Bedroom to band scenario

DrJazzTap

I had my first proper practice with some guys from my old band on Saturday. It's very early days, but we are looking to make music again. I haven't been in a practice room in nearly 10 years. I had become the bedroom hobbyist (nothing wrong with that) 

For me I realised that as great as the dgt is, it's just not quite for me. I can't knock the tuning stability, but the pretty top and the expense of the thing. Personally I would be better off bringing a strat with me. I brought far too many effects pedals. And as great as the rivera amp is, I just need a decent clean channel. Thinking things over atm, but it's confirmed that I do need to downsize. Ideally a small princeton, smaller pedal board (five pedals max) and a strat would do me. 

Funkfingers

Do you already have a Stratocaster type guitar or are you looking to buy something?

The price of a new MIM or pre-owned MIA Fender ought to land you a PRS SE guitar. This should have a sufficiently familiar feel to deputise for the DGT without anxiety over scratches, beer spills or its monetary worth.

stickyfiddle

DrJazzTap said:

I had my first proper practice with some guys from my old band on Saturday. It's very early days, but we are looking to make music again. I haven't been in a practice room in nearly 10 years. I had become the bedroom hobbyist (nothing wrong with that) 

For me I realised that as great as the dgt is, it's just not quite for me. I can't knock the tuning stability, but the pretty top and the expense of the thing. Personally I would be better off bringing a strat with me. I brought far too many effects pedals. And as great as the rivera amp is, I just need a decent clean channel. Thinking things over atm, but it's confirmed that I do need to downsize. Ideally a small princeton, smaller pedal board (five pedals max) and a strat would do me. 

This is what always happens when you get in a band (if you're not U2, at least). You have a much more focussed job to do and just want tools to get that done as well as possible. Usually that's quite a different selection (and amount!) of gear than when just playing at home.

brooom

It's great how quickly things change in a band setting and even more in a live setting. It's great that you realise it, many people don't.

DrJazzTap

Funkfingers said:

Do you already have a Stratocaster type guitar or are you looking to buy something?

The price of a new MIM or pre-owned MIA Fender ought to land you a PRS SE guitar. This should have a sufficiently familiar feel to deputise for the DGT without anxiety over scratches, beer spills or its monetary worth.

I do have two stratocaster guitars. I just found for 90% of the time i was using the coil tapped sounds on the DGT. I did purposely buy a dgt with a few scratches on so I'm not too fussed with the odd scratch. It's just when you think "£1300 guitar or a nice amp and a strat" .
I have a lovely strat with a solid rosewood neck and i have no real reservations using that. It's the tuning stability I can't knock on the prs. It has got me thinking about a suhr or one of those Ibanez az guitars. It's weird you pine for something for so long, you get it and after a while it's just "meh".

DrJazzTap

stickyfiddle said:

DrJazzTap said:

I had my first proper practice with some guys from my old band on Saturday. It's very early days, but we are looking to make music again. I haven't been in a practice room in nearly 10 years. I had become the bedroom hobbyist (nothing wrong with that) 

For me I realised that as great as the dgt is, it's just not quite for me. I can't knock the tuning stability, but the pretty top and the expense of the thing. Personally I would be better off bringing a strat with me. I brought far too many effects pedals. And as great as the rivera amp is, I just need a decent clean channel. Thinking things over atm, but it's confirmed that I do need to downsize. Ideally a small princeton, smaller pedal board (five pedals max) and a strat would do me. 

This is what always happens when you get in a band (if you're not U2, at least). You have a much more focussed job to do and just want tools to get that done as well as possible. Usually that's quite a different selection (and amount!) of gear than when just playing at home.

Absolutely, you don't think it's overkill in your bedroom. To clarify I brought with me 

DGT, Pedal board (not huge about two foot by 14 inches) and the rivera 2x12 with the four or five button footswitch. Pedals included whammy, compressor, flanges, chorus, two overdrive pedals, delay, a looper pedl and a true bypass looper for the guitar pedals (five separate loops, overdrive pedals into one loop).

 I think for the band i would need - fuzz, chorus, delay, a whammy, a volume pedal and a wah pedal (maybe an auto wah as well). Losing the flange and overdrive pedals. 

The DGT does sound nice, in honesty I feel a prat playing a guitar with a blingy top and birds. 

musteatbrain

Nobody in the audience will notice it or care about a blingy top.

Voxman

Playing in a band is very different to playing at home, in all sorts of ways.  

Firstly, you need a rig thats the right balance of simplicity, versatility, fast tweakability and good tone at volume.  The KISS principal ...keep it stupidly simple...is for most folk the best way to go.

Most of the fine nuances we think are so important at home go completely out the window  when you're in a band mix. You need punch and clarity and fewer tones than you think.  Controlling gain and clean using the guitar volume is a vital tool.  

The type of music you play will determine whether you just need an amp with a decent clean, reverb, and crunch/gain channel, or external fx.  And if you have a PA you don't even need an amp, just fx through the main board.

For FX, you need a simple stomp pedal board or a (largely) knobs based mfx eg Boss ME50/70/80 or (in my case) an original Vox Tonelab SE or LE. These can be set like a regular fx on/off pedal board or you can save patches.  A menu driven mfx isn't what you want because at a gig, time is crucial and you need fast tweak-ability. Hence you need knobs to tweak quickly, and even at band practice constantly tweaking and mucking about with menus etc will quickly piss off your band mates. Personally, I like patch-naming with a clear display - as who the heck can remember 120 odd memory slots! 

Guitar wise at most you only need two guitars...a h/b and single coil e.g. LP and a Strat,  or SG and a Telecaster etc. The problem here is guitar changing at band practice and at gigs when you have to order your songs for fewer guitar changes.  So a better option is a single guitar that easily switches between humbucker and single coil tones. I have 3 guitars that do that (a PRS Cu24, a Yamaha Pacifica 611VFM - both have trems - and my latest acquisition, a hardtail Patrick Eggle Berlin Pro ) so I can bring another 'all-rounder' as a backup if needed.  

All the nuances of exact LP tones, Strat tones, subtle differences in reverb delay, distortion, modulation etc go out the window. In a band mix at volume no one in the audience will know or care about the sonic differences.   Add in a decent fast access tuner either on your pedal board, in your mfx, or a clip on, and you're done. Add a wah if you really need it, and a global volume pedal can be handy too.  

My gig rig nowadays is typically my Tonelab SE straight through the PA and my PRS. If its a house party or a more relaxed gig then maybe my LP or SG and  Tele or Strat. And other than taking a backup if I go with the PRS, that's about it.