Learned a new lesson last night

Pilgrim · January 07, 2011, 09:59:30 AM

We had a nice gig last evening playing for a university function - but I learned a new lesson.

I was playing the new Gretsch hollowbody. The setup was such that we were in a corner of a ballroom, and in an alcove area set back a bit from the floor. my Amp was about a foot out from the wall, but there was also an alcove ceiling about 8' above the floor. I was standing almost directly in front of my amp. The floor and wall in back of the amp were both hard surfaces.

The result didn't show up in a quick sound check, but it did in performance. Every open E note I hit tried to bloom into a giant "Woof". I noticed it a bit with any note on the E, but it was worst with the open string. I had to be quick with the finger-muting and not try to sustain an open E.

Must have been a consequence of the amp placement, the acoustic bounce off the alcove, and playing a true hollowbody. It didn't create feedback, but I'm sure if we had been really loud it would have. Only the musicians and those who really knew our music could tell, but I checked and it definitely was audible to them.

So - I learned a little lesson about amp placement and standing in front of it, especially with a hollowbody. It wasn't a disaster, so I got off easy on that lesson.

Our guitarist plays Jack The Ripper with a hollowbody Gretsch, and he was right next to me. That number starts and ends with intentional feedback, but with the Twin Reverb he was using, he got considerably more than he expected. I ended up tweaking his amp volume down a notch for him during the number to mitigate the feedback.

rahock · January 07, 2011, 10:24:41 AM

Oh yeah, back in the olden days of playing 35-50 watt bass amps, some of which even had partially open backs, I would always look to setup in a corner or at least with a wall behind me. That was the only way I could maintain some bottom and get enough volume. Back when no one but local guys knew who Bob Seger was, his old bass player used to carry around a home made plywood "corner" reflector to put behind his Super Beatle bottom with an open back. He used to lay his bottom down on its side and set the reflector up behind the opening in the back. Remember the bass solo in the begining of Segers "Heavy Music"?. That reflector gave him a real nice low end.
Hollow bodies were still tricky and tended to work better in an open stage environment. The problem in not being able to use the corner was the loss of volume. Trying to use an ABG on stage can be pretty tricky too. It depends a lot on the amp you choose and the volume you play at, but the room itself can open up a whole lot issues

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Rick

uwe · January 07, 2011, 10:26:27 AM

There is a reason why hollowbodies and especially hollowbody basses went out of fashion as rigs enlarged. And why they haven't really returned since. Now you know!

Pilgrim · January 07, 2011, 11:00:55 AM

Quote from: uwe on January 07, 2011, 10:26:27 AM
There is a reason why hollowbodies and especially hollowbody basses went out of fashion as rigs enlarged. And why they haven't really returned since. Now you know!

Ah, yessssssss!

I can always learn from it and compensate with the right amp placement and instrument. It's one of those data points I'd never had the opportunity to gather.

The corner trick works great for stereo speakers, too - you can either augment or moderate the bass response with smart speaker placement.

Highlander · January 08, 2011, 09:41:53 AM

I used to do a great solo with my first bass (an EB2 copy) that got a lot of appreciation from my buddies - I used to call it "guitar-on-amp" - anyone could play...

Pilgrim · January 08, 2011, 09:45:06 AM

I think in most cases I can compensate for it, just as any hollowbody or acoustic guitar player would need to. It was a great reminder to consider the acoustics of the room when setting up.

The heck of it is, this kind of stuff is what I do - this kind of basic acoustic stuff is familiar territory. I guess I just had to have the classic "slap upside the head" in order to pay attention!

Highlander · January 08, 2011, 09:46:44 AM

The difficulty with all soundchecks is the empty/full scenario...

Pilgrim · January 08, 2011, 10:40:40 AM

Quote from: Kenny's 51st State on January 08, 2011, 09:46:44 AM
The difficulty with all soundchecks is the empty/full scenario...

True, although the most common issue I've run into is an apparent reduction in volume from the love bodies breaking up the bounce of the sound waves. In this case part of the problem was that we followed a program and had to set up early, so we were limited on time since they wanted to start. We would have done better to check the start of another number or two.

But of course, that NEVER happens to anyone else here, right??