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My Place to Say Something?
- Thread starter baddarryl
- Start date
An affordable guitar amp suggestion is a 50w Boss Katana Mk II guitar amp, I’ve used mine live. It is very affordable (about $250) and sounds significantly better than most other affordable guitar amps. It even has an acoustic channel.
Something it looks like most above responses have missed: from the OP's verbiage it seems this school is a FOR-PROFIT FRANCHISE kind of operation, not a "school" in the usual sense. Not saying don't try to help out but it does put a different slant on the finances. Just fyi...
I wouldn't say anything unless I was prepared to get involved.
Yeah, my first thought was to suggest working with the band directors to bring a proposal to the school PTO to raise funds for amps... then I realized this is a for-profit school and there probably isn't a PTO. And donations to a for-profit are probably not tax-deductible.
Given that, I would consider broaching it, politely. After all, you are paying for your kid to play there, that gives you some grounds. No need to be a jerk about it, but you could ask about what they're using for amps and what the plans are to upgrade. It may be it's already on their radar to tackle as soon as their cash flow allows it, or maybe it would help to put it on their radar that the customers are aware of the issue.
What exactly is a franchise school? That’s a new one for me.
Is that some special type of public school similar to what’s called a charter or magnet school where I live? Or is it a commercially operated school (hence the word franchise) that’s being run as a business for profit?
If it’s the latter I wouldn’t be inclined to get into a discussion with them about donating gear. And I doubt any music store would be interested since it wouldn’t count as a tax deduction either. And as someone suggested earlier, they probably already have a bulk purchase contract with a supplier who has an exclusive with them since the school also sells the same gear.
tl:dr - Push for a better sound. But don’t get your hopes up.
Is that some special type of public school similar to what’s called a charter or magnet school where I live? Or is it a commercially operated school (hence the word franchise) that’s being run as a business for profit?
If it’s the latter I wouldn’t be inclined to get into a discussion with them about donating gear. And I doubt any music store would be interested since it wouldn’t count as a tax deduction either. And as someone suggested earlier, they probably already have a bulk purchase contract with a supplier who has an exclusive with them since the school also sells the same gear.
tl:dr - Push for a better sound. But don’t get your hopes up.
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Yeah, looking back, some clarification on this would be helpful toward gaining context.
I assume it’s something like “School of Rock”. I think there is one around here somewhere.
I know of Montessori and Waldorf schools which I suppose are Now called franchise schools because they have a model and a governing philosophy that's intact school to school. ..While new schools are sprouting in reaction to perceived biases (like multiculturalism) in public schools as well. The commercials sector has moved in too, actually I got my assoc. degree at a computer trade school that was a franchise. I can even imagine crummy shoe string franchises popping up in places where the public option is just lousy.
I'd Never expect an elementary or middle school performance to sound good. They have a tradition of sounding awful, nobody notices because it's not important. On the other hand some high school stage bands are scary good when you have a core that have peen practicing personally 2 hours a day for a couple of years... they need our amps...
While better amplification MIGHT make the guitarists sound better, it also could be an issue of them not knowing how to eq their sound for a band setting. Though the budget Fender amps aren’t great, they usually have a decent enough clean sound to serve as a foundational platform for effects pedals.
If you can buy them gear, do it.
If you can’t, then do what you can to donate.
Otherwise, you’re “that guy.”
I would just leave it alone. Maybe it is part of the psychology of the school. Perhaps they have better gear, but they use playing through the better gear as a carrot to motivate the students.
The high school I work at had a year where our football team kept losing, so the coach said the players couldn’t wear their jerseys on Fridays until they won a game.
Good and solid playing communicates through poor equipment. Maybe the approach is to get the students to learn how to get a good tone out of any piece of gear.
The high school I work at had a year where our football team kept losing, so the coach said the players couldn’t wear their jerseys on Fridays until they won a game.
Good and solid playing communicates through poor equipment. Maybe the approach is to get the students to learn how to get a good tone out of any piece of gear.
