Seven Words That Fill Me With Terror: "There's a backline, bring only your guitar."

[toomanycats]

So yeah, I've got a gig scheduled for Saturday . . . well, two actually, the first is at 6 PM and the other is at another venue with another performer at 8 PM. So busy night.

This first gig is a big blowout at a local watering hole that's going out of business after many years. Lots of local bands are going to be playing. I've been informed that there is going to be a backline of amps already set up and that I only need to bring my guitar. Singers of course are being told to bring their own mics, because of the virus, which is understandable.

But this "don't bring your amp" thing is causing me an alarming level of anxiety. I mean, I'd like to think I can play through anything and get a halfway decent tone. I always loved that quote from Ted Nugent in the VH1 reality series Supergroup in which he says, "I could plug my guitar into a diseased goats ass and get a good tone." For sure, great words of wisdom to live by, and to try to live up to the spirt of . . . but can I?

I'm really nervous guys. What if it's an 80s Gorilla? Or a old solid state Peavey? And I don't mean a Bandit, but one of those older ones that only the country playing dudes used to use. Oy vey!

[Spike]

I can understand (sort of) that they probably think that it will move acts off and on the stage quicker but in reality, I would assume most players will be bringing a pedal board (if they are the pedal kind). It would probably take me less than 5 minutes to get my amp/board off the stage but it's probably meant for the guys that think they need to bring a full 100 watt Marshall stack for an 800 sq. ft. gig.

[toomanycats]

I can understand (sort of) that they probably think that it will move acts off and on the stage quicker but in reality, I would assume most players will be bringing a pedal board (if they are the pedal kind). It would probably take me less than 5 minutes to get my amp/board off the stage but it's probably meant for the guys that think they need to bring a full 100 watt Marshall stack for an 800 sq. ft. gig.

I agree, it's probably some well intentioned reason like that.

However, I'm seriously thinking about bringing my Peavey Mini Colossal. It's 5 watts, all tube, basically a Fender Champ with an XLR out. I know it screams on "10" and backing off the guitars volume knob gives me all the subtle shades of crunch, mild break up, and cleanish I need. All I'll need to do is hand the other end of the XLR cable to the sound man for him to plug into the board.

[slowhand84]

So yeah, I've got a gig scheduled for Saturday . . . well, two actually, the first is at 6 PM and the other is at another venue with another performer at 8 PM. So busy night.

This first gig is a big blowout at a local watering hole that's going out of business after many years. Lots of local bands are going to be playing. I've been informed that there is going to be a backline of amps already set up and that I only need to bring my guitar. Singers of course are being told to bring their own mics, because of the virus, which is understandable.

But this "don't bring your amp" thing is causing me an alarming level of anxiety. I mean, I'd like to think I can play through anything and get a halfway decent tone. I always loved that quote from Ted Nugent in the VH1 reality series Supergroup in which he says, "I could plug my guitar into a diseased goats ass and get a good tone." For sure, great words of wisdom to live by, and to try to live up to the spirt of . . . but can I?

I'm really nervous guys. What if it's an 80s Gorilla? Or a old solid state Peavey? And I don't mean a Bandit, but one of those older ones that only the country playing dudes used to use. Oy vey!

To be fair, Ted pretty much IS a diseased goat's ass at this point. But yeah I've heard you play man, you're going to be just fine . I've actually never brought my amp to gigs but only recorded with it (mostly out of fear, since it's close to irreplaceble) and things have always gone well. Can't speak for the place you're going to but I've never seen a venue that has live music rocking a $20 Gorilla amp, at worst it's usually some kinda solid state Fender deal. Even if it's a particularly bad amp, with a good guitar it'll sound decent enough to get through the gig unscathed.

[glasshand]

My two cents: Bring pedals you can get your sound with. Just use their amp to get a decent clean and use your pedals for everything else. That's the best you're going to do for adhering to the letter of their request if not the spirit.

Oh, and old solid state Peaveys are awesome. :^)

[toomanycats]

My two cents: Bring pedals you can get your sound with. Just use their amp to get a decent clean and use your pedals for everything else. That's the best you're going to do for adhering to the letter of their request if not the spirit.

