I've been playing in bands pretty much non-stop since I was thirteen. You'd think I'd have it dialed by now.
It's not uncommon for me to find myself in three or more bands at the same time, playing any number of instruments. I have been known to show up to a gig with the wrong instrument. But the gig this past saturday, fun as it was, made me feel like a total rookie in some ways. I knew it would be a little rough. Our stand-in drummer really didn't know the tunes very well, and I was nervous about that. Thankfully it turned out not to be a complete clam-bake.
A little boring gear talk. My guitar amp these days is a small, inexpensive, low power Vox Pathfinder reissue with which I power a beautiful vintage Vox 2-10 cabinet loaded with the real Bulldog 10" speakers. I think it's a '66 or '67. I generally love the tone I get out of it, and the pair work well together.
But, like any speaker cabinet, it is subject to operator error, and one has to make the effort to plug the damn thing into the amp in order for it to make any noise. In my preoccupation about an impending meltdown of a gig, I dutilessly forgot to plug in the speakers, leaving the poor little Pathfinder to make all the racket with its own little 8" speaker. To make matters worse, the sound guy naturally assumed that the mic belonged on the cabinet and not the amp. He assumed this because I told him. At some point he realized something was wrong, ran up on the stage and moved the mic to the amp rather than plugging in the cabinet. Bad idea.
The always-dreaded words from the sound guy after the set; "No offense, but it sounded like shit."
Moral? Buy a big combo. I miss my Fender Prosonic...
Posted by eric at November 2, 2005 04:24 PM