played my first gig with the Jr.

Hoss

Hoss

Joyfulnoiseologist
so anyways, i lead praise & worship for our youth group on Sunday nights at church and i usually either just sing or play the bass or occasionally the acoustic....until last sunday night!

a little history...
i'm a complete hack, got started playing guitar pretty late in life and haven't had/taken the time to practice enough to have progressed enough over the past couple of years! i really and truly would still consider my self a noobie with an electric guitar! now i'll "cowboy" chord the heck out of my acoustic with anybody...lol...but for some stupid reason the electric guitar intimidates me quite a bit? (go figure, a guy who hangs out here this much who's about to turn 32 years old :smack: )

when i do play my schecter "petey" at home i usually screw around with the VERY few licks i can play and then pump out a few power chords and then proceed to do everything i can to get my guitar/amp/pedal tweaked into making it sound the most like an acoustic guitar as i can.......WHAT AN IDIOT!:smack: :yell: :smack:

so a week ago the guy who normally plays guitar in the band told me that he really felt more comfortable playing the bass and he wanted me to play the electric guitar...(GULP) so i said sure no problem (yeah right) and i said i'd get a couple of songs together for Sunday night (which was an uber important night for us as the new guy who's going to be the youth pastor would be making his first visit as well as the head pastor and senior church members were going to be there also to hear him speak and some other people who used to play in the band before i started going there to church...double GULP)

i didn't really sweat it to much during the week, thinking i'd play my acoustic or play my electric just like my acoustic :smack: :fingersx: :smack:...so i sit down on sunday afternoon to decide on a couple songs and i pick out "Lifesong by Casting Crowns" and "On Fire by Switchfoot" and start working them out....tweaking my stuff to get the best "acoustic" sound i could muster when it just hit me.........YOU ARE AN IDIOT AND A COWARD! LOL!!!

so i told myself to grow a pair and just do it...i mean how hard could it be to pony up and play the songs like they're supposed to be played (it's not like they're dream theatre songs or zappa...duh!)

cont'd
 
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Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

so i did it..i even broke out my old Digi RP-1! i ran Petey into my Tri-Od, set the tweed channel to something pretty clean with just a pinch of dirt and my Calif channel a couple notches higher (for a good boost) and saturated it pretty good...i then patched it into my RP-1 and found a "chorusverb" setting that sounded awesome on both channels and then tweaked my Jr. to taste!

verb - off (got my verb from the rp-1)
master - around 5
mid - around 4
bass - 7 1/2
treb - 8
vol - 8
fat switch - engaged...lol

anyways, to make a REALLY long story short (sort of...lol)

I ACTUALLY ROCKED THE HIZZY FER SHIZZY!!!

it sounded better than i could have hoped for (although at that volume it flubbed just a bit in the lows, but hey i'm picky like ya'll...maybe time for a speaker change :fingersx: )in practice and even better than that during the actual performance...my gear really came through for me and my playing suprised me more than anyone else and i got TONS of comments on my tone and playing!!! i also probably had one of my best vocals that i've had in awhile too...everything really came together and it all just felt really "right"...i got lost in the songs (in a good way) and just focused on the words and my emotions and feelings leaked right through my playing and singing!!!

here's the catcher...the guy who used to play guitar (who really plays good)is going to come back and play with us now and.......drum roll........he wants me to play guitar too :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: ...which may not be a big deal to you guys (i already know y'all rock!!!) but NO ONE has ever wanted me to play guitar with them...i have ALWAYS played bass or just sang...i'm excited beyond words!!!

i know this whole post seems pretty petty and even juvenile coming from me...but i had to share!

later,
mike
 
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Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

glad to read it friend
you deserve to enjoy yourself as much as anyone
just do your thing and keep pushing yourself and letting it work through you, yunno?

cheers
t4d
 
Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

good job chief! man I had that same problem with the flabby low end until I changed tubes in mine, maybe time for a tube change? You may have already done that and this is a moot point, but something to think about :)
 
Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

i don't think tubes were the problem...they're only a couple months old (jj "high gain" set from euro), it could probably have stood some more fine tuning/tweaking and i could have probably mic'd it and got away with less overall amp volume and brought it up in the overall mix better...next time baby:fingersx:

don't get me wrong though, it still sounded great, but i'm my own WORST critic by a long shot...i've wanted to try a different speaker in it anyways...and then of course i start to g.a.s. for a Blues Deluxe in the back of my mind...:smack:
 
Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

lol. I had a Fender Princeton Reverb II for a while. The Rivera designed models are freakin great amps and I find myself truly regretting ever getting rid of it. I can't even remember what I got rid of it for but no matter what it was, it wasn't worth it and I should have just held onto it :) I didn't undersatnd the beauty of low wattage amps back then.

I had to work with that EQ and not do what I normally like to do and put the treble on 9, bass at 8, and mids at 6 or 7...I start with everything straight up at 5, and typically they don't stray far from there....I find the most musical and useable range on those tone controls between 4-7 :) don't know if that helps either! :) Good luck man, and great job! I also used to lead praise and worship and that's the reason I started playing guitar. A buddy of mine used to lead and he wanted someone to play rhythm behind him. I did that for years and then I saw SRV on Austin City Limits, and it was over, I had to play the electric guitar and play it MEAN :)
 
Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

Glad to hear the good news Hoss. I like hearing about good things happening to good people. This seems like one of those occasions when it happens.

Congrats. You put yourself out there and it paid off.
 
Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

I'm glad it went so well for you! Playing live is going to have a big positive impact on your playing and confidence with the instrument, too. You'll see.

Rock on, man. :D
 
Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

thanks again fellas!!! i really wanted this thread to just be kind of a testimony that it's never to late to learn and it's unbelievably cool to have faced a challenge head on and beat it! i'm still kind of in shock that i played and sang with my electric guitar in front of that many people (i'd say around 70 or 80), switching channels during the song, and all that, and i actually managed to pull it off...i'm just so used to wussing out and playing my cowboy chords on my tak as simply as possible or playing the bass (real low), or just singing and not playing anything...lol (i've sang and played my tak in front of larger crowds and in coffee houses/bars etc....but that's easy...it's just simple strumming and i've never been afraid to "sing" in front of anybody)

i'm soooo looking forward to next week already, and i know they all won't be this good (i'm bound to crash and burn sooner or later...i'm not that good :27: ), but i also know that i can actually do it if i try!!!

like my dad always used to tell me......"Can't never did anything!"
 
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Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

Hoss said:
...blah blah blah... self depricating stuff... blah blah blah
Click to expand...
Hoss, however much of a hack you think you are, there's a lot of people that are a lot worse, and a lot more willing to spout off. You say you've picked up guitar "late in life" and you're a "hack." Dude, I'm a hack and I've been playing for 25 or so years. Realize you're playing, you're playing what you want, and realize that behind everything that you enjoy it.
 
Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

you're right man...like i said, i've always been my worst critic and i'm not going to let my fears of "screwing up royally" stop me from honestly getting better, cuz that's what it was doing!
 
Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

Hoss said:
you're right man...like i said, i've always been my worst critic and i'm not going to let my fears of "screwing up royally" stop me from honestly getting better, cuz that's what it was doing!
Click to expand...
If you screw up? So what? If you make an azz out of yourself? So what?

I go through this with my fiancee. She plays a little guitar and a little bass. She's got a band together with some friends. They went from not knowing how to play to playing at one of the girl's wedding. She won't play in front of me if she can help it. She says that she doesn't want to embarass herself. It's actually really frustrating to hear her talk like that.

It's healthy to have some stage fright or even self doubt. Too much will destroy you.
 
Re: played my first gig with the Jr.

Hoss, that's so cool!

BTW "late in life" - I started playing in 2001 and am 47 now. You do the math...

Chip
 
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