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Pedals and the TFB Jams
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Getting turnarounds right on the day is hard. Very hard. We try to get as many songs in as we can to please as many as possible. I've cut that number recently as it's often a squeeze. I don't want people going home having not had a chance to plug in and play their song.
@TTony is right - it's not a gear focus. It's a playing focus.
Often, at festivals when playing there we get 10 mins or so to set up and go - or our setlist gets chopped. So sometimes you opt to use the backline that's there, or sneak a board in or whatever. At the end of the day, playing live is about reacting to a situation - venue, room, dynamics, crowd, equipment, PA, soundman etc. etc. and at the Jams we are giving you a flavour of all these things to help make you better at playing live - beginners and experienced alike. I play live a lot, but I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.
However, having said that....
Everyones ambition, drive, motivation and playing style differs. And for many, their kit choice is an important part of that - there are occasions live where you get hours to set up, and lots of time to tweak to get it just right. I know people coming to the jams want to sound as good as they can - @darthed1981 clearly wants to build a small board to have something he can drop in and feel familiar with quickly. All power to you for that, Ed.
And here's the thing - at huddersfield we have managed to get the logistics right to allow changes during songs - maybe a board, sometimes an amp head etc. If we can do this at other jams, I'd be really happy - but not at the expense of people getting their chance to play.
My view would be:
- Cabs are as they are - it's too hard to swap them in and out
- Bringing a head is ok, as is a board, or a multiFX.. BUT (and it's a big BUT)
I have to balance flexibility of kit against the running order. So, here's my advice..
If you want to use specific kit, then you have to plan for it properly - have the right leads to connect up and know it inside out so you can set it up before, come in, plug it in and be ready to go quickly - and know what the knobs do on each pedal for a variety of circumstances.. if you can't do it in 5 mins then don't.
Quite simply, problems arise when people bring kit they don't know well enough and expect to plug it in and it just works - and they don't have the right lead, or know where to connect it to, or what it will do in a certain circumstance or plugged into a specific type of amp/combo etc. We as organisers will make sure the right leads are available - so you can come in, plug power in, and then know you need a lead to go out of whatever you have brought straight into either a combo, or a power amp, or DI to the desk - you need to know what you want to do well before hand - there isn't time to do it in between songs. And you need to practice setting it up and getting it to sound right - all part of the prep.
Also - if you bring something in and unplug something else - then plug it back in afterwards so it's ready for the next song.
My advice to @darthed1981 is simple - if you want to build a jam board then build something that is easy to connect, and make sure you know exactly what each setting does so you can quickly set it to a rooms dynamic and be ready to go. If you do that then the chances are we, as organisers, won't even notice you've brought it in - you will have no impact on anyone else, and it will just work.
@CustomPedalBoards is, in my opinion, the absolute master of this art - he sneaked a pedal in to Hudds that synth'd an organ and it worked perfectly, and I didn't even notice till he started playing it... at first I thought it was a recording
Don't want any of this hassle? Can't set up in 5 mins? Use the provided backline and your volume control
It's just how it is when you play any gig... specially multi-band gigs like festivals, which are an exercise in 5 mins of panic and 45 mins of playing. In those 5 mins, every bit of prep you do before hand pays off massively.
There's a lot of opportunity for stuff to go wrong - plugging in / unplugging with power still on. Putting the output into the wrong cab socket and blowing the speakers. "I just need to move this over here" and trip, fall, bang.
I know it's your gig, but ...
My 2p - and I might even make it 3p out of my own pocket - would go towards building a forum jam board that covers *most* necessary FX, has a suitable quality PSU on it, is road-tested by Bob (or whoever) beforehand to make sure that it's noise free, and it sits there available for use.
I reckon, between donations of spare kit and the modest surplus that we build up over the jam sessions, we could put together something that would meet most sensible needs. For everyone else, bring your Helix.
Here’s the big take away for me - Playing live is certainly about the playing, but the kit familiarisation, practised setup at speed, and the ability to tweak on the fly to get your sound is a massive part of the gig - and success.
As such, some more experienced people coming to a Jam might want to try this out in a test environment, and I don’t think the logistics bit is too much of an issue - I see it as part of my job to help in the room and get that working - I did this at hudds and it worked well. With the right planning and so on there should be no mishaps - that’s part of the careful prep.
Its a real shame you dodnt come to hudds - you’d have seen it working and it really *is* possible.
or rig together some bit n bobs if someone brings a load of stuff and not sure what to do with it all. (as long as its not to time consuming)
I was totally focused on your frankly stunning gear, knowledge and expertise and didn't really consider how much it might detract.
Point taken and agreed with.
The days are run to a pretty tight schedule, and allowing 5-10mins for each inter-song break means lost playing time overall.
If we can find a way to avoid it, then we win back more playing time and avoid a bunch of on-the-day risks.