Oh, and old solid state Peaveys are awesome. :^)

Sounds like a job for my Bogner Ecstasy Blue. It's the best "amp in a box" pedal I've ever used.

[tlarson58]

A few years ago I organized an event with six bands. I put together a solid backline that worked perfectly for the opening act (ours) and then crashed and burned because guys had to play their amp, use their snare, employ their wireless system, etc..

I became increasingly frustrated until I said "Screw it. Use whatever you want" and watched the domino effect of delays brought on from each band's set ups/break downs.

The venue was built in 1910 and still has "is this up to code?" wiring (which was a matter in-and-of itself). Thankfully, a sound man with knowledge of the old venue's power grid and soundboard kindly offered to take over and save the day.

My advice, after going through this as a promoter, is to bring your amp, take a look at what's there and then ask to plug yours in if what they provide is unacceptable. However, if the venue's wiring is old, just. plug. in. and make the best out of it.

- or bring a Joyo American Sound pedal and run into the board. I saw a respected local guitarist use one in a pinch. He sounded great so I bought one and use it once in awhile (in conjunction with a $30 reverb pedal) at practice if I don't want to bring my amp.

[mickey]

"There's a backline, bring only your guitar."

That is S.O.P. around Nashville.

Or worse, somebody hands you a guitar. I remember seeing Willie Nelson do a "walk on" in someone's show
and when he came on stage someone handed him a Les Paul.

[toomanycats]

"There's a backline, bring only your guitar."

That is S.O.P. around Nashville.

Or worse, somebody hands you a guitar. I remember seeing Willie Nelson do a "walk on" in someone's show
and when he came on stage someone handed him a Les Paul.

I'd assume that if you're showing up at a session in Nashville and told to only bring your guitar, then the producer and engineer are going to have excellent means of getting the tones they need. Likewise with any serious music venue that has a house backline and sound system. But this thing I'm doing is kinda cobbled together. I have no idea who is putting the gear together or what it will be.

I'm not the most demanding guy when it comes to gear either. I hardly use pedals at all. I get most of my tones through the guitar knobs (volume and tone), pickup selection, and my fingers. That being said, I need an amp that sounds, feels, and responds in a certain way to make my parts sound and come across correctly.

Here's a couple concrete examples: Mountian's "Mississippi Queen" and Gary Moore's "Still Got The Blues" are both in our set and I do those leads. Those tones have got to be saturated and sustaining, or it just ain't going to sound right at all. The lead guitar has to sing on those songs. If the notes don't bloom, stick, and sustain on those leads it'll sound like a singer with an anemic voice running out of breath.

If when I get there I see a Peavey Bandit or Classic 30, or a BOSS Katana, or a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, or even a Blackstar HT5 or Marshall Class 5, I'll know I'm good. Heck, if they had a Kemper or Axe FX running straight to the board I'd be totally happy. The frightening bad options are just to scary to contemplate.

[Gear_Junky]

However, I'm seriously thinking about bringing my Peavey Mini Colossal. It's 5 watts, all tube, basically a Fender Champ with an XLR out. I know it screams on "10" and backing off the guitars volume knob gives me all the subtle shades of crunch, mild break up, and cleanish I need. All I'll need to do is hand the other end of the XLR cable to the sound man for him to plug into the board.

Yes, just tell them that it's your "pedal"

I've experienced something like this once. I only ever played in a hobby band with friends and one time we played a room at a college one of the friends was attending. This was a properly set up "band" room with stage, lights, full console and maybe 50 seats (I doubt we had 20 in the audience). A group of students studying sound engineering or some such were in charge of sound. They tried to get us to plug in our guitars and bass via DI boxes directly into PA. Our guitar amps were solid state at the time but it was still a bad idea. This was my first time in such a setting but for some reason I had enough sense and enough assertiveness to insist that the guitar amp be mic-ed and I gave them the XLR out from my bass amp. It was a pretty nice show, fun for us

I hope it works out, man

[mickey]

"There's a backline, bring only your guitar."

That is S.O.P. around Nashville.

