Band Ethics Discussion Part 2: Play or pull out?

[songsmith]

Hughes & Kettner Attax 80 Guitar Amp, Jarrett Music-- $250 used
1980 Peavey T-15 Electric Guitar, Crazy Hazy's-- $80 used
Ultimate Supports A-Frame Keyboard Stand, Ebay-- $5.53 used (!)
1955 Oahu (Valco) Lap Steel Guitar, yard sale find-- $25 extremely used
1987 Electro-Voice PL-80 vocal microphone, Galaxy Audio-- $40 used
Unknown Ancient Microphone Stand, yard sale find-- $5
Purpose-Built Pedal Board, including Tuner Pedal, Preamp Pedal and Channel Switch, mostly from J&S Music-- $60 used
Set of Lee Oskar Harmonica's, Musician's Friend-- $120 new, of course
Various Cables, Stands, Picks, Extra Junk and a big Plastic Box to cart it all around in, various suppliers-- $100-ish

Hearing, "You guys are awesome!" after playing in somebody's backyard in a driving rain-- PRICELESS.

Anyone in a young band who can afford a hundred grand in gear, and does, is in it for the wrong reason, and will fade away quickly. Drop a nickel in a glass of milk... the money lays on the bottom, but the cream rises to the top. ------->JMS

[iceman01]

i iceman and the opposition did not play due to the fact i was laying on the ramp trying to get mr mignion and mr heiss to fight for their lives after they were wrongfully shot outside of the uva i am very sorry to mickey and everyone else involved in the eosj we will definetly make it up to whomever it need be but i could not come and put on a fake smile after watching a man die in my arms and sitting in the police station all of sat night sun morning once again i speak for all of the opposition when i say sorry for the no show and we hope there is something we can do to make it up............................. rip mr mignion ,mr rickabaugh and mr heiss my deepest condolences go out to your families and i will be at every part of the trial to make sure that bastard fries................. the iceman cometh

[Banned]

I wasn't at the benefit, unfortunately, so I won't condemn anyone without knowing everything first hand----

HOWEVER, I will say that I played synths in a popular Johnstown band and my one board, a Yamaha EX5, got caught in a downpour before it was cased up. The same board also got wet in its case from a leaky door in the band truck. It also got infested with aphids from doing an outdoor show at some remote field we played. Our backlights drew every insect imaginable! Anyway, yes, I was concerned, but after each event--and the board functioned perfectly despite the crap---the board was opened up, cleaned, and I ran a fan near it overnite to dry it out. Still worked flawlessy.

Gear will take more abuse than you think. I don't abuse my stuff by any means, but the "stupid marks" we all try to avoid eventually show up no matter how careful you are with stuff.

I would have still played the show with my stuff.

I then sold my rig and got new stuff--a Roland Fantom X7, a Roland V-Synth, Yamaha Motif Rack ES, 2 Esi4000 samplers, a Korg MS2000R, a Roland JP8080, Akai midi patch bay, Behringer DI, Behringer line mixer, and Anvil cases to go with it all.

Yeah, I spent tons of money, BUT-----I spend 10 bucks on four huge plastic tarps that I carried with me at all times just in case.

I would have taken this stuff outdoors too!! I've since sold it all and bought one hell of a bass rig and I would take that outside too!!

It goes back to the thread from BadDaze Rob about cancelling and being professional and using common courtesy AND common sense. If we ALL do it and use it, then hopefully we ALL will benefit and get the respect we so well deserve!

I'd rather play a benefit under roof in a full downpour and be watching everyone running for cover than sitting in my living room wondering when and where my next gig is going to be which might end up happening for those bands in question.

As was stated before, people talk.
Be pro.

$100,000 in gear? Did that include an MT4 system powered by numerous Macro-Tech amps and a truck with a lift-gate? Zoinks!!!!

