The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[RAGER]

What do you have to trade?

Treble boosters? auto wah? Delay? Jamman stereo?

You have a bit commander?  I have 1979 MXR micro amp.

[Omlet]

I like my new bass guitar. And I feel like I don't know shit about playing a bass, especially with finger-picking. I suck at it but still it's very enjoyable.

[liquidsmoke]

Bass is fun for sure. I've found that I can play faster using a pick and in fact possibly faster than I can play a guitar probably because the strings are thicker and spaced wider.

[mortlock]

whats the difference between fuzz, overdrive and distortion..

[liquidsmoke]

It's all distortion. Check out some youtube videos of real 'fuzz' pedals, the Tube Screamer, and any pedals called distortion pedals and you'll get a feel for the differences.

[spookstrickland]

whats the difference between fuzz, overdrive and distortion..

Overdrive is pretty much your signal just a little louder and compressed.  Used to be done by hitting a tube amp with a loud signal booster like the ehx LPB

Distortion is when you keep adding gain or volume to the signal it starts to clip

Fuzz is when you are in pure square wave territory and it's "wooly" and fat sounding.


Note:  the preceding was not scientific and was really dumbed down and generalizing but it will give a noobie and idea what to look or listen for.

[liquidsmoke]

Any of you have experience offering up your cabs as the back line for lots of bands to use at small fest type shows?

[mortlock]

id never do it.. unless you ran a club or venue where it was necessary. if its something small time..id never lend out my personal equipment for it..

[liquidsmoke]

It's for a 2 stage small fest type gig. We go on first with 4 more bands after on that stage. They are hoping one of the bands will allow their cabs to be used as a back line to speed up transitions. My cabs are nice/new. Thinking spilled beer and the possibility of people not understanding ohms although I don't know if that could damage speakers at all.

[Danny G]

If you offer cabs it might be a good idea to stay close to the stage to answer questions/offer suggestions

[spookstrickland]

Don't do unless you are prepared for you stuff to be damaged, not saying it will happen but when you have a bunch of people using your stuff, generally a couple will be douches that do not care if it blows up or not.  I loaned one of my cabs to an out of town band at a show, and told them, that this thing was old and the speakers were getting weak so don't crank you head up much past half volume, he said ok then proceeded to Dime it for the whole set! fucker! 

On the other hand when I've borrowed gear I won't even make knob adjustments I just let the owner set it up and play it and I'm sure there are plenty others like me but it only takes one dick to blow your speakers up!

[RacerX]

No. Just no.

[jibberish]

apply this mindset:  "I will loan these and they WILL end up fucked up in some way by the time I get them back and that is 100% OK with me"

now you are ready to let the others borrow your gear items. bonus if they end up ok.

[VOLVO)))]

I've borrowed gear a bunch. Actually, "My" SVT and 810 were loaners. The owner came out and saw my band, and afterwards he was like "fuck dude! How do you get it to sound like that?! Pedals?"

Preamp/master both at 5. He told me he never took it passed two on the master. I absolutely flogged that amp,  much boost up front... Sansamp into the front end, SCOD slamming the sansamp.

That being said, I loan my shit out already fucked up. Everybody has a nice car but the mechanic, right? Same with techs.

[liquidsmoke]

Sounds like a band with 4 4x12s and an 8x10 is offering. Not having to bring my cabs will be awesome as long as they get there early enough.

[mortlock]

its equipment suicide. youre throwing your shit to the lions..

[liquidsmoke]

I might bring our practice space drum set to share. If everyone brings their own cymbals I'm not too worried about it, it's a pretty tough set.

[Danny G]

Bookings for Ocean of Stars are starting to trickle in. This is encouraging.

[Corey Y]

I saw Down and Orange Goblin in Sacramento last night. Both sounded great and put on a good show. I did miss Bl'ast! though, which was a huge bummer as I've never seen them live and I've liked them since I was a teenager.

[jibberish]

hey danny, was your road tour story about guitar meltdown in east Egypt iowa when you were out with the mother truckers?
I still am super bummed I couldn't go out that night. especially if that is a story from that tour.

[Danny G]

Ha! Not naming names This was somewhere in W Virginia

[Corey Y]

How do you all feel about playing in a band JUST to play music? I'm not talking about paying gigs for hire, I mean someone offers you a spot in a band that you don't hate, but wouldn't be what you go looking for. I've jammed with this band a couple times, they responded to a Craigslist ad with essentially "I know this isn't what you said you're looking for, but we need a bassist". It's a death metal band and I listen to and enjoy death metal, but it's not really what I want to be playing (obviously, what forum are we on?). It's also an hour drive each way to go practice with them and the rent on their practice space is super high (unjustifiably, it's a slum). Lots of reasons for me to turn it down, the only real reason to keep with it is the people are nice and it's playing music regularly. I've been trying to start a band from scratch all year and had no luck, well actively very BAD luck actually. If I had not gone through so many rejections and flakes over the last year, I wouldn't consider it for a minute. I have a secure practice space 5 minutes from my house and gear enough for a whole band, but can't get anyone to show up and stick with it.

What do you all think? Is playing with a band just to play a bad motivation or worth it just to get back in the game and keep playing? I haven't played a gig since October of 2011 and I've been actively pursuing starting or joining a band this whole year.

[jibberish]

it's your priorities and your values chief.   if you can justify it to yourself, do it. if not, keep looking.

[Corey Y]

After talking extensively about both issues, my buddy told me that my social interactions with trying to find a band reminds him of exactly what he's going through entering the dating world after his sudden divorce (after being in a relationship for almost 14 years). Lots of debating over whether I'm being too eager, knowing I should wait for the right thing to come along, but feeling a bit desperate and looking for validation, fearing the right one might never come along and my standards are too high lol. I couldn't argue with that assessment, I'm considering a lot of options that I wouldn't have if I was just suddenly starting to look for a band and hadn't had so many misadventures over the past year.

[Lumpy]

If it prevents you from working on 'your' music I would say no. If it doesn't, then I would say yes to a 6 month or one year commitment to try it (maybe they are great people to work with, etcetera). Another possibility... An "I'll work on your project if you'll work on my project" arrangement. If you already have the songs and just need musicians to fulfill the roles...