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"Provided backline" stories

A

allegro

Oct 27, 2013
6
0
Portland, Oregon
#1
So I had a rehearsal last night for a one-off party gig with a couple bands merged together. Practicing at a church, we were told explicitly to not bring anything except instruments - drum kit on site and mic'd up already, bass amp on site, monitors all set, etc.

Rolled up with low expectations and managed to be disappointed even by those when I saw this beauty sitting there, straight out of my nightmares:

NbSYdCGl.jpg


:crying:

For those of you unfamiliar, this is one of the worst bass amps Behringer has produced. It starts farting out on low Es and Fs with the master at around 60%.

Better yet, it was miced up with a SM57, dangled down from the handle - so the speaker was pointing at the SIDE of the mic... cause, y'know, off-axis rejection isn't a strength of the 57 or anything...

Both guitar amps were Line 6s too, of course!

Anyone else got any good "Nah, it's cool, just use our gear" stories? :)
 
#3
Rapco DI box duct taped together. I would love to tell you this has only happened once.

This is why when I was a pro I always had a rig in the band truck anyway. And now as a fill-in (primarily) I bring a rig in my own vehicle anyway. And my gear box has several non-rig options if the whole "no stage volume rule" is in place.

But mostly GK and Ampeg rigs are the provided backline rig of choice for many companies. I can work with either.
 
#4
I only had one experience with a "backline", and it was pretty brutal. I think the soundtech basically just borrowed whatever small practice amps he could from friends (it was a small restaurant that was just toying with the idea of hosting bands), and hooked them up to a mixer, which he plugged most of our band (vocals, keys, drum machine, bass:mad:) into. The overall sound was awful and certainly a mess from the "stage" perspective.

It didn't help that he forgot to unmute the mixer channel that my bass was running through for the entire first song...
 
#5
Hi,

My backlines have almost always been Ampeg rigs, good gear. For those events we always send out a stage plot with requested gear, Ampeg, SWR, or GK. It seems the sound companies around here use Ampeg as a standard.

basses_zps6d4b2d05.jpg


We played a big corporate event in San Diego last year and were told that there would be no backline and we were to bring NO amps. Everyone went direct.

DSCF2211.jpg


Thankfully the sound crew was competent and the monitors worked well. We even had huge teleprompters that had our lyrics. That was a good thing because we had to learn a couple of songs just for this event.

DSCF2147.jpg


DSCF2140.jpg


Plus we were on the big screen. :p

DSCF2142.jpg


Yes, it was a cushy gig. But somebody had to play it. :smug:


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
#7
Hi,

allegro said:
Whoa - it's CRAZY how empty that stage looks.

Doesn't look right at all!!
Click to expand...

That gig was all about quick transitions during the presentations. As soon as we finished our bit there were a half dozen crew members grabbing our stuff and moving it off stage. Amps would've made for less convenience. I kind of like the "clean stage" look.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
#10
TheOxRocks said:
Nahhh. I'm too much of a snob when it comes to my personal preferences. Even if there IS a back line, I ALWAYS insist on using my own amps. I don't want to have to GUESS how I'm going to sound. I want to KNOW.
Click to expand...
This may piss off the sound person and result in a poor mix or shortened set. I feel the same way, but I will try to talk to the sound people beforehand and let them know so there is no ruffled feathers before a gig .
 
#12
allegro said:
Rolled up with low expectations and managed to be disappointed even by those when I saw this beauty sitting there, straight out of my nightmares:

NbSYdCGl.jpg


:crying:
Click to expand...

Hey, that IS my rig... :hiding:

Well, for now anyway...

Honestly though, I think I'd be a tad disappointed if I was told to show up somewhere and that a full backline would be provided and that was what I got.
 
#13
allegro said:
So I had a rehearsal last night for a one-off party gig with a couple bands merged together. Practicing at a church, we were told explicitly to not bring anything except instruments - drum kit on site and mic'd up already, bass amp on site, monitors all set, etc.

Rolled up with low expectations and managed to be disappointed even by those when I saw this beauty sitting there, straight out of my nightmares:

NbSYdCGl.jpg


:crying:

For those of you unfamiliar, this is one of the worst bass amps Behringer has produced. It starts farting out on low Es and Fs with the master at around 60%.

Better yet, it was miced up with a SM57, dangled down from the handle - so the speaker was pointing at the SIDE of the mic... cause, y'know, off-axis rejection isn't a strength of the 57 or anything...

Both guitar amps were Line 6s too, of course!

Anyone else got any good "Nah, it's cool, just use our gear" stories? :)
Click to expand...

That's my church's rig, too. *shudders*
 
#15
Timmah said:
That's my church's rig, too. *shudders*
Click to expand...

Now take out the amp, cause it blew up and cut the top off. Pull the fur back over the top and staple it down. Plug the output of your Glock Blue Soul into it and your new Jule Monique tube pre into the Glock and connect up your Dingwall AB2 and........it doesn't sound much better than when it had it's own amp in but that's what I have been dealing with in our temporary Church while ours is being renovated. Next week it's back to having space again and I can bring my L212 again.

:hyper:
 
#16
allegro said:
So I had a rehearsal last night for a one-off party gig with a couple bands merged together. Practicing at a church, we were told explicitly to not bring anything except instruments - drum kit on site and mic'd up already, bass amp on site, monitors all set, etc.

Rolled up with low expectations and managed to be disappointed even by those when I saw this beauty sitting there, straight out of my nightmares:

NbSYdCGl.jpg


:crying:

For those of you unfamiliar, this is one of the worst bass amps Behringer has produced. It starts farting out on low Es and Fs with the master at around 60%.

Better yet, it was miced up with a SM57, dangled down from the handle - so the speaker was pointing at the SIDE of the mic... cause, y'know, off-axis rejection isn't a strength of the 57 or anything...

Both guitar amps were Line 6s too, of course!

Anyone else got any good "Nah, it's cool, just use our gear" stories? :)
Click to expand...

I have good memories of that amp, practiced and gigged with it for a year and it always behaved well. Never had bad farting unless I pushed it really hard, and I played a 5 string in a black metal band with loud drummers. I ultimately sold it to a friend who later took my place in that band, he still have it and it's still healthy and kicking. :)
 
#17
There was company party where the other band insisted they bring the amps. House FOH and monitors. They came from a bigger town, see. I told them i could bring mine, as I lived so much closer (At that time I had a LM II on an Aggie DB212). No dice, so I had to play a 100 W Fender Rumble that, due to lack of monitor channels had to be cranked to distortion...
 
#19
I've had overall very good luck with provided backline and sound systems. I had one gig where everything was provided, except that they forgot to load a bass rig. Fortunately, my monitor had 2 15's and a horn, and I was standing close to the drummer who had a similar monitor atop a 2 18 sub box for his monitor system. I had a great bass sound!

Did a Canada day gig once at a local park with a rock band. The organizers told us not to bother with any PA gear - they had it all covered. I sent them our stage plot, with mic and monitor requirements, and they said all is good.

We rolled up and found our 'stage' was a couple of plywood sheets on the ground, the mics were Realistic, from Radio Shack, the mixer was a 6 channel DJ job, and the speakers were some kind of no names with one ten and a horn - two for mains, and two for monitors. (We were in the habit of using a bigger and better system for our rehearsals!) We swapped out the vocal mics, (because I never travel without my mic box), managed to keep our stage levels down enough to let the vocals be heard out front, and made it through unscathed.
 

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