Not a successful band practice

Unusually we had a rehearsal last night, a Thursday evening. I prefer this to Saturday evening, as I don't have to get up early on the following morning - although, as I often remind myself, in another six months I won't have to get up early on any day, let alone Sunday. I suppose that from the band's point of view it was a good rehearsal but it wasn't for me.

The 'fx pedal to end all pedals¹' issues a fair amount of noise so in order to combat this, I set the noise gate to a level that let loud guitar through but not hiss. This caused the guitar to sound rather 'chunky' and lacking dynamics. Thinking about this on the way home, I realised that all the presets that I defined start with compression; maybe it would be better to create some presets with no compression and see what these sound like.

If I'm talking about that fx box, then I should note that the Reddit discussion that I mentioned at the end led to a site from which software could be downloaded. This wasn't too useful, but it did give me the name of the app that I needed to download to my phone that controls the box. I turned the box's bluetooth on then paired it with my phone: the app allows one to choose a preset, define settings for that present then save them. Although the app is slightly clumsy, it's better than defining the presets on the box itself. Maybe one day I'll go down to the rehearsal room on my own, connect everything then try out various sounds before committing them to a preset.

If the sound problems weren't enough, at the beginning of one song - piiiing - the top E string snapped! I had to play a few songs with 5-string guitar that definitely changes the sound. Only the bass player noticed. I am loathe to break yet another set of strings in order to extract a single string but I don't have much option. As it happens, I was at the music shop in Bet Shemesh a few days ago when I asked the owner to put the high G string on my 12 string guitar; the string had snapped shortly after adding it². I should ask whether he has spare single strings for sale. 

Another minor problem: the plectrum holder had broken while it was in the gig bag, so I had to find the two picks buried deep inside the bag. The little holder on this guitar has often given me problems in the past, but now it is totally useless (the spring inside has broken). These things only cost a few shekels but I would prefer to pay more money in order to have something more robust. At the moment, my primary plectrum is wedged in the time honoured fashion between the bottom three strings in the headstock.

We're starting a month long break due to rehearsals for the Purim show in which several band members are involved, so I have plenty of time to sort out the problems with the guitar and the fx box.

Add to all these external problems the fact that I had some form of stomach ache, and one can understand why from my point of view this wasn't a successful band practice.

Internal links
[1] 2072
[2] 2042

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