Post Gig Lunch Report For Wednesday, August 25, 2010

[Boogie Bill]

Greetings and salutations!

Slept in late today after our gig yesterday afternoon, at the West Linn Farmer’s Market. (West Linn is a suburb of Portland, Oregon.) Had a great time. It was 95 degrees on the pavement, but we had a canopy and a nice breeze. Miss Leslie prepared 14 bottles of Brita-filtered water and shoved them in the freezer, so we had lots of refreshing cold water to drink. I got a little bit of a burn on my forehead, even with sunscreen, but not too bad. Of course, I’m so out of shape that I’m totally wiped out and feeling a lot of achy muscles. I’m SORE! But I feel really good about the gig, and people seemed to really enjoy our show. We got a lot of compliments.

They don’t really pay anything, so for most of these we’ve used the Alesis SR-16 Drum Machines; but yesterday we had an old friend sit in with us on the drums. Made things a lot simpler for me, with two less pedals to worry about, and a simpler setup overall. We hadn’t played together for four or five years—he moved out the area, but he played really well, didn’t get too fancy.

So, drum machine or live drummer? What do you use and prefer? I think both have their own advantages, but I get tired of using the drum machine so much. It’s a great tool, especially for tiny little rooms, and for practicing and songwriting; but yesterday was a lot more fun with a live drummer.

I had five instruments yesterday. I wound up not using my Ibanez 5-string banjo, which was too bad. I had one of my 1960 VOS tobacco burst Les Pauls, my newest Legacy (3CSB and maple neck), my butterscotch blonde Legacy Special, and my blueburst DanElectro Innuendo 12-string. I ran everything through my Mesa Boogie Maverick 212, sitting on top of a Mesa Horizontal Recto 212 cab. I thought it sounded really good, and got some compliments, which is always nice. Biggest problem was the heat causing the instruments to go out of tune. I had a problem with the DanElectro’s pickguard warping in the heat, causing a buzz, so I’ll have to cut some double-sided tape to put under the guard to keep that from happening. The 12-string always gets a lot of attention from the audience.

Both cold weather and hot weather present some challenges for the musician. I’d say I prefer it to be a little too warm than a little too cold, but we don’t have the high humidity out here that many of you East Coast and Mid-West folks have. (And drummers always seem to like it cool!)

So big question of the day comes down to amps. The Mesa amps seem to all sound great no matter which guitar I use. I’m really fortunate to have such nice gear. But some amps just don’t handle certain guitars or pedals very well. I know I had one overdrive that sounded great with my Fender amp, and horribly thin and buzzy with my JCM 800 Marshall. Some amps just don’t seem to handle the G&L MFD pickups very well.

What’s your favorite amp(s) for your G&Ls, and specifically for your MFDs? Do you have any problems using certain pedals with it? Is there an amp you’ve played through that DIDN”T sound good with your G&L guitars?

That’s it for Hump Day. I’m going to go find some food, maybe some huevos rancheros since I just got up. And coffee!

And some Advil!

Bill

[sirmyghin]

Well, I haven't had any issues with my amp (also a mesa) but haven't got to put a G&L in it yet. The amp did however bring me a bit of love for a guitar I never play due to the pickups. When I did play G&Ls I was playing through a Orange AD-30 in the store, and it responded very well to the MFds, even the large high output MFD of the ASAT special.

I recently got rid of a modeler/effects unit as it could not be used with my mesa (it was going to be a stand in for effects with modelling off) , it just sounding like crap in the loop so I ditched it in a hurry. Fortunately these things are popular with a lot of folks, I find them to be bland and lacking dynamic variance.

[Boogie Bill]

The best modeller I ever heard was the original Roland VG-8. The rep had it plugged into a full range PA system and it sounded killer; capturing not only the amp tones, but duplicating the sounds of a strat, tele, Gretsch or Ric effortlessly. Not for me, but I have to admit it nailed those tones. People seem to be less successful with them running into a guitar amp.

Bill

[sirmyghin]

The best modeller I ever heard was the original Roland VG-8. The rep had it plugged into a full range PA system and it sounded killer; capturing not only the amp tones, but duplicating the sounds of a strat, tele, Gretsch or Ric effortlessly. Not for me, but I have to admit it nailed those tones. People seem to be less successful with them running into a guitar amp.

Bill

I actually had modelling off for this, just effects on, beforehand it was not bad running into the power amp of my fender BXR 100 (my bass amp as I had no guitar amp). I had to run it like that as before that I had a small fender practice amp and squier strat, I gave them to someone else to learn on (having a few carvins around) to clear out closet space. As I said, the big issue were even as a modeler it lacked articulation. New talk of the town for modelers is axe fx, but then again every now and then a modeler sparks this kind of return so I'll watch and see where this goes.

[Dark Horse]

Hey Bill,
The only G&L I have at present is my G-200. A guitar that I never have the urge to play.

When I had my Skyhawk, it made a beautiful tone marriage with my early '70s silver face Fender Pro reverb.

Unbelievable cleans. I guess you could say they were like peas and carrots.

When I played them together it was never like a box of chocolates.

L8er,
Jerry

[bassman]

A band that I am currently playing bass with, RAGs, used to use a midi bass and sequenced drums for all of their gigs in the 80s.

I remember seeing them at one of their gigs in the 80'sand no one danced. I don't know if its the midi bass or drums but I think live musicians connect better with an audience.

They made the change to a live rhythm section in 2002, because it was too much work to do all of that programming for every gig.

We now like to change our set lists for every gig, so that people are not hearing the same songs every time we play.