Re: bad night, or: instruments

[KB305@aol.com]

These things have happened to me too.  At a gig not long ago, I couldn't 
get a sound out of my rig.  Nada.  

So I plugged my Klein into the PA, and though it sounded just OK, I had no 
effects, and no loop.

A bad cord interrupted my signal path somewhere, and since my EDP and 
effects are between my pre- and power amps, I could have simply unplugged 
the rack and played straight through the amp.  I was too frustrated to 
investigate this fully at that moment.

That day, we stuck to playing and less to textures, sound, etc.  Since we 
play jazz, this was not a big handicap.  Many standards will not benefit 
from a loop.

Sometimes on jazz gigs, I just take a guitar and an amp -- if I'm just a 
sideman, or for a pickup band, or something simple.  It reminds me that I 
have to play my guitar, not the knobs.

All the things we use to play music become instruments.  All of them have 
to be about as reliable as we can afford, otherwise we risk system 
failure.  System failure means possibly no sound at all... or it could 
mean that we have to play a different version of our music -- the 
unplugged, or unlooped, or un MIDIed version.

I have a really good guitar, as breakdown-proof as I could imagine.  I 
have others too.

Most of us can only afford consumer-grade effects and devices, and ALL of 
these are instruments or tools for us, including cables.  I can't swing a 
studio-grade reverb just now.

I saw a webpage showing Fripp's rack, and was amazed that in his mega-buck 
signal path, with four Eventides (I think), he used a Digitech Whammy, 
which is about $125 new.  Isn't that like putting cheap tires on your new 
'Vette?  Couldn't he find something better that did that job?  Isn't your 
signal path only as good as the weakest link?  

But it doesn't always work like that.  We use what we can afford.

k