Gig Rig/Rehearsal Rig?

Bellycaster

Can you advise me on this please?

I have only one rig, A Bogner Goldfinger 45 Head and 2x12 Cab and a versatile Pedalboard. P.S is halfway down this page link.

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/120/show-us-your-pedalboard/p1

Here is my Hypothetical scenario. I join a covers band and get a list of songs to learn, I learn the basic outline(chords/solos) of the songs at home and figure out how I'm going to employ the pedals in each track and practice the changes while playing the song, so I'm also doing the tap dance practice at home, but everything is at Bedroom Level.

So the next step is the practice room with the band, seems logical that if I am a newbie in a band, I should get used to the rig I would be gigging with in the practice room due to thing like, getting used to an amp you haven't played loud before, setting levels on the pedals and also the band may not play the song exactly the same as the record, so the tap dance on the pedals may have to be adjusted slightly.

So when do some of you guys take a lighter rig to rehearse? My Hypothetical scenario doesn't seem to suit a different rig, even if I had one, which I don't.

Is it when you have gigged the setlist time and time again and you can get away with just playing through the songs in practice, knowing that you will confidently adapt to the next gig anyway? I suppose if you don't use pedals, you might take a lighter amp to practice.

The cover band scenario is what I am after and it would revolve around using the PB quite a bit.

Share your input and experience please :-)

Thanks.

John_P

Bellycaster said:

Is it when you have gigged the setlist time and time again and you can get away with just playing through the songs in practice, knowing that you will confidently adapt to the next gig anyway? I suppose if you don't use pedals, you might take a lighter amp to practice.

That's it for me -  once in a while I'll use one of my bigger setups for rehearsing when I want to tweak some sounds at volume with the band playing but mostly my rehearsals are about trying a batch of new songs - checking the key and arrangement.
I don't need loads of sounds or volume, just enough to be heard and a basic clean/crunch/high gain option means I can think about what we are playing.  I just use a simple rig  so I can plug in and spend the time working on songs.

[Deleted User]

as snobby as it sounds, I've found building a setup for the job you need and leaving it available until you don't need it is the only way to go.

I range from having 1 setup - to variations of that setup, to 4 setups depending on what I'm doing at the time.

Trying to make 1 setup cover multiple functions just ends up with problems, swapping pedals, changing settings between gigs, is just a headache, at the moment I'm running 3 setups which includes 1 clone setup north and south so that I don't have to move a whole setup between the north and south as I'm moving between the two quite a lot at the moment, plus I'm also working on 3 different projects, so the consistency is really useful, it's snobby I know, but in the long run it's saved me a lot of time and therefore money, and when I'm done with the setup eg: that band stops or the gigs I use it for won't be coming back, I just sell it and make say %70 of the outlay back, so for %30 I get total dependency, consistency and ease of life.

it's worth while to me - not maybe not to others.

Bellycaster

@darcym

Nah, it's not snobby, if you can do it and it works for you then it's fine, you have weighed up the pros and cons, that's all that matters.

You sound like a busy lad ;-)

@John_P

I may have overlooked something in my scenario. I'm thinking venue size vs Rehearsal Room Size. I expect the levels one would set in the practice room would be totally different to the gig venue, in fact this is one thing I do remember from years ago was setting our sound in the pubs. 

I didn't use pedals then though, so, is this right?  The louder you go with your amp, the higher up you have to turn the VOLUME control on your pedal/s to achieve Unity (if pedal has a volume of course)??

My set up would probably have to be tweeked for each venue.

John_P

Like  darcym I just like to have a setup that suits what I'm doing so I have a small board and a large board and different amps so I can just grab what I need that night and not have to think too much...   My main live rig is big and heavy - I don't need all the options for rehearsing so I use a simple, small and light rig.  Rehearsals for me are about the band being able to hear each other and avoiding huge volume (not that my drummer seems to get that).

Whatever setup I'm using I try to have it set so I can get the sounds I want quickly - nothing worse than having to faff about while everyone is waiting.

digitalscream

No, unity on the pedal is the same no matter how you have the amp set; unity with respect to a pedal is simply getting the same volume at the pedal's output as you feed in at the input.

As for the original question...yeah, I rehearse with exactly the same rig I use to gig. Seems pretty pointless to rehearse with a different set of pedals compared to the ones I'll be using when gigging. OK, so I don't have a huge setup (wah, tuner, phaser, boost, delay), but we use rehearsal sessions for writing too so I want all my sounds available at all times in case something occurs to me while we're going.

Occasionally, though, I use rehearsals to try out new gear and sometimes I limit myself to as few pedals as possible - sometimes none at all - just so I have a plan in my head if anything dies on me.

Grunfeld

Bellycaster said:

So when do some of you guys take a lighter rig to rehearse?..

Is it when you have gigged the setlist time and time again and you can get away with just playing through the songs in practice, knowing that you will confidently adapt to the next gig anyway?

You may be over thinking this but I remember doing something similar myself.  Basically, I have 9 pedals on my gig board but only use two (different ones) in rehearsal (add +1 to include tuners in either set up).

For rehearsal I just use an overdrive and an echo.  For me, it allows focus on playing and arranging the songs being rehearsed without faffing around worrying about fx sound too much or tap dancing.  And it sounds absolutely fine.  For gigs, that's when one can add a bit of ear candy. 

I guess it depends how you use pedals but that works well for me, i.e. not to get too wrapped up in minutiae like I used do, and remembering that playing the song well is far more important than remembering to step on a phaser. 

ESBlonde

If the band are up to speed then rehearsals can be low volume affairs to learn intros, formats, harmonies and endings.
Unless the song has a distinctive 'sound' that your version must have then generic versions are more than good enough. Lets be honest here, your playing style has more bearing on the overall tone than the exact setting of a knob on a pedal.
I used to rehearse with my little marshall avt combo and a drive pedal. If you and everyone knows their parts then at that point overdrive is overdrive, chorus is chorus etc. Sometimes a distinctive echo might be a feature of the song (billy joel - it's still rock n' roll to me) but once the song is learned that's it.
I know that if you are doing original material that's another saucepan of squid, but for covers....

Si_

I tend to take my proper setup, inc pedal board to rehearsals only every now and again, usually the practice just before a gig, unless I'm trying out something new, a new pedal or something.. At other times I just take the head and footswitch and leave the pedalboad at home. I did once setup a 2nd much smaller board for rehearsals but it was pointless so I never used it (if I'm going to take a boar at all it might as well be my main one).

Sometime I just take my Dark Terror and a clip on tuner and that's all.. never sounds right but it's more than enough to work on beginnings and ends.

not_the_dj

I use a 1x12 cab at rehearsal, we all set up facing each other so it works fine. At gigs I use a a pair of 2x12 cabs. Same amp head and pedal board for both situations.

fretmeister

The only thing I'd change for a rehearsal is the amount of speakers.

All the tone generating things need to be the same for me.