les Pau, a Strat, and for one song (Crossroads) I use an ES-335, simply because I have to get up so high on the fretboard to play part of the guitar solo, that I can only use a double cutaway 335 or SG, etc. But since the 335 is there, I use in on a few other songs, even though the Les Paul is close enough. I've decided to just figure out something else for the "Crossroads" solo so I don't need to bring the 335, as it really is a pain in the ass not just lugging, but tuning 3 guitars between sets - I don't really evenh get a break between sets.
One night recently as I was setting up, I realized the nut that holds the input jack on my Marshall cab had worked its way loose, so the input jack was inside the closed back cab. At the same time, the 100 watt head had a bad tube which had blown the "H.T" fuse. Anyone familiar with Marshalls knows that there is a "Mains" fuse and an "HT" fuse. If the "Mains" fuse is good, the power lamp is lighted and the tubes are glowing because they're getting the 5V AC to the heaters.
The drummer (who's not a baby) and I scrambled around taking all 480 screws off the back of the Marshall cab to get to the input jack. We plugged the head into the now open backed cab but nothing. Didn't know the head wasn't producing any output, so I incorrectly assumed it was the cab. I did the obvious and grabbed my spare head...nothing. By this time I had 13 seconds to start playing, and I just played through the Fender, pretty rattled, but the show must go on, and of course, nobody really even notices -it's pretty subtle, I admit.
The next night I brought my 2x12 cab and used my spare head. Sure felt good to have the Marshall tone where I needed it. A happy, relaxed guitar player sends out good vibes and good energy. A rattled guitar player is a lttile stiff with bad vibes. During about the 3rd set the spare head suddenly had a burst of power and then almost no volume so i plugged into the Fender, real time, mid song. Bad luck? I'd say so.
For the next gig where I showed up with lots more grey hair, I had figured out and fixed my main Marshall, simply by replacing the HT fuse, seeing it blow again in about 15 seconds, then looking at the tubes, realizing one of the four didn't have the right look to it, pulling the two outer tubes, replacin the HT fuse again, and stress testing it my garage for an hour or so. Looked like I was good to go. Replaced all the tubes in my spare, tested it out, but as these things go it worked fine in my garage even before I replaced the tubes. I can spell "intermittent" because I know the world well. But I felt I had one good Marshall plus the Fender. Being a little cautious, I brought both Marshall heads, and this time, both speaker cabs, the 4X12 and the 2X12 - didn't want to, felt it made sense to do it though. The place/room(s) was an acousitic nightmare. One of those bars with little rooms everywhere, outdoor tables - and I think wall and floor tiles that said "these will totally destroy a live band" printed on the back. The drummer, who runs sound from on stage, was misunderstanding a few things about how to use the power mixer, so this night we were getting a little feedback, and the singer couldn't hear herself, partly because I'm using my spare 2X12 sitting on top of the 4X12 (which really is the "spare" at this point), so the guitar is blaring to her, but we're not mic'd through the PA. The majority of the audience is really far away from me so I just did the best I could. The singer is so pissed that she's ready to walk but I assured her that if I had to turn my amps complete around, or shut them off and play the bongos, this would never happen again - I didn't blame her for being upset and she doesn't know how to do anything but sing and look good, but she sure as hell knows how to do that. I couldn't do that if my life depended on it.
Oh and while we were setting up for this gig, I brought 2 new light controllers for the 2 tripods because I wanted a decent pattern and not a goofy carnival "guess how much I weigh" look. Our poor little (huge) bass player had to figure out there was a power switch you had to turn on. Since the first of the two he plugged in already had the power switch "on", and the 2nd one didnt, he spent 20 or 30 minutes on the 2nd one, switch extension chords, trying "known good" things into the juice, etc., while the rest of us are doing our thing, to busy to help him. He's scarred for life now.
Last, he's pissed because we bring my Ric, that he only uses on 2 songs. I lug around my Ric for him to use. Early on I asked him if he wanted to borrow it, and he said "yes, but I don't have room in my car for it". So I lug it around for him. Obviously I can easily remedy that problem. I feel bad for being a nice guy though.
We did a gig about a month ago and in about the 2nd set we'd start a song, play about 15 or 20 seconds of it and the PA with "fault" and shut down. This happened 3 or 4 times in a row (not humiliating or embarrassing in any way). We're scrambling around checking every connection, scratching our heads. Finally I said "replace the vocal mic" - that fixed it. How could you ever predict that, prepare for it, and troubleshot it in less time than we did?
This guy doesn't understand that gear will thin out as the problems are eliminated and stabalized. Obviously if I play 100shows with no speaker cab problems, I'd probably stop bringing the backup. The guy is a solid bass player, not a virtuoso, just good and solid, and after really thinking about all this, I realized that what really mattered to me is that the dude complains about everything, the distance he has to drive to gigs, you name it, but he never ends anything with "and if this **** continues, I'm gonna quit". When I hear that line, I done quit 'em, for 'em right then and there, regardless of the consequences.
I also realize that for every situation like mine, there's another band with the drummmer being the whiner, one with the guitardist being the complainer, etc.
Okay, enough ranting from the guitard man.
His last whining spell was about how we lug around more equipment than the Beatles did when they started out. I asked him what piece of gear he thinks we should eliminate.
