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My rented backline adventures

#81
scotch said:
This thread is great!

I might have you beat though, Jimmy (so far)... This is what showed up at a gig about 9 years ago. It was a fly date with a country act signed to Curb records. The requested back line at the time was an SVT 8x10 stack. The gig was a private show at Pebble Beach golf course for the annual college football coaches outing. Weird gig & total production FAIL! My rig was the worst of the bunch. Here's what I played:

pebblebeachrig1.jpg
.

The show was a fiasco with inebriated coaches, staff and wives turning the show into a karaoke situation with live band. A pretty low moment in my career, lol! The artist was embarrassed, the band annoyed and what a long day! Makes for a good story years later at least. I almost quit the gig alltogether at this one!
Click to expand...

Sounds more like a frat party than a coaches outing. I'll assume that Pebble Beach did not host that particlular coaches outing again? Did you at least DI into some sort of FOH?
 
#84
I don't remember the di brand. PA was minimal. They setup a stage on the course itself. Kinda like a 9th hole "party" atmosphere. It was more like a frat party! Basically about a hundred drunk coaches and their entourage.


I guess there were a lot of college football celebs. They do the outing every year - I'm sure a lot of them were Pebble Beach members. I'm not into sports at all, so I generally have no clue. Some of my past mistakes with sporting celebrities include:
- Being given a box of signed Flutie Flakes (by the guy himself after meeting him) and leaving the half eaten box behind in my hotel room.
- Playing a Dolphins game (parking lot large stage before game) and leaving the actual game out of boredom after 30 minutes. Seats were on the field, 50 yard line.
- Hanging out with 'some guy I met' talking politics after playing the College Football Hall Of Fame induction. The rest of the band kept gawking at me for some reason. The guy was a nice fella! Turned out to be Jerry Rice. Football never came up, thank goodness!
- Had lunch in a sandwich shop in Aspen one afternoon before a private gig. Some lady sat at the counter with me and started up a conversation. I figured out 30 minutes in that it was Martina Navritilova (sp.?). It was a pleasant lunch!



...back on-topic... After that Pebble Beach gig I never leave home without a kick-butt active di! At least I have some tone shaping and decent signal no matter what backline fail occurs. I also usually fly with a little 4lb Aguilar TH350 head now too.
 
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#85
I got a busted ass Eden Nemesis combo amp with NO DI once at a central florida music festival. I tried to run my Genz Benz before it and use it as my DI to the FOH. The stage monitors were popping.... We played Sunday at noon, so needless to say it was not the sound guys A team either, and didnt think to mic the cab. AND my guitar players Sho-Bud tube amp took a poop right before the show....
 
#86
Cool Thread Jimmy.
Kinda funny, I actually FOUND one of these on the side of the road. yes FOUND. (Hey, If its free,,its for me) Brought it home, plugged it in..and it worked.(Well, Mostly)..Knobs Missing/bent , input jack all cracked/banged up, if you touched the volume (or input) while it was powered up, It would make a very loud (full voulume I imagine) BOOM!! sound.Other than that, sounded OK.
I ended up givin it away to somebody..

Looks like it made its way to Queens NY. ;)


JimmyM said:
..Today I'm at Queens College in Queens, NY playing a show with Bowzer. This is the amp they supplied:

BacklineQC-07-27-12_zps8a3a91b7.jpg
Click to expand...




Staying Tuned..
 
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#87
Floridabwoy said:
I got a busted ass Eden Nemesis combo amp with NO DI once at a central florida music festival. I tried to run my Genz Benz before it and use it as my DI to the FOH. The stage monitors were popping.... We played Sunday at noon, so needless to say it was not the sound guys A team either, and didnt think to mic the cab. AND my guitar players Sho-Bud tube amp took a poop right before the show....
Click to expand...

A couple weeks ago I played a show at the largest bar in town with an out-of-town band that always brings a big crowd. The promoter told us that we could use the rented backline. I ended up getting a traynor 210 combo that didn't work at all! The gig wasn't more than 50 people, so if it DID work it would have been more than enough, but they made me plug right into the PA (there weren't any other options) - which he didn't put me into at all, in spite of having a massive board with a damn good power amp and plenty of subs. Oh well, at least I looked cool?
 
