Le Mans and guitar techie stuff

[johnny9fingers]

Up at 6am on Friday morning. The boss and Frankie turned up in the people carrier at 8am. Mark (bassist) was on time, Nicki (sax) was late....then realised she had forgotten her passport. After a small detour to retrieve aforementioned passport, we headed for the chunnel. We arrived at the terminal at about 10.30am. Delays abounded and it was 2.20pm before we actually embarked. Through the tunnel and then Martin (drums and our leader) drove solidly for some four hours to get us to the venue, which was a farmhouse somewhere on the Le Mans circuit, where we had just enough time to set up, change, and eat, before we went onstage. Three songs into the first set my amp blew up.

Now as an aside, my Fender Blues Deluxe, though a wonderful sounding beast, ain't exactly the most reliable amp I've ever owned, but it is a damn sight more portable than either my Marshall half-stack or even my blackface 'twin'.

So I called the soundguy over and asked him if he had a direct box, into which I plugged my Digitech GNX3, and used one of the stage monitors as a surrogate amp. It took less than a verse and a chorus to reconfigure and get a proper sound together. Good job from the soundman.

Difficult gig, and not because of blown amp. Too many chaps of a certain age not interested in dancing at all: which rather makes a dance band redundant. However, by the end of the second set we managed to get a few of them moving, so all not lost there.

We got offstage by midnight, local time, and packed up and then started drinking.

All stayed in different B & B's in local villages, then back to the farmhouse for breakfast the next morning. We left to try to reach the tunnel for 3.30pm. Back home by Saturday evening.

So, today I picked up the Fender Blues Deluxe from the soundman and took it to Dickinson Amplification, in Crystal Palace. Now I knew Jon Dickinson when he worked in Tin Pan Alley, so we bantered a bit about old chums and then I asked about the possibility of customising the Blues Deluxe. We looked at various options, including a hand rebuild on a point-to-point hand-wired board. Then I tried a single channel, volume knob only, 45W 2x12 he had built some weeks ago as a prototype.

The upshot of all this is I've got him to fix the Blues Deluxe, and I've got to try to persuade SWMBO that we have enough room to store the 2x12. Now I'm going to get myself a new floorpod from Line6, and I'm rather hoping that set-up will be pretty bulletproof. Fingers crossed.

Comments

[ericcoleman]

I use a PodXT myself and I love it. I want a Pod X3 floor board someday.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I've used the GNX3 for some 5 or 6 years now, having been through the old pods and not really liking them. The XT wasn't bad, but the X3 floor thingy is a great sounding emulator for the price, and also the build quality looks pretty bomb-proof. So I think that will be the front end on the new system. This is, after all, about reliability as well as sound.

I've gone the other way

[ankh156.livejournal.com]

I now use minimal FX (TS9ii, Boss Wah, Marshall VibraTrem) then straight into the Bassman (normal channel). Makes all my guitars sound sweet and gutsy. I *was* thinking of getting an amp modeller, but it's too late now - I've found 'my sound'.

Re: I've gone the other way

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Oh I know what you mean, but my sound is a Marshall JCM800 50W single-channel-no-reverb half-stack one side, and a 'Blackface Twin' t'other and what is basically Hendrix's pedalboard between my strat and amps.

It's not very portable without roadies.

The Wedding Band plays everything from Chic's 'Good Times' to the EVH solo on 'Beat It' or the proto-metal of the Kinks 'You really got me'. Versatility is preferred. One box that will do it all is sort of a requirement for function bands, else I'd be with my preferred set-up.