Bad Monkey saves the gig AGAIN

Keefy

Last night I played a wedding gig on bass. The guitarist uses a rack Kemper and wireless unit into a Laney powered cab, Once set up he found he was getting a terrible buzz which got worse the higher the gain. After swapping guitars and leads and eliminating the wireless unit it became apparent that the problem was with the Kemper picking up either RF or mains-borne interference. We tried switching off different lights but to no avail.

I carry a Digitech Bad Monkey in my kit in case a guitar amp goes down, although I’d never had occasion to use it like that until last night. It’s basically a Tube Screamer with an added bass control but it also has an extra output socket marked ‘Mixer’ which features speaker simulation. The guitarist ended up playing the gig just on the Bad Monkey straight into the PA.

Gig saved!

stickyfiddle

Nice one. It's always important to have a "plan B" option as a quick plan just in case any rig goes down (DI bass, swap an acoustic for an electric, etc). 

Something like the BM is great for that

TimmyO

Blimey - Kemper to Bad Monkey - must have been a bit stressy - Pre-gig snafus used really throw me 

Keefy

Ironically we set up in record time after hanging around for ages (usual wedding delays) and then hit this problem.

In this pic you can see the unused Kemper and floorboard to the right, and between them the heroic little BM. The guitarist checked his Kemper when he got home and it was fine!

ICBM

Is the Kemper always that close to the laptop?

I've also always carried a 'last ditch' backup pedal - something small and preferably battery-powered that can be run into any available amp (guitar, bass, keyboard, whatever) or the PA will get you through even if the sound is less than ideal. It's quite surprising that if you keep the distortion low and turn the filter up full, a Rat actually sounds tolerable DI'd into the PA with a bit of EQ tweaking.

Keefy

ICBM said:

Is the Kemper always that close to the laptop?

…

We tried the Kemper further away from the rack but it was no different, and it’s not previously been an issue.

Greatape

I did a wedding gig in a marquee a few years ago. Power was insufficient to run my Vive amp but happily, had the worst amp in the world aka line 6 Spider 15 in the car. Slapped a 57 in front and off we went.

ElectricXII

Threads like this mean I will continually to drag two heavy valve combos to every gig.

Keefy

ElectricXII said:

Threads like this mean I will continually to drag two heavy valve combos to every gig.

I just drag one heavy valve combo and the Bad Monkey!

roberty

I have an amoon american sound in my bag of leads for this reason. No idea if it works though, I should test it one day

CaseOfAce

Useful get out of jail pedal is the Bad Monkey - had one - didn't like the tone suck...but that line out / cab sim is incredibly useful.

oh - and my immediate reaction on seeing that pic above is...yuck ...tiled floors... ouch.
I'd be in for a rough night - harsh sound / reverb immediately turned to 0 on amp ... 

and weddings...relying solely on a Kemper... blimey - does he like to live dangerously...? 

Neilybob

stickyfiddle said:

Nice one. It's always important to have a "plan B" option as a quick plan just in case any rig goes down (DI bass, swap an acoustic for an electric, etc). 

Something like the BM is great for that

Who is that guy that always says "remember there is no plan B" at the end of his videos?

Send him this thread

Keefy

CaseOfAce said:

Useful get out of jail pedal is the Bad Monkey - had one - didn't like the tone suck...but that line out / cab sim is incredibly useful.

oh - and my immediate reaction on seeing that pic above is...yuck ...tiled floors... ouch.
I'd be in for a rough night - harsh sound / reverb immediately turned to 0 on amp ... 

and weddings...relying solely on a Kemper... blimey - does he like to live dangerously...? 

When it was on my main 'board I had it in a true-bypass loop, otherwise the bypassed sound was just somehow less than it should be.

The tile floor wasn't a problem as the guests were up for dancing all night and did a great job of soaking up reflected sound.

I think the guitarist is going to bring a cheaper multi-fx (with amp modelling) to future gigs as a spare!

ICBM

Keefy said:

When it was on my main 'board I had it in a true-bypass loop, otherwise the bypassed sound was just somehow less than it should be.

Typical emitter-follower buffered bypass. The loss of gain is very slight, and in most cases/for most people/with most amps, it’s not noticeable, but with some combinations of those it can be.

Due to the well-known psycho-acoustic effect that a very slightly quieter sound sounds *worse* (tonally) rather than quieter, the two things together become “tone suck”.

Keefy

ICBM said:

Keefy said:

When it was on my main 'board I had it in a true-bypass loop, otherwise the bypassed sound was just somehow less than it should be.

Typical emitter-follower buffered bypass. The loss of gain is very slight, and in most cases/for most people/with most amps, it’s not noticeable, but with some combinations of those it can be.

Due to the well-known psycho-acoustic effect that a very slightly quieter sound sounds *worse* (tonally) rather than quieter, the two things together become “tone suck”.

Yep, that makes sense to me. Iirc the same has been said of Boss pedals although I only noticed it when there were 3 in a row.

mudslide73

I take my Mesa V Twin for this. I've only had to use it once. In that room it sounded better than the amp I was using at the time   (Fender HRD).

Voxman

So, it was a 'good' monkey then!  Great, simple get out of jail solution & glad it worked for you.

I'm too old to schlapp heavy amps around anymore,   and with all the new fangled bells & whistles gear around, and even though I like my little Pod Go, I'm still sticking with my Vox Tonelab SE & LE for gigging. Both still sound great, and dead easy to use and neither has ever let me down.  I also have a little Tonelab ST set for a few core sounds that is my 'get out of jail' pedal that will get me through a gig in an emergency, that I always take too.  

Axe_meister

Does the Kemper have a ground lift switch (easy to forget in the stress of setting up)

Danny1969

Were all the band on the same ring ? ... Sometimes a room can have some sockets on one circuit and others on another. Even though these are bussed together you still get small potential differences  in the earth which can  lead to this kind of thing. 

A failure of my Pod Go  is something that's on my mind all the time. A friend of mine in a Who tribute turned on his Helix for soundcheck one night at a theatre and it wouldn't boot up properly. Luckily he was only about 30 miles from home so was able to go back and get an amp. A lot of the time I am 60 to 250 miles from home so that's not an option for me. 
I carry an overdrive pedal and a little Korg amp works. Worse case scenario is I can do the gig with a basic clean and dirty sound and a lot of volume knob action. I certainly wouldn't go gig with no back up at all. When I'm working closer to home I have 2 amps in the van 

Keefy

Axe_meister said:

Does the Kemper have a ground lift switch (easy to forget in the stress of setting up)

Danny1969 said:

Were all the band on the same ring ? ... Sometimes a room can have some sockets on one circuit and others on another. Even though these are bussed together you still get small potential differences  in the earth which can  lead to this kind of thing. 

...

Yep, tried all those things.

hollywoodrox

I never knew the Bad Monkey had a cab sim out , learn something new