Epic fails?

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  • mike_lmike_l Frets: 5700
    I played a small public(!) gig with the band today.  Rehearsal / sound check was promising.   Gig was a disaster.   Set list had me playing high gain lead tune in between clean ish rhythm numbers.  Well that was the plan.  What I found of course, when I launched bravely into the lead riff was that I couldn't in a hurry dial in the right gain/vol/master/guitar vol - nowhere f'ing near.  Hideously embarrassing and then panic just stopped the fingers from functioning at all.  too many flaming settings on the amp - I now get what the f*** pedals are for.  Dumbass.  Feel free to take the piss (I am a beginner though), offer some advice or cheer me up by sharing stories of your own defeats.   
    The best one is the classic switch to clean tone for the solo instead of lead tone...not that i have done that...multiple times ...or anything...ahem
    You're not alone, I've never done this either.............

    Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21) 

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  • peteripeteri Frets: 1283
    edited July 2016
    All great advice here.

     My tip - get a setup at home where you can have three basic tones with no hassle.

     For example - I have clean, crunch and solo (crunch being like AC/DC level).

     Most songs (All?) can be made to work with one of these.

     Then work out alternative routes to those sounds - for example, I currently use a Peavey classic 30 and a small pedal board, so my 'dream' way of getting these are:

     1. Clean amp
     2. ThorpyFX gunshot
    3. Lead Channel on amp with Tubescreamer

     My backup to each

     1. Thorpy Gunshot with guitar volume right back, or the lead channel on the amp
     2. Lead channel on amp with guitar volume right back
     3. Thorpy Gunshot with tube screamer

     This process should then get you thinking - ok what can go wrong?

     When you're happy with the above - do the same at gig levels, it will be different!

     Well for me -

     Amp completely goes - ok you're buggered there
     Pedalboard goes - straight into amp and channel switch or ride guitar volume knob
     Lose an amp channel, or a certain pedal - use the backups there

     Also as others have said, learn to use your guitar controls and your playing dynamics, for example I could imagine scrapping through with my amp stuck on the lead channel cranked setting, just by using my guitar volume and tone controls and hitting the strings more/less hard.

     Once you've practiced all of the above you'll have some idea of how you can work through all these issues, and also really understand how to use what you've got.

     Loads of pedals are nice, but checkout the Joe Bonamassa guitarist video for example where he shows all the sounds you can get by changing the tone/volume knobs - it makes you think.

     Then in the middle of gig where you tread on a pedal and the whole pedalboard just goes black (it will happen!) - you'll have already practiced it.

     The whole point of all the above is to take out having to think, you can't pull your best faces if you're thinking - so use practice time to take thinking out of the equation!

     Stick with it Pete
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  • nickpnickp Frets: 182
    ESBlonde said:
    You also need a get out of jail free card. Work out a default 'all the crap stripped away' setting that can just work (whatever tone that may be). It may be shove the guitar straight into ch 1 on 75% volume and control volume with the guitar, or take single gain pedal into amp and again use the guitar volume. I always have a plan and a spare guitar lead to hand at every gig. The idea is not to use it, but the gig won't wait for you to be ready with your pristine bedroom settings which only you will know. In the break you can trouble shoot but make the gig flow. You'd be suprised how few of the audience won't notice your tone but will notice you bending down fekkin with a pedalboard! On a positive note, you survived a baptism of fire! Well done.
    I've learned this one as patch pedals and leads die and you have to be able to unplug everything and go direct to amp to get through the set 
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  • VoxmanVoxman Frets: 4718
    I always try & prep for the worst and double up:  I always take at least 2 guitars and if I'm going through the PA I always take a spare MFX - I have a little Tonelab ST, set with 2-3 key tones that will get me through a gig.  If I'm going back-line, I always take a spare amp too - I have an old but trusty Mk 1 Marshall Valvestate 8080 1x12 which has reverb, a decent clean channel and a really nice Marshall 'crunch' that's good enough and loud enough to get me through any gig even without MFX.    
    I started out with nothing..... but I've still got most of it left (Seasick Steve)
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  • RolandRoland Frets: 8590
    @digitalscream ;;
    yeah - rehearsal went well.  I didn't touch the amp during the set - was just on the guitar volume.  I've no idea what happened really but I just didn't have the sound I was expecting.  I think I turned down the master volume on the amp when I switched off at the end of rehearsal and didn't get it right again - but that doesn't make sense - dunno - as I say I'm a beginner.  My reference to amp settings etc and confusion is just that in the heat of it I had not a clue what to do about it.  

