The rig consisted of 4-T48x30x3015LF V-Plated, 4-OTopDual12’s with DeltaPro’s (4 12’s per side) 4 Wedghorns. A good sized tractor trailer foldout stage, and generator power. Some interesting things occurred.
Providing sound and playing in the band is always a recipe for problems on bigger shows. I do it all the time for bar gigs but this was a different animal. I got the system set up, V-Plated the subs on the right side (closest to my van), set up two monitors for my guitar player and drummer and used the other two as side fills (which sounded great). I get everyone dialed in except my bass. There was a gentleman from Florida who had built some BF cabs and was helping me with the sound being the ears out front. Thank you who ever you were, sorry I didn’t get your name or have time to chat. Nice guy and kept giving the thumbs up through the performance.
So I send my drummer out front to check my bass through the mains. I’m using two Jack12’s on stage and an old GK800RB and a direct box. I start playing and he gives me the signal for a little more, I push the fader up but I’m confused that I don’t see any visual evidence of a signal on the board when I PFL. Whatever, I’m rushed, it’s time to start and he says, OK that’s good. Let me hear the two of you together so the guitar player and I jam a little and he says GREAT! Sounds HUGE!
We start playing, everything sounds great on stage, my girl out front is saying the same, and we’re kickin’ butt. Three quarters into the second song, Pride and Joy, the entire PA and backline goes out. I check the spider box from the generator and three breakers blew at once. Never saw that before. I turn all the amps off, plug into some different outlets around the box, reset the breakers, turn the amps back on, yell to my girlfriend to turn the sub amp back on (sitting on top of the V-Plate) and we’re off and running again.
Now about 12 songs later, I’m standing on the edge of the stage kinda listing for the subs and I’m thinking, they don’t sound like they’re on. I yell to my girlfriend to check and she pokes her head in and says “I can’t tell.” Now I know they’re not on because there’s no mistakin’ standing in front when they’re on. So the current song ends, I run off stage and sure enough she didn’t turn the amp back on. “I couldn’t reach it” she says. You’d think she’d remember that when I asked if they were on. Fired it up, back on stage and its huge again.
Now we’re about a half hour left to play of the two and half total and I’m looking at the direct box on top of my amp and something doesn’t look right. What is it, hmmm, oh crap I’m plugged directly into my amp instead of the direct box first. I havne’t been going through the PA this entire time! Talk about wanting to scream. Now this is a true testament to the Jack12 for bass. Two of them could be heard just fine out front, amazing.
So I quickly plug into the direct box and into the next tune. Hmm, seems my bass isn’t as loud on stage. Gotta wait till the end of the tune, dangit. The cord coming out of the DI has an angle plug and it was covering up the pad selector switch. I move it over and sure enough I’m at -12dB. Set it back to zero and it’s all huge again.
Then the breaker on the sub amp goes out one more time. My girl resets it and I think for the last 2 tunes I actually had full PA.
If it wasn’t for the enormous amount of compliments on the sound I would have been pissed but overall it was a great show and everyone loved it.
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