First Gig Tomorrow!!eek!!!!

[The_Fender_Bender]

Ok, for my college assignment, we must play a gig. We've been put in with other people on the course, and have been rehearsing for about 2 months now. Were playin in a 300 people venue, but its being "cut in half". So a pretty big venue, even if thousands of people don't turn up. Whats worse is we only get about a 5-10 minute sound check!!!!!!
This will be my first ever gig, any hints, suggestions?
I put this here because I'm a bassist, and I didn't know where to put this thread

Cheers:thumb:

[rik]

Cool man, i've got to do the exact same thing in a couple of weeks with my college. Just relax, if you know the songs well enough you should be fine. You'll also find once you get on stage you'll probably lose any nerves you had before hand.

[lemoley]

relax and have as much fun as humanly possible :thumb:

[The_Fender_Bender]

Also, I was playing on the colleges Laney amps, with my Fender MIM bass, but i couldn't find the thick tone I wanted. I do have the strings the bass came with on there, (it's quite a new bass) would a string change thicken up the tone? At the moment It sounds very "plonkey" if you get what I mean

[kilian]

Yes, a string change would really alter the tone. Factory strings aren't uhm.. the best.

Thomastik Infeld Superalloys are smooth and growly strings I use right now. You can get them and restring your bass. I pretty much like them!

I always have something with my bass just before a gig, so that's ok ;) Really check your intonation after you've restrung it.

[The_Fender_Bender]

Yeh I Intend to, we're going to town to get some strings, sexy new straps, accessories and suits (Suits = guitarist/singers idea) so I'll look for em. I just want a thick undertone, one which beefs up the sound not a clicky sort of sound. are 66's any good for that or would they have to be thicker? What gauge would you recommend?

[kilian]

Just the normal gauge is good. .105. If you get a thicker gauge, you will also increase the tension etc.

I thought that the TI's were smooth right out of the box. And I also HATE clangy/clicky strings. Also look if your strings don't hit the fretboard if you play, that can also give you a clangy sound.

If you go for other 'cheap' strings, then you will also get a clangy sound.. Well that's my experience. Nickel will sound warmer and less clangy then steel. Play a good hour with the strings before the gig, because otherwise they will still detune a lot.

A few extra tips:
Let your bass stay close with the stage, so it can get to the room temperature. If you take it from the changing room (tuned) on the stage, it will detune because of the temperature. Let it warm up, bend very strong and tune the bass again. Then bend again and tune again. That should be good enough to survive a gig :thumb:

[The_Fender_Bender]

****
Ok thanks I'll keep ALL of that in mind haha. Theres not much i can do about the strings hitting the frets, I've noticed the bridge is a bit low, so when I restring I'm guna raise it a bit. We're rehearsing before the set up and before we get to the venue, so it should be ok. Anything I can do on the amp to make it sound really warm thick and smooth? Any settings or anything?

[kilian]

What kind of music do you play? There is this little thing if you are going for 'your own tone', you might drown in the overall bandmix.

Warm and smooth: boost the bass a bit, the mids a bit and cut down on your tone knob. What kind of bass do you have? J or P?

[The_Fender_Bender]

That is a very good point. Hard Rock, not heavy metal, but hard rock. I play a MIM J-Bass. I found it to be more tonally versatile, I only have to switch off the neck pick up and I have a P bass almost. And the neck is just to die for! Which tone nob? On the bass I presume?

[kilian]

Yes, on the bass.

When you play hard rock.. you will easily be thrown to the back in mix if you use a big fat tone. I play poprock (point and laugh ;)) and I was looking for the same tone as you with my jazz bass. Backed off the tone and solo the neck pickup.

But really watch out that you can cut through the mix. I would advise you to play it like this:

Fully open your neck pickup volume, close it just a little bit so you will notice a little bit of difference. Fully open your bridge pickup volume, fully close your tone and open it up a little bit until you notice that your tone can 'breath' a little bit more (it gets some more treble, just that little bit).

Then boost the bass a bit, boost the mids a bit and you will have a growly, but still full and fat tone. And for me: it always cuts through :thumb:

Also try to play more towards the neck (more boomy/bass tone) or more towards the bridge (more aggressive/growling tone).

I play like uhm.. *makes picture*
http://members.lycos.nl/tigerarmy/thumbrest.jpg
With my thumb on the thumbrest and then above the bridgepickup :smoke:

[bassistuvdoom731]

You shouldnt have any problems, ussually when you play live adrenaline and starts to pump and your nervousness melts away. It feels really good.

Plus the adrenaline makes you somewhat more accurate and fluid in your playing. Alot of people are at their best playing live.

[The_Fender_Bender]

OK Then,
I noticed if I turned down the bridge pickup it sounded vaguely like a P bass, becasue that almost what the P bass has. I change playing positions through the songs (check me haha) depending if the song goes softer, quieter louder or what ever. I was talking to one of the guitarist and he said it sounded fine, but I kept cringing when I got that annoying really trebly clicky tone.
Basically I just want to eliminate that.

Oh and thanks bassistofdoom, that really helps. Not being sarcy it really does!!
I'm nervous, but at the same time really excited :D Can't wait, not long now

[kilian]

^^You'll be fine! Update us on the strings (if you're going to buy them) and the gig tomorrow :D

I'll be going to bed right now, everybody here will help you out :smoke:

[The_Fender_Bender]

Will do, look out for a thread either tomorrow or friday (we're all of to the pub or bar as you call it afterwards, like real rock n roll students haha so we might not be back untill late)

[moghes69]

just in case you don't get new strings, or if they don't help. if you don't dig in and don't pick really agressively it will cut back on the clicking, and if you mess around with picking at different angles you will most likely find one that will help reduce it.