    Thanks all for the useful suggestions and any encouragement.  I will have a better plan next time.  


    The volume and EQ you need for a gig varies from room to room. However loud you play at rehearsal the gig is usually louder because the drummer hits harder and the bassist always turns up because he can't hear himself. The trouble with turning up the guitar, and often amp master volume, is that you get more distortion, and more compression, but very little additional volume. When you do increase the volume it tends to bring out the bass and treble frequencies, but not the middle frequencies which help you cut through the mix. Whereas what you actually need is more clean volume and more mids. 

    An an extreme example of this is with amp modellers. People keep saying they sound awful live because they've just turned them up, rather than compensated by also changing the EQ.

    We we all have our different ways of solving this depending on our equipment and what style of music we play.  Mine is to turn up the master volume, but turn down the guitar a little so that it distorts less, and boost the EQ by about 5dB around 650 Hz
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • peteripeteri Frets: 1283
    Oh, one other piece of advice.

    You mention you think you may have changed your amp settings? Put a small bit of tape, or mark the amp in some way - so you know where the settings should be.

    You'll need to change them - as above, but at least you'll have a starting point, also if you make the wrong change you have a reference point to where you started.

    Knobs always get knocked in transit anyway, let alone when 'interested' people move the knobs to see what it feels like (had that more than once, people like to fiddle).
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  • VoxmanVoxman Frets: 4718
    edited July 2016
    Roland said:
    An an extreme example of this is with amp modellers. People keep saying they sound awful live because they've just turned them up, rather than compensated by also changing the EQ.

    Spot on Roland - technically this is called the 'Fletcher Munson curves' after the researchers who discovered it. Applies to all amps but modelling & solid-state are particularly susceptible.  In brief, when playing at gigging volumes you need to raise the mids because those are the frequencies our ears like at volume.  This is why you must set your EQ at gigging volume - settings that sound great at home often won't cut it at a gig, and vice-a-versa.

    The reason valve amps are less susceptible is because as you crank a valve amp, the valves hot up, tonal characteristics change, & there is a direct interaction with speaker impedance that largely compensates for this which a pure digital modelling amp cannot do. I used to have a Line 6 Flextone II Plus rig that was a pain and had to be set very differently at volume.  Line 6 later added a 'compensation' button to its Vetta II amp (kind of like a 'loudness' button on a hifi system) that helped. I sold off the Flextone and bought an AD120VTX Vox Valvetronix - these original 'blue' amps have valves and a clever circuit that interacts with speaker impedance, so behave much more like an all-valve amp with significantly reduced FM issues.
    I started out with nothing..... but I've still got most of it left (Seasick Steve)
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  • SCMIVSCMIV Frets: 14
    edited July 2016
    since you were wanting similarly embarrassing live pratfall stories as well (though these are thin compared to the advice so far), I'll share - years ago, in a galaxy far, far, far away, during the opening number of the first show with a new band I was in, filled with teenage exuberance I attempted a punk-rock leap in sync with a big crash moment in the song. Rather than appearing to defy gravity with the sheer power of rock, I in fact struck a beam protruding from the venue's ceiling with my head, landed on my backside, the force of which leading tothe strap coming off my guitar and the lead coming out of the (wrecked anyway) jack. *ahem* sometimes, like icarus, we can all fly too close to the sun lol. But yeah, advice-wise, what they said, and don't beat yourself up about it, it's all learning.
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  • paul_c2paul_c2 Frets: 410
    I remember way back when I was just starting out, doing a gig at a school and missing the guitar solo by precisely 8 bars. When the vocals gave way, the crowd was treated to a brilliant rendition of a simple rhythm guitar riff. Then when the singer came back in, I thought I'd play the solo - better late than never.
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  • peteripeteri Frets: 1283
    First two gigs - sixth form show at school.

