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How long to you take to set up ?

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  • 5-piece originals band here. Usually, load in and setup are at least a couple of hours apart. It usually goes like this:

    6pm: load-in
    Sometime between 6:30pm and 8pm - set up rig on stage, soundcheck, break down again (roughly 15-20 minutes)
    Stage time: 5 minutes to load everything on stage, play set, 5 minutes to break down again

    Bear in mind that we usually use the house PA, and the drum kit is usually shared between all the bands on the bill (it's set up at the beginning of soundcheck).

    The other guitarist has stage right, and the bassist and I are stage left. That means that the other guitarist tends to get his rig on stage on his own, whereas the bassist and I alternate setting up our pedalboards and amps - ie while he's setting up his board, I'll set up my amp and then we'll swap just so we don't get in each other's way.

    Once we're set up, all bags go behind the amps so we can grab them as soon as we're done and get off stage ready for the next band.

    One important part is that we all tend to keep our main leads in with our pedalboards and our backup leads somewhere nearby. That means that what goes on stage is exactly what's needed, and no more - so there's no confusion or searching for stuff.

    Does that help?
    <space for hire>
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  • 5 piece, drums, bass, 2 guitars & singer with acoustic.
    From arriving at the venue we can be loaded in, set up & ready to go within 45 mins.
    Load everything in (safer than leaving anything for later), drummer sets himself up, rest of us set up the pa & lights, then back line in front of all cables. Run cables to front of stage, pedalboards down, tune up.
    Bass player arrives, load his rig in.
    Pint
    Play.
    After a few gigs it starts to flow.

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  • simonksimonk Frets: 1467
    We’re a five piece, two guitar band and setting up in a pub with our own PA usually takes an hour or so. I try to instill in everyone that just dumping everything in one go on the floor in a heap right where we’re going to set isn’t necessary the best idea as we just end up double handling everything... 
    We quite often don’t soundcheck as we’re out quite regularly. A sound check is usually only needed if we haven’t gigged for a few weeks or someone announces “hey guys, I’ve completely redone my patches”.
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  • Handsome_ChrisHandsome_Chris Frets: 4779
    edited December 2018
    @Emp_Fab , how big is your band?  Is it two guitars, bass, keys, drums and vocalist?  Is asking not to have a go or rib you, but try and understand the complexity of your layout.  

    I feel that your band set up process may not have been thought through.  I say this as a band which I have reached for had drums, keys guitar, bass, ekectric violin, saxophonist and vocals and is gig ready a lot quicker than 1 hour 45 mins.

    The guitarist I do stuff for, once we're told where he's going, he's usually ready to rock in about 5 minutes, then I'm helping out wherever I can.  

    I hope this helps .
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  • sw67sw67 Frets: 228
    edited December 2018
    simonk said:
    We’re a five piece, two guitar band and setting up in a pub with our own PA usually takes an hour or so. I try to instill in everyone that just dumping everything in one go on the floor in a heap right where we’re going to set isn’t necessary the best idea as we just end up double handling everything... 
    We quite often don’t soundcheck as we’re out quite regularly. A sound check is usually only needed if we haven’t gigged for a few weeks or someone announces “hey guys, I’ve completely redone my patches”.
    This - it dives me insane. I got fed up moving stuff that had been dumped when setting up the pa so i now arrive 30mins ahead of agreed time. 
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  • RolandRoland Frets: 8590

    One important part is that we all tend to keep our main leads in with our pedalboards and our backup leads somewhere nearby. That means that what goes on stage is exactly what's needed, and no more - so there's no confusion or searching for stuff.
    This is a good tip. You know you’ve got it, and it’s in easy reach
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357

    In my experience people who gig all the time tend to set up and soundcheck quicker than more casual gig'ing bands because A :  they have worked out the easiest way to load in (for example if loading in to the front of a stage pack van so backline and drums come out first, then wedges \ IEM racks then finally FOH PA ..... if the load in is to the rear of the stage then it's the other way round) ..... Oh and B: people who gig all the time don't generally feel the need to treat the pub \ club to 15 minutes of playing in order to get their patches right etc .... they basically just want to line check and get a beer.

     I personally like to play about 4 chords for 20 seconds for the soundman and show him how much boost for solo's I'm using if any and that's it. I have played with guys thought who endlessly jam away, fiddle with the amp, jam away etc sometimes in completely inappropriate styles to what we are gonna be covering on the night ..... drives me mad .... especially people who play while the soundmans doing you (I mean getting your PFL ....  not litterally doing you ! :)

    I can't remember why but I actually set up a camera once to record the process of setting up my band at a typical club gig  and then sped the video up so the 2 hour setup was condensed to 2 mins .....  to the tune of the Benny Hill theme :)    ..... which is er here :-1: 



    The actual setup times depend what band I'm playing in. With the top band the lighting guy turns up first in his van and puts up shit loads of lights then I turn up an hour laster with the main band van  ( 4.2 Transit Jumbo ) and we load in our amps which are all hardcased and thus 2 man lifts, then IEM rack \ drums and finally 6 box HK Actor DX and 2 Dart wedges. Some things are time saving, all vocal mics are wireless and already connected to digital stage box in same rack, as are all the wireless IEM receivers so connecting all that to the mixing desk is one ethercon cable. But fact is we have a ridiculous amount of gig and it does take around an hour from load to line check even though we have been doing in 14 years. 

    Other bands I play in use 2 SRM's on poles for the vocals, nothing's mic'ed and it basically takes 20 mins to set up.  Personally I'm happy either way
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • We've got our setup down to just over an hour (1hr 20 max). Unload drums and get him setting them up whilst myself and bassist unload and setup PA. Run cables to mics (required mainly for IEM), all 3 of us bring in guitar/bass amps, them instruments. Set up lights and vocal mics. Fine tune mic positions. Sound check. IEM levels don't generally move much. Set levels to drummer. Sorted.
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  • KeefyKeefy Frets: 2272
    Jalapeno said:
    Emp_Fab said:
    we all do our own thing - and get in each others' way.
    Yep, and drummer sets up first and then spends an eternity practicing paradiddles driving us (me mainly) nuts
    ...whilst leaving cases all over the stage area.
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  • PhilMPhilM Frets: 278
    edited January 2019
    Usually around an hour, but I like to allow at least 90 minutes. We all load in, and then the drummer, bass, singer, and keys/sax player will set their instruments/mic stand up and watch while I sort out monitors, mics, keys/sax feeds, the rest of the PA and the lights. Then, about 3 minutes before a quick soundcheck, I'll set my guitar stuff up.

    We're actually looking at booking some time in a larger rehearsal space/village hall to "dry run" the entire setup in the hope that the rest of the band might learn how to do certain simple tasks. I find it takes me longer to tell them what to do than it does to just do it myself.
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  • With last band, 5pc, 2 guitars, bass, drums and keys, about 1/2 hour to unload and set up, 2 mins on average for soundcheck. Generally Take it easy by the Eagles, by the time we get to 2nd half of solo we are done. 
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