I brought my homebrew 18Watt to the blues jam. I wanted to give it and its new Jenkins 2x10 cab (w/Weber Blue Pups) a workout. I also brought down a pedal board with a tuner, Carl Martin Hot Boost & Drive II, Carl Martin Trem-o-Vibe, and a Holy Grail reverb. I use the CM B&D just lightly for fattening leads with Teles, some Strats, or Danos, otherwise it stays off.
Anyway, the amp sounded great. My guitar sounded great. The guy up after me sounded great. Basically, just straight into the amp..a great offset to the lead player's Tele Vibroking. Excellent...dynamic...everybody's raving.
Then, the next guy gets up. He hasn't heard the amp yet. He strums one chord, turns the amp down a bit, and immediately starts fiddling with the overdrive...kicks in both the drive AND the boost...twists some more knobs, and is apparently in heavy compressed saturation bliss for the rest of his stint....dull lifeless undynamic tone.
Then, the next guy gets up. He turns the amp back up up but he also starts fiddling with the overdrive. He spent half his stint on stage hunched over the pedal board as he played. He did end up with a great sourthern rock tone but because it was so compressed he didn't cut well compared to Vibroking and you got the sense that he was fighting to be heard
Finally, the next guy gets up, cuts off all the effects except the reverb, turns the amp up and sounds great.
I guess what got to me was this...if that boost/drive pedal hadn't been there, these two guys would probably have turned the amp up just a wee bit and sounded great. However, because that pedal was there, they had to stomp on it and the true character of the amp never got a chance to shine through.
Oh well...I guess in the grand scheme of things, it's not that big a deal...
Why don't they give the amp a chance?
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PhatTele
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Psalm150
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In my opinion,
I think folks are used to sucky amps that need a pedal to help the sound out. It's just a given for them. Most folks do not have the experience of playing such a toneful amp.
What seems to bother me is that a lot o players don't use their ears to dial in a good sound. One time we were at a jam and this guy was complaining that his rig was too bright/thin. So my buddy goes over and starts fiddling with his amp eq, turning down the treble, pumping up the mids, just thickening it up. The guy flips out and says "that's great! I love it! What did you do?" He goes over to his amp to check it out and says, "oh, no this is all wrong" And puts all the knobs back to the straight up position-back to the thin crappy tone. The dufus would rather have the knobs in some specific place than a good sound.
You can lead a horse to water...
Then we had to endure his painful tone the rest of the night!
I think folks are used to sucky amps that need a pedal to help the sound out. It's just a given for them. Most folks do not have the experience of playing such a toneful amp.
What seems to bother me is that a lot o players don't use their ears to dial in a good sound. One time we were at a jam and this guy was complaining that his rig was too bright/thin. So my buddy goes over and starts fiddling with his amp eq, turning down the treble, pumping up the mids, just thickening it up. The guy flips out and says "that's great! I love it! What did you do?" He goes over to his amp to check it out and says, "oh, no this is all wrong" And puts all the knobs back to the straight up position-back to the thin crappy tone. The dufus would rather have the knobs in some specific place than a good sound.
You can lead a horse to water...
Then we had to endure his painful tone the rest of the night!
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MarkB
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PhatTele
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That's absolutely true and I've thought about that too. Also, at the jam, it's the heat of the moment, you plug in, and you want to make sure you sound good. For a lot of folks, that comfort zone includes a lot of different pedals. In my case, it includes reverb and a tuner (hence the pedal board). However, for a lot of other folks it means some grit or edge which they've only ever experienced through pedals. So, I guess I can't blame them for stompin'
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caseylutton
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I have run hundreds of blues jams over the last 12 years. I used to bring a BF Super and a cable, but I had so many guys look at me with that blank stare and ask, "can I get some distortion?" So to appease the masses, I now bring a stomp box tuner, compressor and tubescreamer. It's easy to use or not use as the player chooses. If you're ever in Nashville, come see me.
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MarkB
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caseylutton
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fierce_carrot
I've been going to blues jams for many years and the clubs in my town have some unwritten rules. You bring your OWN guitar, your OWN effects, and YOUR own amp.
If you don't bring your own guitar, you don't play unless you can convince someone to loan one to you, which isn't going to happen unless they know you pretty well.
The stuff on stage isn't their amp or their effects, so you play with what YOU bring, or you play whats onstage at the settings the owner has them at.
People get one warning with this and the 2nd time they violate it means that they probably aren't going to be invited up onstage.
My amp, effects and guitar are MY tone and I feel much better when playing when I am in my comfort zone. I really like the idea of people bringing out their equipment as they usually play much better than if they can't find their own tone. Its also a great way to show your peers your new equipment.
Most clubs in town that sponsor jams have stages big enuff to accomodate a number of small amps. You setup quickly, you play, you tear down quickly and the next person steps up and does their process. It also forces musicians who do attend to pay attention to their rig and make sure that it can be setup and torn down quickly and still work!
If you don't bring your own guitar, you don't play unless you can convince someone to loan one to you, which isn't going to happen unless they know you pretty well.
The stuff on stage isn't their amp or their effects, so you play with what YOU bring, or you play whats onstage at the settings the owner has them at.
People get one warning with this and the 2nd time they violate it means that they probably aren't going to be invited up onstage.
My amp, effects and guitar are MY tone and I feel much better when playing when I am in my comfort zone. I really like the idea of people bringing out their equipment as they usually play much better than if they can't find their own tone. Its also a great way to show your peers your new equipment.
Most clubs in town that sponsor jams have stages big enuff to accomodate a number of small amps. You setup quickly, you play, you tear down quickly and the next person steps up and does their process. It also forces musicians who do attend to pay attention to their rig and make sure that it can be setup and torn down quickly and still work!
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