His complaints were mostly directed at me. Since we're in a cover band, and we're 3 piece, I need these tones: "Fender through a Fender", "Fender through a Marshall", "Gibson through a Fender", and "Gibson through a Marshall". Therefore I bring a small Fender combo amp, and a Marshall half-stack with a spare head. He's pissed that I bring the spare head into the bar instead of leaving it in the van. Tube amps don't like etreme wheather, and other people don't mind "borrowing" yours for life.
For guitars I use a Les Pau, a Strat, and for one song (Crossroads) I use an ES-335, simply because I have to get up so high on the fretboard to play part of the guitar solo, that I can only use a double cutaway 335 or SG, etc. But since the 335 is there, I use in on a few other songs, even though the Les Paul is close enough. I've decided to just figure out something else for the "Crossroads" solo so I don't need to bring the 335, as it really is a pain in the ass not just lugging, but tuning 3 guitars between sets - I don't really evenh get a break between sets.
One night recently as I was setting up, I realized the nut that holds the input jack on my Marshall cab had worked its way loose, so the input jack was inside the closed back cab. At the same time, the 100 watt head had a bad tube which had blown the "H.T" fuse. Anyone familiar with Marshalls knows that there is a "Mains" fuse and an "HT" fuse. If the "Mains" fuse is good, the power lamp is lighted and the tubes are glowing because they're getting the 5V AC to the heaters.
The drummer (who's not a baby) and I scrambled around taking all 480 screws off the back of the Marshall cab to get to the input jack. We plugged the head into the now open backed cab but nothing. Didn't know the head wasn't producing any output, so I incorrectly assumed it was the cab. I did the obvious and grabbed my spare head...nothing. By this time I had 13 seconds to start playing, and I just played through the Fender, pretty rattled, but the show must go on, and of course, nobody really even notices -it's pretty subtle, I admit.
The next night I brought my 2x12 cab and used my spare head. Sure felt good to have the Marshall tone where I needed it. A happy, relaxed guitar player sends out good vibes and good energy. A rattled guitar player is a lttile stiff with bad vibes. During about the 3rd set the spare head suddenly had a burst of power and then almost no volume so i plugged into the Fender, real time, mid song. Bad luck? I'd say so.
For the next gig where I showed up with lots more grey hair, I had figured out and fixed my main Marshall, simply by replacing the HT fuse, seeing it blow again in about 15 seconds, then looking at the tubes, realizing one of the four didn't have the right look to it, pulling the two outer tubes, replacin the HT fuse again, and stress testing it my garage for an hour or so. Looked like I was good to go. Replaced all the tubes in my spare, tested it out, but as these things go it worked fine in my garage even before I replaced the tubes. I can spell "intermittent" because I know the world well. But I felt I had one good Marshall plus the Fender. Being a little cautious, I brought both Marshall heads, and this time, both speaker cabs, the 4X12 and the 2X12 - didn't want to, felt it made sense to do it though. The place/room(s) was an acousitic nightmare. One of those bars with little rooms everywhere, outdoor tables - and I think wall and floor tiles that said "these will totally destroy a live band" printed on the back. The drummer, who runs sound from on stage, was misunderstanding a few things about how to use the power mixer, so this night we were getting a little feedback, and the singer couldn't hear herself, partly because I'm using my spare 2X12 sitting on top of the 4X12 (which really is the "spare" at this point), so the guitar is blaring to her, but we're not mic'd through the PA. The majority of the audience is really far away from me so I just did the best I could. The singer is so pissed that she's ready to walk but I assured her that if I had to turn my amps complete around, or shut them off and play the bongos, this would never happen again - I didn't blame her for being upset and she doesn't know how to do anything but sing and look good, but she sure as hell knows how to do that. I couldn't do that if my life depended on it.
Oh and while we were setting up for this gig, I brought 2 new light controllers for the 2 tripods because I wanted a decent pattern and not a goofy carnival "guess how much I weigh" look. Our poor little (huge) bass player had to figure out there was a power switch you had to turn on. Since the first of the two he plugged in already had the power switch "on", and the 2nd one didnt, he spent 20 or 30 minutes on the 2nd one, switch extension chords, trying "known good" things into the juice, etc., while the rest of us are doing our thing, to busy to help him. He's scarred for life now.
Last, he's pissed because we bring my Ric, that he only uses on 2 songs. I lug around my Ric for him to use. Early on I asked him if he wanted to borrow it, and he said "yes, but I don't have room in my car for it". So I lug it around for him. Obviously I can easily remedy that problem. I feel bad for being a nice guy though.
We did a gig about a month ago and in about the 2nd set we'd start a song, play about 15 or 20 seconds of it and the PA with "fault" and shut down. This happened 3 or 4 times in a row (not humiliating or embarrassing in any way). We're scrambling around checking every connection, scratching our heads. Finally I said "replace the vocal mic" - that fixed it. How could you ever predict that, prepare for it, and troubleshot it in less time than we did?
This guy doesn't understand that gear will thin out as the problems are eliminated and stabalized. Obviously if I play 100shows with no speaker cab problems, I'd probably stop bringing the backup. The guy is a solid bass player, not a virtuoso, just good and solid, and after really thinking about all this, I realized that what really mattered to me is that the dude complains about everything, the distance he has to drive to gigs, you name it, but he never ends anything with "and if this **** continues, I'm gonna quit". When I hear that line, I done quit 'em, for 'em right then and there, regardless of the consequences.
I also realize that for every situation like mine, there's another band with the drummmer being the whiner, one with the guitardist being the complainer, etc.
Okay, enough ranting from the guitard man.