[bassist_25]

The bottom line is that you have to trust the reliability of your equipment. Any piece of gear is susceptable to breaking down, but some gear has better reputations than others when it comes to reliability issues. You could probaly throw a Peavy guitar amp down ten flights of stairs and it would still work fine. Guys have tossed Fenders across rooms and picked them up to find them still perfectly in tune. I normally don't put much stock in "endorsements", but when an artist does endorse a piece of gear, it does make me a little more easy-minded about that piece of gear's relability. That artist has to use that piece of equipment almost every night. If I were a touring artist or working for a major production company, you'd better believe I'd be kicking that piece of gear to the curb if it were giving me reliability problems. Most pro-level gear is designed to be used by pros! That means handling climate changes, smoke, moisture, vibrations (especially vibrations), and drunk dancers. Gear companies don't need focus groups to see if musicians want reliable gear; it's a no-brainer!

I don't tell people to go buy pricey gear just for the sake of having pricey gear. But one thing I don't believe in is running shitty power amps. The component driving your rig/PA has to be high quality. It's the piece of gear that probaly takes the most abuse (even more than the speakers), so it needs to be able to withstand night after night of gigging. When building my rig, I had a lot of opportunities to buy high-wattage and low cost generic power amps. There's nothing wrong with buying generic anything, because generic doesn't always = low quality, but I had to think for a while. Other than my basses, the power amp was going to have to be the component in the rig that couldn't let me down. I couldn't trust having a no-name power amp sitting in my rack. Cheap power amps usually have serious realibility problems, clip easily, and have a tendency to overheat and shut off. I decided that it was worth it to spend a few extra dollars and get something that I knew I could trust. I checked the used market and found a great QSC (Thanks Todd!!!!).

Didn't mean to go off on a tangent there, but I sometimes have a tendency to do that.

[Banned]

I'll agree with you, bassist_25. I was told years ago that if you have a good crossover and good power amps (which are expensive, unfortunately), you've won over half the battle when putting together a PA or whatever.

I bought a lot of high end gear because I was able to afford it. I always treated my purchases as if it were the last thing I would ever buy so it better be top of the line.

You should buy the best gear you can afford. If you've got 500 bucks to spend on something, then get the best thing you can for the 500.

My point was that with all my overblown, oversized and expensive stuff, I would have still done the gig at ESJ under those specific conditions. I bought it to USE and I trust it, so in the situation that was described, I would have rocked on.

[paul]

It is very simple and still comes down to this: 2 BANDS FULL OF PUSSIES

[lonewolf]

I'll agree with you, bassist_25. I was told years ago that if you have a good crossover and good power amps (which are expensive, unfortunately), you've won over half the battle when putting together a PA or whatever.

OT...Actually, great speakers will sound great with a cheap amplifier, but a top of the line amp won't make cheap speakers sound good. The biggest impact on a PA is where the air hits the diaphragm...mics and speakers. Everything in between is just a parade of electrons and the fewer components you put there, the better.

[Ron]

...Actually, great speakers will sound great with a cheap amplifier, but a top of the line amp won't make cheap speakers sound good. The biggest impact on a PA is where the air hits the diaphram...mics and speakers. Everthing in between is just a parade of electrons and the fewer components you put there, the better.

Word. Whatever the initial budget is for a PA system, at least 50% should go to speakers and mics. It seems to me that too many people spend too large of a percentage of their budget on outboard processing.

Now that I think of it, I've never seen a complete failure of a PA power amp during a show in the 20 years since I turned 21. I've seen many speakers fail though (I actually saw a Sunn cabinet burst into flames once). Even the cheapest power amps today have pretty good protection circuitry.

[YankeeRose]

15th Annual End of Summer Jam...the rain stopped as we arrived, Generation Gap was still rockin' on...when I'd heard about Ninetail and Stuck in KAOS (I'm not in a band, so I can name names, hee, hee, hee!), that they actually drove three FREAKING hours and then didn't play??? The lame excuse made no sense to me...except for what someone else said, maybe the crowd was too small for their large egos. PFFFFFT!

[bassist_25]

Even the cheapest power amps today have pretty good protection circuitry.

But there's still going to be a major difference between those cheap ass Pyle amps sold on ebay under the moniker of "DJ amps" and a pro-level amp like a Crown, QSC, Carvin, Yamaha, ect.

[nakedtwister]

Just noticed that one of the afore mentioned bands removed all of their negative feedback from their web site. If ya can't take the heat......... Well you all know the rest!!!!!!!!!!