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Your secret weapon?


Filbert

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1 hour ago, Tman said:

Only pedal I use (if you can call it an official pedal) is a talk box.  I've been playing Rocky Mountain Way and Do You Feel for over 40 years.😃

 

Dammit. Hate talk boxes, have never had any luck with them.  I use a wah for them.  Sucks.

rct

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On 8/22/2019 at 12:13 PM, rct said:

 

Dammit. Hate talk boxes, have never had any luck with them.  I use a wah for them.  Sucks.

rct

The Wah - nice talk box replacement, never thought of that.

They are simple to use Rotator Cuff Tear. Pretend you’re burping the words and use a little gain which is on the talk box.

If I can do a shameless plug - Listen to Black Squirrel’s “The Girl is Fine”. Fun stuff.

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2 hours ago, Tman said:

The Wah - nice talk box replacement, never thought of that.

They are simple to use Rotator Cuff Tear. Pretend you’re burping the words and use a little gain which is on the talk box.

If I can do a shameless plug - Listen to Black Squirrel’s “The Girl is Fine”. Fun stuff.

 

Yeah, I've use a few of them, the old Heil from the 70's was about the best sounding one.  Modern ones haven't been so great, but I haven't fooled with one since 05 or so.

No shame there brother, that's is some Fine The Girl is Fine.

I get to do Rocky Mountain too much and Do You Feel not enough.  

rct

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My secret weapon is preparation and practice. 

Well prior to a gig, I do a lot of individual practice on the guitar, and I run thru every song that we might even perform on my guitar, the day prior to each full band practice. 
I play them all, using my pedal rig and the amps I intend to lug to that next gig. 
I play standing up to the mic, thru the music room PA. 
I sing as I play, no matter whether I have the lead or the harmonies on this song or that. 
Everything is set up precisely the way I plan to set it up on stage. 

I practice my pedal settings and transitions from rhythm to lead solo sections, and back. 
I run thru every single song we intend to play, or might even play, from beginning to end. 
I evaluate the chord/lyrics sheets, to make sure that every quirk and variation is red-inked and understandable on the music stand there. 


Then, when I get the band together for a full-on band practice, I am not the weak link. 
I'm ready, and I'm able to help everyone else out without fiddling and adjusting and correcting my own mistakes. 
As a band, we practice our timing, our transition from one song to the next, and we really practice our vocal harmonies so that they are fluid, instinctive, and beautiful. 
We mainly practice that old bar-band thing of "wait, how are we going to end this song exactly??"
Sometimes it's a slow-down to a sublime finish, and sometimes it's a hard-stop. 
But we all have to look each other in the eye, and vow to remember how each song will finish. 

In a lot of cases, with upbeat dance-oriented songs, we practice (and discuss) how we will stretch out any given song when the audience is really digging it, and when people are on the dance floor. (When a crowd is dancing, you naturally want to keep them on the dance floor, and enjoying the moment. This is how you get invited back to play more gigs there, again and again.)
In that vein, we practice the hip-pocket, danceable songs that we can instantly transition to on the fly, and play and sing without fiddling with the chord/lyric sheets.
Some songs you can play and sing in your sleep. 
You want to be able to roll right into those, one after the other. 

Oh, and after band practice, I clean up everything, and I wipe the guitars and basses down with Finger Ease and guitar polish. 
I fix any connections or bits of kit that might've malfunctioned during band practice. 
I throw out bad cables, and I repair what is repairable. 
May was well fix it now, and not wait until the day of the load-in and sound check. 

Okay, I'm gonna shut up now. 

😞

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1 hour ago, sparquelito said:

My secret weapon is preparation and practice. 


 

Sparky! 

if that really is a secret weapon,  then indeed that would be mine too..

Perhaps not to the minutia that you are working it, but I'm always as ready to go.  At times, as much as as I love those guys. I get a bit annoyed at band mates who I know have had the time, and have needed to SPEND the time,  but for what ever reason...  have not done their own homework.    So we wait while whom ever  plunks around trying to figure out what they should have shown up knowing cold.  Thing is,  I just let it go...  I don't complain about it.  I can see that they know they holding everything up.   That's usually a cure for the next time..

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, sparquelito said:

My secret weapon is preparation and practice. 

Well prior to a gig.............May as well fix it now, and not wait until the day of the load-in and sound check. 

Okay, I'm gonna shut up now. 

😞

 

 

One of your finest ever posts.

I do this too but not in so much detail. 

Very well said.

 

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4 hours ago, sparquelito said:

My secret weapon is preparation and practice...

 

Nice write SparkDude!  I agree with all of it.

Except I don't think of that as a secret weapon.  I think of it as a requirement. Like Kid, I'm ready to walk out the door right now to do whatever anyone wants to do in my admittedly small box of stuff.  Be good at what you do, it is it's own reward.

rct

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  • 1 month later...

I'm not really secret or weapon worthy, but I love my TC Spark Boost......I find it can do several simple things that are nice to have handy.  Slight boost for leads, it can be an "always on" to fatten things up a bit, can dial it in for quite a bit of grit and yet leave the original tone fairly un-molested.

NHTom

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