Or worse, somebody hands you a guitar. I remember seeing Willie Nelson do a "walk on" in someone's show
and when he came on stage someone handed him a Les Paul.

I'd assume that if you're showing up at a session in Nashville and told to only bring your guitar, then the producer and engineer are going to have excellent means of getting the tones they need. Likewise with any serious music venue that has a house backline and sound system. But this thing I'm doing is kinda cobbled together. I have no idea who is putting the gear together or what it will be.

I'm not the most demanding guy when it comes to gear either. I hardly use pedals at all. I get most of my tones through the guitar knobs (volume and tone), pickup selection, and my fingers. That being said, I need an amp that sounds, feels, and responds in a certain way to make my parts sound and come across correctly.

Here's a couple concrete examples: Mountian's "Mississippi Queen" and Gary Moore's "Still Got The Blues" are both in our set and I do those leads. Those tones have got to be saturated and sustaining, or it just ain't going to sound right at all. The lead guitar has to sing on those songs. If the notes don't bloom, stick, and sustain on those leads it'll sound like a singer with an anemic voice running out of breath.

If when I get there I see a Peavey Bandit or Classic 30, or a BOSS Katana, or a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, or even a Blackstar HT5 or Marshall Class 5, I'll know I'm good. Heck, if they had a Kemper or Axe FX running straight to the board I'd be totally happy. The frightening bad options are just to scary to contemplate.

Well, studios know what they want & clubs have live music 6 - 7 nights a week.
There certainly is a difference between something thrown together for the night
and something that is used 6 - 7 nights per week.

[nomadh]

It is such a risk. One time both guitars had to use backline AT THE FRIGGIN HOB and they didn't get it right. I brought a pedal board and went into a 50 w marshall head and I sounded glorious. But the other amp had problems all night. Killed my kids band and a few others with it cutting out mid song. Finally found it was the cable to the cab.
Twice I was completely tanked at open mics. One time a whacked out pedal board that had everything but a gain tone WTF? Another had a fender that at least had a gain channel but I get up there and it has no switch. Only works from a pedal button and it wasn't there. I asked if someone could help with that. Get me a pedal or plug into something else. There were 6 guys with amps there but no help. I stumble through leading some classic rock with another guitarist that doesn't actually know the groove to last dance w mary jane?!?!? I make more comments about if I cant get some help I got no way to go but rockabilly or jazz. So I left. I like the guys there but since then I decided instead of spending 4 hours getting 30 min to play with random people I grabbed the guys I wanted, set a time, preset some songs and get to play for 4 or 5 hours no waiting and sure as hell no putting up with the guy in the dress who sounds like elvis or the guy on acoustic who writes his own songs but doesn't really understand what a chorus or a bridge is. Or a 7th chord or a key or landing on a note vocally for that matter.
At minimum. Bring a pedalboard or at least a key pedal and have a small quick amp on standby near you. After all2/3 of the time its fine. Hows that for odds while in front of an audience

[Gear_Junky]

When there's absolutely no way out of this... I feel that the "better than nothing" approach is either one of the Tech 21 SansAmps (they have them for guitar and bass, I've owned them and they work) or the more affordable Behringer options, for guitar, bass, acoustic. Several reasons: they also work nicely with solid state amps, they can give you that little touch of tubiness to make things bearable. They have proper XLR outs and can double as just passive DI's, can be phantom powered from the console, cheaper than a decent mic. Focusing on GDI21, you can put overdrive/dist pedals in front of it. No, it won't make you sell your tube amps, but as a backup, last resort, it can be a lifesaver! I've had all three for years and to my ears they're as good as the Tech21 boxes.

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[andrewsrea]

I shared your concerns, when I was a 'guitar into the amp' guy. Especially in the 90's where I rigged volume pedals for the other guitarist and I to adjust our amp mic volume into the PA, for solos.

Backline amps are common and a great pedal board can make it tolerable, even with a crappy vanilla amp.

