We had a pretty good band practice last night. During the first half we blew through most of the songs we are hoping to play on Friday and they all went well. I had a little pain in my left hand but nothing too bad. I had some equipment issues too but (a lot) more on that later.
Normally when a gig is coming up Kevin will draw up a set list. We play through it, suggest a tweak here and there, and then declare it final. We then practice the crap out of it as a whole. This time Kevin came up with a set list and we played it and decided we wanted to try again. I think the issue is that we really don’t know what we want to do this time. At first we thought that since it’s a high school reunion for the class of ’89 we should make everything from the 80’s (the horror). Then we thought that since there is a DJ and a dance floor we should probably try and go for a set worth of songs that normally get people dancing. Okay. Some songs we dropped, other songs that had been dropped before we re-evaluated, questions were asked, suggestions were made, and in the end… we still don’t have a definite list.
I started getting a weird, awkward vibe from the room. I’m pretty sure it mostly had to do with my personal hangups about this whole gig, but I was starting to worry that some of the guys were getting pissed off over it all. I asked if everyone was okay and they all said they were. I hope that’s the case because this is my high school reunion we’re talking about here and that in no way is worthy of any form of emotional discomfort. Not in the least. Except maybe for me, but that’s a different issue. I just don’t feel good about this whole experience.
Okay, on to the equipment problems. It started at the last practice, two weeks ago. I started getting a lot of noise. I was okay for the first half of so and then the ground hum started getting louder. It kept getting worse as the night went on and it was really bad by the end. Last night I expected to have problems right off the bat but it was nice and quiet at the start. The same thing happened though. After 30-40 minutes I started hearing that ground hum again and it got worse and worse.
When you have noise problems like that the gut reaction is to blame it on your dirt pedal. I use an OCD for most of my distortion. When that pedal was on there was noise. When it was off there was much less noise. That means the OCD is the problem, right? No. It means the problem lies somewhere in the signal path before the OCD, and kicking on all of that distortion just amplifies it. I only have three pedals in the chain after the OCD, delay, reverb, and volume boost. Before the OCD is a tuner, a wah, a uni-vibe, a phaser, a flanger, a pitch shifter, and another overdrive with the gain set low. The issue was coming from somewhere in there.
I have the flanger on the board for one song and we didn’t play that song last night. I sometimes throw it on just as a neat-o sound effect and I did that once. After that song the noise was unbearable. I bypassed everything before the first overdrive, a Tumnus, and the noise went away. It’s likely that the problem is either the flanger, the pitch shifter or (most likely) one of the cables connecting them. Both of those pedals are cheap Chinese brands and neither are known for their quality craftsmanship. It could very well be one of the pedals. The cables though… The flanger is on the top left side of the board (wiring goes from right to left) and the pitch shift is on the far right. I have a cable that is probably a foot long connecting them. That particular cable has been with me since the early 2000’s when I bought a bunch of short cables at a Radio Shack. I know this because those cables were the only colored cables I’ve ever used. I’m willing to bet myself a couple of bucks that that old, cheap-o cable is the culprit.
The plan for this week, along with practicing, is to change up the board. That cable goes away just on principal. Also I think the pitch shift will temporarily come off as we’re not doing the song I was hoping to use it on. I might take the reverb pedal off too. I am chemically addicted to reverb, but I have yet to find a pedal that sounds anywhere near as good as a spring reverb tank, and the amp I want to use Friday doesn’t have a tank. I’m bordering on declaring that if I can’t have a spring I don’t want anything. Having said that, there are a couple of songs where I keep the signal clean and a little bit of reverb sounds really ace. I’m conflicted about that one. The last question is do I replace the Tumnus with the KTR. They are both modeled on the same circuit, and the KTR is closer to the original. They are similar but not exact. The KTR is going on the board eventually but I’m not sure if I want to switch to it without using it at a rehearsal first. Yeah, the Tumnus should stay for now.
There was one other issue that I almost forgot about. Early in the practice I was using the wah pedal and the signal seems to have cut out a little. Only when the pedal was in the open (all bass no treble [isn’t that a song?]) position. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and it was fine again. It might need a little cleaning with some compressed air, but it is something to keep an eye on going forward.
So I am using the Fender Bassbreaker as my amp, and the Tumnus/OCD combo as my dirt, and I am bringing my little Vox MV50 Clean along with a 12 inch speaker cabinet as a backup amp and I’ll take the D&M Drive as a backup overdrive pedal. The only question left is… which guitar? I used the SG last night because the strings were fresher. I planned on using the Les Paul as the #1 for the show and bringing the SG as the backup. Last night though… the SG just felt good last night. I don’t think I personally played all that well, but it felt good regardless. I’ve never used the SG at a gig. In fact, Friday is the first gig we’re doing since I bought it. I’m not sure. I might go with the SG as the #1. We’ll see how I feel in a few days.
Anyway, here are the obligatory “we’re wrapping up for the night so take some gear pics for the ‘gram” pics.
Inside the Red Head's Head 