#88
I have used an acoustic guitar amp once, but I don't have any pictures. I have destroyed a Hartke combo from playing too hard(well it was more like the finishing move, the poor thing was on the verge of dying).

I always bring my MXR M80 D.I.+ and never have an issue nowadays. When it is possible to bring my rig, things are always great tonewise.

I am playing some festivals in Bulgaria next month, so this will definetely be interesting. Subed!!!
 
#89
MrLenny1 said:
Hartke KB are ****** amps IMHO.
Click to expand...
Once I found a non-crackly spot on it, I ended up getting a pretty decent tone out of it. I'll be the first to admit that it's not the best tone I ever had, but I certainly wouldn't call it ******. Hartke makes good stuff, and for its price range, I thought it was a good performer...well, it would have been if they had cleaned the pots.
 
#90
JimmyM said:
Enjoying everyone's stories! But if you think I had a doozy yesterday, wait till you see what happened today!

Hershey Park, a gig we've done twice a year for years now. Usually they bring me an SVT-CL and a 410he. We were there in May, and I begged the backline guy from Clair Bros. to bring me an 810e for today's gig and he said it would be no problem. This is what they brought...

IMG_0290_zps02e5563c.jpg


That's right...a Heritage SVT-CL and a 410he. I blew up! I said to the guy, "You bring me a Heritage SVT with a 410he?" He said, "Yeah, we got 3 of them now."

I said, "What happened to the 810e?"

He says, "Oh, we got 3 of them, too. Really great cabs."

"So you have one instead of that 410?"

"Nope. Didn't bring one."

"Well who do I have to ---- to get a damn 810 on these gigs?"

Our drummer said, "That would be me."

I told him, "Well drop your pants because this has to stop!"

He does the advance work on our gigs. Apparently even though I've told him many many times I'd rather have an 810, he keeps telling them that I want a 410. WHYWHYWHYWHYWHY?!?!?! OK, so it was a darn sight better than yesterday, but while the 410he's a good cab, the H810e just plain kills. And I was DENIED!

Almost told the backline guy that the 410he isn't a good match because of the mismatched impedances, but knowing my luck, next time we play there he'll show up with a 410hlf. ARRRRRRGH!
Click to expand...

Maybe your drummer thinks you are too loud and is trying to minimize the stage volume and he doesn't have the nuts to confront you about it.:D
 
#91
You're only saying that because you don't know him ;) Our drummer has the nuts to confront anyone about anything. And besides, I am never too loud, especially when playing with Bowzer. Plus, he actually got mad at me when I brought my Micro VR to a gig shortly after getting my Heritage rig. But it was an outdoor gig with rain predicted, and even though the rain never happened, no way I was bringing the Heritage.
 
#92
my recent experience goes the other way. in the past few months I had mostly very well maintained SVT CL's or VR's and the last fly date I was on (in Columbus OH) lo and behold there was a Blue Line SVT and a flatback 8x10. Nice.

should have got some pics, but I never think of that.
 
#93
That's cool, PF. You have to love when they bring you the king daddy of SVT's like that! Happened to me a couple times where I got a Blueline rig, but usually it's a non-Heritage CL and 810e.

I have a gig on Friday at the South Shore Music Circus in Boston. Due to the rotating stage, I know I won't get an 810 as it messes with sightlines. But the backline company there in the past has brought me a 78 SVT, an SVT 4 Pro, a B2RE, and a GK Backline 600 on top of a 410he. Actually hope they bring that 4 Pro again. Haven't used one of them in a while and I quite enjoyed it.
 
#95
I would have lit it on fire and flipped them a $5 bill for clean up



scotch said:
This thread is great!

I might have you beat though, Jimmy (so far)... This is what showed up at a gig about 9 years ago. It was a fly date with a country act signed to Curb records. The requested back line at the time was an SVT 8x10 stack. The gig was a private show at Pebble Beach golf course for the annual college football coaches outing. Weird gig & total production FAIL! My rig was the worst of the bunch. Here's what I played:

pebblebeachrig1.jpg
.

The show was a fiasco with inebriated coaches, staff and wives turning the show into a karaoke situation with live band. A pretty low moment in my career, lol! The artist was embarrassed, the band annoyed and what a long day! Makes for a good story years later at least. I almost quit the gig alltogether at this one!
Click to expand...
 

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