Hello infinitely wise GMC community!
I have a few questions I need addressed and I know this is the place for it.
So I'm in two bands; one is a progressive rock kinda band and one is a 'metal' band.
The prog rock band is a keyboardist, bassist/singer, drummer, and me. We practice at a rehearsal studio - I play through an un-miced JCM900 with a 1960a slant 4x12 cab. This band over all is going very well, generally we go into the studio, the bassist/singer brings in chord charts and we blast through songs. The one issue I have with them is they're always playing in keys I'm unaccustomed to jamming in. Like C# or Bb, as far as chords are concerned I'm fine but when we get into solos I feel like a beginner guitarist again, I'm sticking to like three boxes of the pentatonic and that's it! Then the bassist likes switching time signatures so we're going from like 4/4 to 6/8, then on the 6/8 part he's like "Do a solo!"... I get all messed up because of the weird timing.
Whenever I'm practicing I always find myself in Em, Gm, Am. I don't understand why that is... I mean, when I'm home, calm, relaxed, warmed up - I can play in just about any key I want...but there is something about when I'm playing with the band I really wimp out and just play what I know will sound decent. Then when we go into different time signatures everything is out the window, I'm in like single box pentatonic, just praying I stay in key and follow the progression with single notes hahaha.
Also any suggestions on getting SCREAMING sustain for solos through a Marshall head? Pedal suggestions? Settings? Anything would be helpful
Ok, now onto the metal band.
This band I've been trying to get off the ground for like 4 months now, we finally just started to rehearse regularly. It took us like 3 months to get through a single song that I wrote. We can finally get through a song but I must say we sound absolutely putrid. The other guitarist turns his amp up WAYYYYYY too high all the time. I mean like, ear meltingly loud. I wear ear plugs when I play with this band, my ears are STILL ringing after practice even with the ear plugs. We rehearse in a very small studio in a basement. I have a Mesa F-50 and he has a B52 all tube head through a 4x12 cab with a Digitech multieffects unit. I always tell him to turn down but it's pretty futile.His tone is always crushingggggg mine. He's got a digitech RP500 I think, one of those multieffect units, I must say it sounds awesome but I can't seem to compete with his sound. I can't get that metal thumping, crushing, pounding tone outta my pod... I got a Gibson Les Paul standard into my PodXT, or directly into a Mesa F-50.
Any suggestions on how to cut down the volume while remaining the same volume as the extremely freakin' loud drums? Any suggestions on how to cut through the other guitarist? I really feel like we just play wayyyy too loud.
Lots of questions here, please help me
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fatb0t Few Questions Regarding Being In A Band... Jan 22 2009, 05:05 PM
