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Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
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
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
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).
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
im told it looked awesome, but even I remember how bad it sounded.
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
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.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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.....