But ...
... as the man said, I didn't see how it worked at Hudds.
@Bridgehouse - you had Bob at Hudds. We don't have a Bob at Quad.
But I'll butt out that that point. It's not my day. I'll just turn up and play. Probably without my own pedalboard though
as i've already said your all more than welcome to use my battery board, it sounds great! has most of the gains anyone would ever want and load of other stuff all fits in to a lap top bag, and is also completely wireless, no leads, cables, things to plug in nothin nadda ziltch say it agen nuthin!
on the board at the moment it has comp, dist, od, fuzz, clean boost, power boost, 2x delays, tuner, trem and univibe. so all the effects for any of the songs you lot are attempting. all easy to dial in, no problem. have a quick go and get familiar in a practise or jam of what your going to record 1st to get of a feel of it 1st if you want, but in most cases you wont really need to as they are all really simple (promise) 1-3 knob pedals.
@darthed1981 u can borrow it if u want or any board i have (got a few) i dont mind lots of cool fx on any of em!
(if at hudds, not the other jams)
First Huddersfield jam had too much kit change (modellers into cabs, etc) and I think it took too long and stuff got put back in wrong cabs etc.
Second Huddersfield jam was pretty much only small pedalboards - straight into the front of a clean amp (so no backline meddling) - that worked well.
IMHO....YMMV.....
Ebay mark7777_1
but as always will try n help or do in any way i can.
@TTony ‘s idea of a fb Jam Board is a good one - specially for people who have never done it before and want to concentrate on their playing rather than their kit.
Running the jams is an exercise in being able to meet the needs of a diverse range of people and being sympathetic to their own ambitions and worries.
Why am I seeing it as an issue? Because some people who come are gig hardened experts, some have never played in public before. I have to accommodate both of those extremes and do it with grace and a smile.
Why bother? Because Music is the most important thing I have in my life (other than my family) and it keeps me sane. Gigging is the greatest pleasure I have ever had, even above sex. And the jams are my way of giving back and encouraging new players and those who are nervous into playing live for the first time, and getting them started on that road. I don’t do it for me - I do it for the people who helped and encouraged me when I first started playing 25 years ago.
And to be honest, the logistics of whether someone plugs a board in or swaps an amp is pretty much the lowest priority - I just want to ensure as many players get the environment they need to do what has eluded them for so long, or play in an environment completely diffeeent from their normal live playing.
Yep - you are an experienced gigger - and you know your kit and how important it is to know it. I bet you learned the hard way along the way though at times. If not, you were lucky. The jams are about experience in that environment.
It’s gigging with a big soft fat crash mat. (Edit - I am not the soft fat crash mat)
.... so long as the player knows their board well.
For novices, I’d recommend what is there or a @TTony fretboard special pedal board.
For the experienced, bring your board, but if you don’t know how it works I will slap you and kick you up the arse.
I agree with most people here. There.
but..
When you talk about using funds for a fretboardpedalboard (FBPB) @TTony ;;;- that worries me some... after the amount of flak you got for asking for a small donation to keep the site ticking over, you are lining yourself up for some serious naysaying. Don't mean to come across all negative and stuff, but this coupled with the shit @Bridgehouse got for organising the jams? Non-Jammers may get pissy..
Perhaps a better FBPB could be something simple arranged by a few before? Like some set pre-decided pedals that a select few can bring arrange to bring to each one as they have massive collections and have them spare for the day... or something.
To conclude - great idea - setting yourselves up for flak.
I suggested that a forum pedal board could be put together from some donations (ie of spare pedals from those attending the jams or just those who've got a cupboard full of spare pedals) and the surplus ££s that the jams generate.
We don't run the jams to make a profit to contribute towards forum funds.
But to make sure that they don't make a loss and therefore require funding from the general funds, I usually err on the side of caution and make sure that we over-price them rather than under-pricing them. Consequently, we've build up a small surplus from the jams.
Seems only right and fair to me that those who've attended these sessions get the benefit from the surplus. Hence we could put together a pedalboard from a combination of donated unwanted pedals plus a couple bought from the surplus. That way all attendees get to benefit from what they've all contributed towards.
In fact, at the last Hudd (my first) it took my longer to work out HTF to drive a Katana than it would have done to put a board in and find "Clean" and "Master Volume". As for the Palmer, every time I used that it was a simple plug in and hope to hell it was set sane, because my German wasn't up to the screen printing
And, as has been said, it doesn't have to be for every song. 90% of what we do is guitar+amp stuff. The other 10%, it's nice to have that 30 seconds grace to plug in one extra lead.
As for multiple "own boards" vs "forum board" … I still reckon the former is easier than the latter when it comes to following @bridgehouse 's completely sensible and necessary "know your kit" mantra.
All IMHO natch.