Last night saw a (mic-ed up) club band playing a busy club.
Solid bass and drums section with lady singer and the more than capable guitarist was using a reliced telecaster, deluxe reverb and instagram board ( ££££ - but all I heard was clean, crunch and boost for solos - bit of phaser he was using but definitely heard the wah on occasion).
Why go to all that trouble and expense and stay on the neck pickup of the tele for most of the set. Out front could not hear him - he was completely eaten up in the mix by the bass and drums driving the band.
3rd guitarist this week I've seen doing this.
As soon as he switched to his bridge...oh ..there you are...
...she's got Dickie Davies eyes...
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High frequencies lose their energy quicker over distance than low frequencies so in some venues you need to have things overly bright at the front to avoid a sea of mud further down the room.
Walking away from that gig thinking the problem is neck pickups doesn't seem like the right lesson to me.
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The amount of money onstage at club gigs these days is totally crazy. Back in my day, people either had Valvestates or the Fender Stage amps, and on the floor you’d occasionally see a RAT or a Guvnor. But then I suppose everyone was strumming open chords and singing like Liam Gallagher.
I proudly have an Instagram pedal board - but two of the pedals never get used unless there is a problem with my amp.
I have a 3 channel dirt pedal, with cab sim enabled line out and with that I also have a klon type boost . I have had two gigs in my now long giging history, where the amp has borked during the set. The pedals are my life line, but I hope the 2 people at the front never hear them.
Then depending on the set, I may / may not need Tremolo or chorus.
Otherwise, mixing is an art - too many sound engineers are not actually that good at it and not enough musicians pay it enough attention.
I'm also a huge fan of a cerebral approach to a lot of things that a lot of bands pay zero attention to.
- Mixing as @Teetonetal says is crucial, and arrangement feeds into that - you almost never want 2 people playing or singing the same thing unless it's a conscious choice
- Setlist and song choice - picking songs that actually fit together well, flatter the band's strengths, go down well with a crowd AND putting them in an order that works both practically and also for the flow of the set in terms of vibe and energy.
- And noting that every moment you're on stage is part of the performance (whether you like it or not!). Moments between songs, not noodling, moving quickly between songs, even just a tiny bit of planning who might turn around when to give cues and interactions between band members, etc etc.
It's remarkable how few bands do any of this and it makes a massive difference.
The band I am currently in, is a 10 piece party band.
We really don't rehearse the songs, we can all play them.
What we do spend a lot of time rehearsing is the changes between songs. We often play blocks of songs that either run into each other, or only have a pause for the count in ... The nearer the end of the set, the more songs we string together. Once people are drunk and dancing, they will keep going unless you stick a massive 5 min pause in whilst the guitarist noodles rock riff A - at which point they all bugger off to the bar and you have to rebuild.
Whenever an instrument change is required, it is planned for the singer to speak and the text is always planned.
It's pretty slick and I think elevates the band. As mentioned by @Musicwolf at this point we are entertainers, not musicians, and our "show" needs to be as entertaining as possible. 5 min gaps for wondering what comes next is not (often) entertaining....
My duo partner and I did a gig in a tiny pub yesterday.
backing track went through a powered monitor and we both used Marshall AS50 amps which vocals guitar and keys went through. I stuck a Behringer tube amp modeller in line to give me a nice “wasp in a jar” lead sound on which there were no complaints made.(I was playing a squire strat through £30 legato wireless plugs.
At one point my korg micro Xl keyboard fell on the floor!
folks were dancing on the tables …
we are almost in the “variety “ game these days.
nb not all gigs are like this !
Like this...
As opposed to a bunch of stuff on a board with little planing, like this... (genuinely one of my old ones - it worked very well!)
Now, sound people will get upset at this and for the reason for doing so, which is that at am. or semi pro level, most sound people are incompetent.
If there are monitors often what comes out of the monitor isn't what's coming out of foh.
To give some balance most band's are too loud. In my band we did a year practicing at home at crazy low volumes. So when we use a rehearsal room it really isn't loud. But it's louder than when we started,so it's a joy to play 'loud'. I often ask people to turn up.
The art is to set a stage sound where everyone is happy. Angle the speakers at your head away from others and make sure your mix is just that. Bassists and drummers often want those two in the stage mix with a little lead vocal. I played bass in a band and the cellist complained I was too loud, I replied that I wasn't the rocket scientist who put the cello 2ft in front of my 200w valve stack.
Once the stage mix is balanced the guitarist stops scooping the minds and turns down the 100w stack, the sound person can reinforce the sound eq out treble or bass from some instruments and get on with the job of looking bored.
Having a front person with a bit of charisma will get you further than having a front person who can sing great but no charisma.
Equally the rest of the band having great energy will get you further than having a band of more talented musicians who are boring or have bad energy.
Could be summed up as you don't have to be great because no one knows anyway. Turn up, have fun and remember that you are there to entertain people and not satisfy your own ego.