[nomadh]

When there's absolutely no way out of this... I feel that the "better than nothing" approach is either one of the Tech 21 SansAmps (they have them for guitar and bass, I've owned them and they work) or the more affordable Behringer options, for guitar, bass, acoustic. Several reasons: they also work nicely with solid state amps, they can give you that little touch of tubiness to make things bearable. They have proper XLR outs and can double as just passive DI's, can be phantom powered from the console, cheaper than a decent mic. Focusing on GDI21, you can put overdrive/dist pedals in front of it. No, it won't make you sell your tube amps, but as a backup, last resort, it can be a lifesaver! I've had all three for years and to my ears they're as good as the Tech21 boxes.

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These can certainly be useful but I don't think they really solve the problem in this case. As in: the only thing worse than a backline amp that you do at least have vol knob control is going direct into the pa where you have absolutely no control of your volume to you or the crowd and if you can hear yourself in any form. Even if you can pull it off you certainly won't like it if its off. And you won't have any idea if anyone else will like it until you're off stage.

[Gear_Junky]

I thought the fear was that the provided venue amps would be solid state and toneless... the sans-amps are great because they work going into a SS amp or DI. They are very underrated because it's hard to believe the tones you can get until you try. I'd be skeptical myself, but I've messed with them even before I got into tube amps.

[nomadh]

I thought the fear was that the provided venue amps would be solid state and toneless... the sans-amps are great because they work going into a SS amp or DI. They are very underrated because it's hard to believe the tones you can get until you try. I'd be skeptical myself, but I've messed with them even before I got into tube amps.

I'm sorry. I thought that was all for going direct I to the pa. I didnt think of how they could be run more like an effects pedal or another front end to your amp.

[Gear_Junky]

...I thought that was all for going direct I to the pa. I didnt think of how they could be run more like an effects pedal or another front end to your amp.

That is their sneaky nature. Even in reviews on YouTube I notice that some people only review them as a "distortion pedal", while others show them only as a DI amp sim (and they tend to just play with the knobs instead of reading the manual). These little boxes have a lot of potential in them!

[nomadh]

...I thought that was all for going direct I to the pa. I didnt think of how they could be run more like an effects pedal or another front end to your amp.

That is their sneaky nature. Even in reviews on YouTube I notice that some people only review them as a "distortion pedal", while others show them only as a DI amp sim (and they tend to just play with the knobs instead of reading the manual). These little boxes have a lot of potential in them!

Great! Another segment of the gear market I need to look into and gas over

[Gear_Junky]

The good news is: they are cheap and abundant.

[toomanycats]

I owe you guys an update after all this fuss.

The gig was yesterday at 4 PM. 45 minute set. I think every local band is playing there this weekend. You go on at the top of the hour, 15 minute changeover, then it's the next band. The main stage is outside, and acoustic type performers are playing on the stage inside. I played the main stage yesterday

Today I'll be back there at 3 PM to play inside as a duo with a friend of mine, doing material like Merle Haggard, Whiskey Myers, Tyler Childers, Charlie Daniels, that sort of thing. This style is not entirely outside of my box, though I've gotta admit I do find it harmonically limiting as compared to playing strict blues. You can't use the outside notes and dissonance anywhere near the degree that you can with the blues. So for this act I do lot's of chicken pickin, noodling in pentatonic major, double stops, and that whole bag of tricks.

Oh yeah . . . the amp. And it was . . . Drumroll please . . . rat a tat tat tat . . .

A vintage Fender Super Reverb 4X10!

It sounded glorious with my Bogner Ecstasy Blue in front of it. I've read that this is exactly how that pedal was designed to be used, in front of a Fender tube amp set clean. It is absolutely true. The sound man was cool as hell too. He's a guitar player and put me right up front in the mix.

I saw several different people shooting professional video and I'll post something as soon as I can track it down.

[toomanycats]

This is the band that directly followed us. The dude on the left side of the stage playing the brown Strat with the black pickguard is using same Fender Super Reverb I had just used. These guys are great guitar players.

[mickey]

This is the band that directly followed us. The dude on the left side of the stage playing the brown Strat with the black pickguard is using same Fender Super Reverb I had just used. These guys are great guitar players.

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[Gear_Junky]

Congrats and too bad you couldn't use the Behringer

[tlarson58]

I gotta ask 'cause it's the times we live in:

Do you have any thoughts on social distancing or masks? None of either in the vid.