Dep gig.... Advice required

rsvmark · June 2018

Good point @not_the_dj and we have compared set lists with other bands on that day. We are planning to get there well ahead of time for pre assembly and thinking about stage positions and chatting to the engineers. Having had a rehearsal last night, the singer has played before and was singing the praises of the sound guys who they use every year.

digitalscream · June 2018

not_the_dj said:

At change over time the guitarist in the last band lugged his amps off stage and I got mine up there....only to discover that the sound engineer just wanted to use a DI box of some sort straight from the guitars or pedal board, so not mic'ing up the amps.

We've got one this weekend, which says "Amps will be provided, you won't be able to use your own, just your own effects".

I don't think they quite understand how rock bands generally work. Of course, I've got my Helix, so I'll just DI and skip the whole amp thing, but our other guitarist is screwed since he gets all his dirt from his Blackstar.

ICBM · June 2018

digitalscream said:

We've got one this weekend, which says "Amps will be provided, you won't be able to use your own, just your own effects".

I don't think they quite understand how rock bands generally work. Of course, I've got my Helix, so I'll just DI and skip the whole amp thing, but our other guitarist is screwed since he gets all his dirt from his Blackstar.

Suggest he buys a Blackstar HT-Dual pedal, pronto...

It obviously does depend on the type/size of 'festival', but generally I wouldn't rely on getting my sound with my own amp for something like this. You need an alternative strategy for the provided-backline scenario - it can come in handy as a backup for your main rig too.

rsvmark · June 2018

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1827/28978743298_951a4a7a28_b.jpg

Well that was a total blast! Thanks to all for the advice but it went like a dream and time flew. I ballsed up a couple of times as a result of getting carried away and having too much fun. No malfunctions, the ipad trick worked a dream and I put it on a music stand at knee height - plenty bright enough to see but not creating a visual barrier for the crowd,

The crowd was ace - we had a few inflatables launched, people on shoulders and even a crowd surfer at one point. As it was outside I was able to crank the amp and it sounded great, especially with the KOT stacked, and almost every song went down well.

Definitely my biggest and possibly best gig to date

not_the_dj · June 2018

Awesome! Well done.

FarleyUK · June 2018

Congrats mate - living the dream!

StageStruck · June 2018

digitalscream said:
We've got one this weekend, which says "Amps will be provided, you won't be able to use your own, just your own effects".

I don't think they quite understand how rock bands generally work. Of course, I've got my Helix, so I'll just DI and skip the whole amp thing, but our other guitarist is screwed since he gets all his dirt from his Blackstar.

Cue the Line 6 Spider or Marshall solid state number that's been absolutely thrashed!

Voxman · July 2018

@rsvmark I completely understand especially as we just did an outside gig on the main stage at the East Barnet Festival a couple of weeks back.

Best advice I can give you, is don't worry about what you can't control and prep for what you can. Learn the songs as reasonably well as you can but don't over do it...keep it simple and just make sure you all have fun on stage...otherwise what's the point?! If you should forget a riff don't worry as the audience won't know any difference and if you miss timing just stop, let the band carry it for a few seconds and then pick it up again...the audience will never notice.

Gear wise if you have backups take them. You'll probably not even need them but just knowing you have a backup guitar, spare lead, tuner etc on hand means it's something less to worry about. Wireless is fine and gives you freedom to move around on stage. I use a Line 6 G10 and it worked perfectly as always.

We played when it was 30 degrees so make sure you tune up with plenty of time for the guitar to adjust to the ambient temperature and then retune just before you play. If you use an mfx with led tuner built in and are playing in bright daylight these may be hard to see in bright sunlight so a spare needle tuner can be very useful.

As long as you can hear the band and yourself through the monitor don't worry about how it sounds to the audience...you just have to trust the sound engineer. And if you need the monitor up just signal the sound guy on stage and he'll adjust it for you.

're strings I always restring a couple of days before to allow them to settle and stretch in...avoid restringing on the day if you can. And check you're happy with the intonation. Again, a well set up guitar is one less thing to worry about.

If you use a capod and or slide make sure these are in a safe easy access place and you have a few spare picks strategically available in case you drop one.

That's probably about it...just have fun and post some clips for us!

Phil_aka_Pip · July 2018

@rsvmark nice one !

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