Great giggin' weekend

garrett

...
Joined
Jul 27, 2012
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I had a couple of fun gigs this weekend, filling in for a good friend in a duo act.

Friday was in an alley behind a restaurant. Cool hangout place with a bar, patio, and deck. I grabbed the 594 for this one.

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Saturday was another outside gig, on a patio attached to a bar & grill. I brought the CU22.

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I enjoyed the opportunity to compare the two guitars in back-to-back gigs. My conclusion is I love the heck out of both! I modified the Custom to split coils with resistors like on the 594. Both guitars are equally versatile, yet still have their own vibes. PRS really is making their best guitars yet.

Anyone else have a good time playing this weekend?
 
Haven't gigged in too many weeks!
Glad you had a great time with both lovely axes.
Nicely done!

Thanks buddy! I know the feeling. My band activities dropped off late last year and I just haven't had the mental energy to join or start anything else. These were only my third and fourth gigs all year.

Nice! Sounds like a good weekend.

Dig that amp too. Have always liked the Blues Deluxe.

Thanks man. I bought that amp new in 1995. My first tube amp. Other amps have come and gone, and I've thought about selling it a few times, but it always sticks around. It's a solid performer and a great pedal platform. I installed a WGS Reaper HP speaker a couple years ago, which saved it from the chopping block and brought it up a level in performance.
 
Ohhh.... so it's behind an alley with all kinds of young people and fuzzy furniture all arranged in a circle huh.... yeah... HMMMMM :D
 
Right on, man!!!

Yeah, I had a nice show on Friday night. We played a local club, and since there weren't too many National shows happening, we had an okay sized crowd. I used my P22 live for the first time. We did an hour set (we're an original band) which was nice. It was a GREAT warm-up for the next couple of weeks...

We are doing a run of out-of-town dates (a mini-tour, if you will, lol). Friday night we're doing Tampa for our release party, shooting over to Satellite Beach on the East Coast Saturday night. Shooting back to Orlando (shady promoter - hopefully it won't get cancelled....her shows usually do), then home. Mid way through next week we're blasting down to Cape Coral, FL then up to Bradenton, over to Palm Bay, FL on the East Coast.....

I am thinking the SC250 will make this run. It's nice and solid.....

Gigging is a BLAST!!!!
 
Right on, man!!!

Yeah, I had a nice show on Friday night. We played a local club, and since there weren't too many National shows happening, we had an okay sized crowd. I used my P22 live for the first time. We did an hour set (we're an original band) which was nice. It was a GREAT warm-up for the next couple of weeks...

We are doing a run of out-of-town dates (a mini-tour, if you will, lol). Friday night we're doing Tampa for our release party, shooting over to Satellite Beach on the East Coast Saturday night. Shooting back to Orlando (shady promoter - hopefully it won't get cancelled....her shows usually do), then home. Mid way through next week we're blasting down to Cape Coral, FL then up to Bradenton, over to Palm Bay, FL on the East Coast.....

I am thinking the SC250 will make this run. It's nice and solid.....

Gigging is a BLAST!!!!

Cool, have fun! I find I'm never completely happy without a gig here and there.

I lived in Tampa for 6 years. I played a bunch of gigs at the old Brass Mug and a few at Masquerade in Ybor in the mid 2000's.
 
Hell Yeah!! The Mug is great - that's where we're playing Friday night, lol. Heather is awesome. Been doing shows over there since the mid 90s. They moved over close to Skipper's Smoke House. What was your band? We may have shared the stage....

Ybor is weird now. The Masquerade is long gone. Played there a few times - did a show with Sebastian Bach and Friends AGES ago, lol. The guitarist had angel wings. It was VERY strange....

Anyway, you have the Ritz and the Orpheum over there. Most of the smaller places closed up. Club 1509 is long gone...it's a shame, really.

St. Pete barely does shows at Janus anymore. You have the State Theatre, but it's "pay-to-play" and once you do it for a while you realize the cost isn't worth it. Some shows end up costing you as much as $30 for every 10 minutes you are on stage!!! Played some KILLER bills there, though - Smithereens, LA Guns, Kamelot....man, a ton of them!!

We tend to focus out of the area now - the business model in Tampa is counter-productive. It's pay-to-play for the big venues, or the small clubs charge a cover but with NO drink specials. On the East Coast, the don't charge a cover and run specials so the venues are PACKED all night - and it's a transient crowd, so you are getting a lot of exposure. The venues aren't as nice, BUT you have crowds....
 
Hell Yeah!! The Mug is great - that's where we're playing Friday night, lol. Heather is awesome. Been doing shows over there since the mid 90s. They moved over close to Skipper's Smoke House. What was your band? We may have shared the stage....

Ybor is weird now. The Masquerade is long gone. Played there a few times - did a show with Sebastian Bach and Friends AGES ago, lol. The guitarist had angel wings. It was VERY strange....

Anyway, you have the Ritz and the Orpheum over there. Most of the smaller places closed up. Club 1509 is long gone...it's a shame, really.

