Scott Henderson Discussion

[dizzy]

Hey Scott

Today I was playing by myself at gig volume with my overdrive pedal on. When I do this it feels hard to play because I hear the attack of each note and I want to hold back. But then if I eq it to sound good by itself I think it would sound bad with a band. Do you ever experience this? Sometimes it feels like practicing quiet has a negative effect because I develop a technique that is different from the one that I would actually use at full volume in a club.
Do you have a way of dealing with this?

Thanks!

[Scott Henderson]

I've never had that experience - when I play loud at home, it sounds the same as when I play loud with the band. I might hear the attack of each note a bit louder when playing by myself, but it doesn't bother me because I pick pretty soft anyway.

What I have a hard time with is dealing with the volume itself. I play soft at home and never set up my live rig except to try out new gear, which is almost never. When I play the first gig of a tour it feels like bombs are going off around me - it takes me a few nights to get used to playing at that volume, even though I consider us a medium volume band. It's just a huge difference between that and what I'm used to hearing at home. Also, different rooms greatly affect the tone, and that's another thing I have to get used to. If the room is horribly loud and bright, forget it. I can't relax at that volume level and I don't play well if I can't relax.

I'm still amazed by club owners who are stupid enough to expect a good sound from a stage with a concrete floor and a 10 foot high concrete ceiling - believe it are not, there are many of those places all over the world. A 200 dollar investment in some carpet or acoustic material would totally fix it, but I guess that would be too easy.

[peter_heijnen]

I'm familiar with the 'problem'. I'm not regular gigging anymore and i don't play in bands that practice, so the 1st time after the last gig where i will hear my rig on normal volume again is at the new gig in another room. Also i can't play anymore without earbuds, so that makes it even harder to find a good reference.

Soundwise i don't get or have complaints (it all sounds muffled anyway with buds, you get used to it) but it's the volume that sometimes seems to get out of hand... how strange. But in that case i will immediatly be urged -most of the time by the basplayer- to take it down a little.