My kids were in one of those schools. There were a few different kinds of parents there:
- The ones who love to see their kids having fun and couldn't care less about live sound
- The ones who use live shows as an easy excuse to have cocktails.
- The ones who would get up on stage and set up their kids' drum kit or amp/guitar for them, allowing the parent to look silly while simultaneously depriving their kid the learning experience of doing it themselves and often embarrassing them in the process.
- The parents who think they know everything yet offer to do nothing
- The parents that make themselves available to help out at live shows if/as needed.
- The parents who are upset that their kid is interested in playing music instead of sports.
Sadly, these schools don't seem to ever teach basic gear maintenance/performance protocols such as muting amps when unplugging, how to get a decent tone, changing strings, etc... The school my kids were in had a deal with Line 6, and those amps were crap. Kids would mess with it and accidentally turn on the effects or modelling or whatever and it was just a mess. I used to take my bass gear, set it up before the show and let all students use it. It is proper courtesy for parents to attend the whole show and cheer for all the students, so I was gonna be there anyway.
Those schools will happily take gear donations, so...
Keep in mind, the experience is for the kids, not the parents. Most kids are not aware of the nuances of FET vs Tube overdrive or why a they really need a 210 instead of that single 15" cab. They are up there to have fun. The parents are usually the reason it stops being fun for them.
- The ones who love to see their kids having fun and couldn't care less about live sound
- The ones who use live shows as an easy excuse to have cocktails.
- The ones who would get up on stage and set up their kids' drum kit or amp/guitar for them, allowing the parent to look silly while simultaneously depriving their kid the learning experience of doing it themselves and often embarrassing them in the process.
- The parents who think they know everything yet offer to do nothing
- The parents that make themselves available to help out at live shows if/as needed.
- The parents who are upset that their kid is interested in playing music instead of sports.
Sadly, these schools don't seem to ever teach basic gear maintenance/performance protocols such as muting amps when unplugging, how to get a decent tone, changing strings, etc... The school my kids were in had a deal with Line 6, and those amps were crap. Kids would mess with it and accidentally turn on the effects or modelling or whatever and it was just a mess. I used to take my bass gear, set it up before the show and let all students use it. It is proper courtesy for parents to attend the whole show and cheer for all the students, so I was gonna be there anyway.
Those schools will happily take gear donations, so...
Keep in mind, the experience is for the kids, not the parents. Most kids are not aware of the nuances of FET vs Tube overdrive or why a they really need a 210 instead of that single 15" cab. They are up there to have fun. The parents are usually the reason it stops being fun for them.
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Assuming that they have a budget to do anything beyond what they have is not a good starting point for the conversation.
JeezyMcNuggles
Inactive
- Feb 23, 2018
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Who cares? They're kids. Let it be. Don't be that guy. If they had good gear, they'd be a bunch of kids, learning, sounding like crap, playing good gear. Enjoy your kids playing. Regardless of how bad it sounds.
Sad thing is there’s an excellent abd field proven way to teach elementary students solid music skills and knowledge. But most school boards are either ignorant or dismissive of something called the Orff Aporoach or more properly Orff Schulwerk. Which is a shame.
If you’ve ever heard an Orff ensemble in performance you already know it can be very impressive.
Yep. Whenever two or more gather together in shared interest it’s only a matter of time before someone shows up and tries to sell them something.
I’ve got a lot of respect for legitimate commercial tech/trade schools. “For profit” tech education schools can be the real deal. Back when I was running my own IT business I hired my share of computer techs from one of those programs. And I was seldom disappointed.
Unfortunately, that market has gotten flooded by a lot of cash grab schemes. And where I am, two of the longest established and most reputable of these commercial schools (private - not franchised) sadly fell from grace of late. One unexpectedly shuttered its doors just before the start of its fall semester and disappeared with the tuition money. The other is under investigation for deceptive business practices.
Sic transit gloria mundi, right?
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