St. Pete barely does shows at Janus anymore. You have the State Theatre, but it's "pay-to-play" and once you do it for a while you realize the cost isn't worth it. Some shows end up costing you as much as $30 for every 10 minutes you are on stage!!! Played some KILLER bills there, though - Smithereens, LA Guns, Kamelot....man, a ton of them!!

We tend to focus out of the area now - the business model in Tampa is counter-productive. It's pay-to-play for the big venues, or the small clubs charge a cover but with NO drink specials. On the East Coast, the don't charge a cover and run specials so the venues are PACKED all night - and it's a transient crowd, so you are getting a lot of exposure. The venues aren't as nice, BUT you have crowds....

I was in a band called Awesome. We usually would share the bill with The Golden Vanity and/or Select Start. I remember the one time we headlined Masquerade, we had to buy tickets from them and then promote and sell tix ourselves. We never made much money doing shows. I used to joke that it COST me money to be in that band, LOL.

A lot of places in ATL are scaling back to duos or trios. Others are purposefully capping the price they'll pay a band to where it's not feasible to have a 4-5 piece group. These are for 2-4 hours of playing mostly covers with some originals sprinkled in. Decent originals gigs are few and far between.
 
Cool - the name is not familiar. I have always been entrenched in the metal scene, even though I don't play metal (go figure).

Yeah, that situation you described for the Masquerade is the typical deal for the State, Ritz and Orpheum. It stinks. We tend to avoid those places now unless we get to do a big show - and they have "hipper" (kids that haven't figured it out yet, lol) bands. No loss, because like you said a lot of those shows COST us to do them...it loses the "fun" once you realize the dollar to minute ratio!!

Anyway, glad you had a good time and hopefully you grab some others here and there!!! There is something about it...once you start gigging you tend to miss it something fierce when it dries up!!!
 
On Wednesday I got offered another couple gigs for Friday and Saturday, so that means another great giggin' weekend!

Friday: full band, yay! Been too long since I've done that. Rocking out at a big Mexican restaurant and bar. The Custom was fantastic. The 85/15 bridge pickup cut through great in the band mix.

Q3ZE8Ac.jpg



Back to the duo on Saturday, playing a patio at this hip, upscale seafood joint.

I swear I didn't plan this. My band mate pointed out that my shoes matched my guitar. :D

I5dTMMB.jpg
 
On Wednesday I got offered another couple gigs for Friday and Saturday, so that means another great giggin' weekend!

Friday: full band, yay! Been too long since I've done that. Rocking out at a big Mexican restaurant and bar. The Custom was fantastic. The 85/15 bridge pickup cut through great in the band mix.

Q3ZE8Ac.jpg



Back to the duo on Saturday, playing a patio at this hip, upscale seafood joint.

I swear I didn't plan this. My band mate pointed out that my shoes matched my guitar. :D

I5dTMMB.jpg

Hell yes! I love a good pair of shoes!
 
...Mid way through next week we're blasting down to Cape Coral, FL...
Isn't the average age there 78? ;) My dad lives there and we saw a couple killer acts at the outside venue at his condo complex (which is huge) last year. Tons of people, all covers, and the guitarist was sporting a 50w Marshall w/ a single 1960a...at full volume. It was glorious but there was a 50' radius around his rig where people didn't stand in fear of physical impairment. :D Most people walking in front of him clearly had their hearing aids turned down.

Last gig was 2 weeks ago and the DGT and the RL Vela rocked pretty darned hard. Next one is a private party next weekend and we can turn way up! Won't be good for the tinnitus, for sure.
 
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HAHAHAHA, yeah Cape Coral has some old folks for sure!! It was very surprising the first time we travelled down there for a gig. I was expecting it to be LAME, but quite the contrary - it was a really nice sized crowd. People came in and out all night and we never had a lull where it seemed we drove people out. We head down there every 3 months or so and do a show. It's always great and a lot of fun! Here's a tune from when we were down in March....

 
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Isn't the average age there 78? ;) My dad lives there and we saw a couple killer acts at the outside venue at his condo complex (which is huge) last year. Tons of people, all covers, and the guitarist was sporting a 50w Marshall w/ a single 1960a...at full volume. It was glorious but there was a 50' radius around his rig where people didn't stand in fear of physical impairment. :D Most people walking in front of him clearly had their hearing aids turned down.

Last gig was 2 weeks ago and the DGT and the RL Vela rocked pretty darned hard. Next one is a private party next weekend and we can turn way up! Won't be good for the tinnitus, for sure.

Ugh, I hate when guys don't scale their rig. I saw Anders Osborne at a club here in ATL and his Marshal half stack was so loud, it was giving me a headache even with my -15dB filters in. Just CRAZY loud to the point where I had to leave.

HAHAHAHA, yeah Cape Coral has some old folks for sure!! It was very surprising the first time we travelled down there for a gig. I was expecting it to be LAME, but quite the contrary - it was a really nice sized crowd. People came in and out all night and we never had a lull where it seemed we drove people out. We head down there every 3 months or so and do a show. It's always great and a lot of fun! Here's a tune from when we were down in March....


Even with the bad sound quality, I can tell the tone of that guitar is crushin' it!

Yeah you got a lot of old people down there, but you also have the younger folks in service industries or those who haven't escaped yet!
 
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