    First night sooo nervous could barely go on, in a burst of confidence turned into Steve Harris, machine gunning the crowd, pulling all the faces.

    Had a blast and people loved it (I think they thought I was being funny!).

    Second night, expectations high - same idea.

    Broke the top E on my Hondo Les Paul first song, second song with my big solo - completely bombed, tried to play it without looking and the lack of top string (just as a reference point) completely threw me, once I missed the first 3 notes, it went down hill - don't think I hit a right note the whole 8 bars.

    You're not alone
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  • recent gig instead of clicking switch on my zoom g3 for guvnor for blistering solo for purple rain, i clicked pitch shifter and went down a semitone......eek
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  • Epic fails are essential gear mate. I went for a solo last night. Trod on the tuner instead of my boost. Total silence. The other week, getting totally carried away I jumped off the drum riser. Trod on the guitar lead. Pulled it out. Thankfully it was at the end of a song. 

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  • Went to play a solo behind my head, brought the house down....... Literally, caught some ceiling tiles, cue debris, dust and lots of laughter! 
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  • Once while supporting a decent US band I really idolised, I neglected to fit strap locks to my new strap and I spent most of the set jumping around holding my Les Paul solely by the neck...
    im told it looked awesome, but even I remember how bad it sounded. 
    " Why does it smell of bum?" Mrs Professorben.
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  • paul_c2paul_c2 Frets: 410
    Not guitar related but I challenge you to watch this and not laugh:



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  • TheOtherDennisTheOtherDennis Frets: 2010
    edited October 2016
    You go for an audition and though they're perfectly polite and friendly whilst you're there, as you're leaving, they're already laughing at you before you close the door.

    EDIT: Thanks to whoever gave this a lol (and I suppose it is funny to a certain extent), but the bruises still hurt - it's not nice to discover that despite all the practice you put in, people think you're that shit. :-S
    If you must have sex with a frog, wear a condom. If you want the frog to have fun, rib it.
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  • AlnicoAlnico Frets: 4616
    Epic fails are essential gear mate. I went for a solo last night. Trod on the tuner instead of my boost. Total silence. The other week, getting totally carried away I jumped off the drum riser. Trod on the guitar lead. Pulled it out. Thankfully it was at the end of a song. 

    I did the lead pulling out thing in the worst way possible.
    I'd agreed to do a solo spot in a variety performance sometime in the very early 90's and it was going to be a completely solo piece playing quiet-ish blues building up to something a little louder but still no band.

    In the wings after the MC introduced me as someone else plugged my already-around-my-shoulders guitar in and he said to me...
    "Start playing as you walk on, it'll look brilliant"

    With a split second to think "Yes / No", my fingers just started playing as i was walking out onto the big stage at the corn exchange. About 3 ft from the mic stand, after this frankly massive 'Bonamassa' style entrance my foot caught the lead that dingbat hadn't wrapped around my strap, just as i gave the entire audience that "I got this" look !......

    I have never been able to play a 335 since.
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  • vizviz Frets: 10644
    Trombone sneeze 
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • AlnicoAlnico Frets: 4616
    ^My God that's funny !
    :)
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  • Alnico said:
    Epic fails are essential gear mate. I went for a solo last night. Trod on the tuner instead of my boost. Total silence. The other week, getting totally carried away I jumped off the drum riser. Trod on the guitar lead. Pulled it out. Thankfully it was at the end of a song. 

    I did the lead pulling out thing in the worst way possible.
    I'd agreed to do a solo spot in a variety performance sometime in the very early 90's and it was going to be a completely solo piece playing quiet-ish blues building up to something a little louder but still no band.

    In the wings after the MC introduced me as someone else plugged my already-around-my-shoulders guitar in and he said to me...
    "Start playing as you walk on, it'll look brilliant"

    With a split second to think "Yes / No", my fingers just started playing as i was walking out onto the big stage at the corn exchange. About 3 ft from the mic stand, after this frankly massive 'Bonamassa' style entrance my foot caught the lead that dingbat hadn't wrapped around my strap, just as i gave the entire audience that "I got this" look !......

    I have never been able to play a 335 since.

    I am sorry to laugh at your misfortune Alnico, but that is too funny! and well descried I could imagine it as you were telling it.....
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