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Had one of THOSE nights.. :(

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(@s1120)
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Joined: 16 years ago
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Topic starter  

I hate those night where you settle down to play and just nothing works...

Went down to the music room last night, grabbed the LP, hooked it up, and the amp sounded TERRABLE!!! The bass was WAY too "farty", the trebble to harsh... mid was flat.... just yuck... Messed around with the amp [VOX AD30VT] and finly found a sound that I could at least play through.... Then the fingers start.... :evil: Missing note... messing up cord changes, strumming wrong strings.... Just one of those days where NOTHING worked.... I muddled through as well as I could.... but just got discurged after about a half hour. MAN I hate those days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I know the playing was just a fluke... a off day.. Im wondering about the amp though. I had it set perfect for the tone I wanted, and havent touched it. Wonder if something is starting to go in it. Its about 4 years old, but doesnt have a ton of play time on it. Wonder if the tube or speaker is going south..

Any ways..... Im sure you have all had those days.... just venting.

Paul B


   
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(@liontable)
Estimable Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 146
 

I found that I just need to warm up when that happens. I'm not talking about my playing though! What really, really helps for me is just listening to some music, something energetic. Just putting my music loud on my PC, preferably even with youtube concert movies.


   
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(@s1120)
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Joined: 16 years ago
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Topic starter  

I found that I just need to warm up when that happens. I'm not talking about my playing though! What really, really helps for me is just listening to some music, something energetic. Just putting my music loud on my PC, preferably even with youtube concert movies.
Thats what I did after. Ive been realy into Derek Trucks playing latly, and was You Tube surfing for a wile. :D

Paul B


   
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(@alangreen)
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Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

Don't change any settings just yet - when you're having one of those days nothing goes right or sounds right or looks right or anything.

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
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(@anonymous)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 8184
 

it's probably something internal, since your playing and the sound were both off at the same time. tired, hungover, or ate something bad all come to mind.
if not that, i'm guessing you'd recently played a bunch, more than usual. that would explain your settings sounding off. your ears change as they adjust to the volume and then fatigue, and you adjust it to what you're currently playing, which sounds different at the end of a long session than at the beginning. that would also explain why you had trouble playing today. you may have pushed your hands to match where you'd ended the session, and they'd be fatigued already.


   
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(@imalone)
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Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 267
 

Funny I had a similar thing earlier this week. The batteries on my pod ran out on Wednesday night, so I redialled the amp from clean to crunchy and just couldn't find anything I was happy with (very similar actually, that annoying farty bass). Plugged in on Thursday and sounded great (well, given the limitations of the player...).


   
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(@s1120)
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Joined: 16 years ago
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Topic starter  

Don't change any settings just yet - when you're having one of those days nothing goes right or sounds right or looks right or anything.
Yes, very correct. I went down last night... and me new settings sounded thin and flat.... so I went back to close to where it was..

still not liking the speaker in it.. Maybe becouse Im playing a LOT more... its finly braking in. And not in a good way.

Paul B


   
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(@blue-jay)
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Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 1630
 

True, it could be a lot of things, and hopefully you make some progress toward finding out what it is.

I was in the process of agreeing with the posters, that we have "off days". So it is not just yourself, perhaps.

In addition to not feeling good, or "it" being lack of sleep, over-activity, or something we ate :shock:, there's also allergies from time to time, like "dust" or heating systems in our houses, leading to blocked ears, stuffed sinuses or even headaches.

I don't know about the specific speaker in that amp - it should be okay, but if it continues to sound poor, be sure to A/B your experience with someone else's amp or cab and if it still sounds terrible you can change it easily: Celestion Seventy 80? :)

Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.


   
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(@neztok)
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Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 152
 

Humidity, Time of Day, Air Temperature etc. Try going to a different room. I would never make a good working musician. "Can we move the gig outside or something? - I'm just not feeling it."


   
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(@almann1979)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 1281
 

I may be well off mark here, but I find that when I play well, it is because I play with confidence, and when I feel below par I am very tentative causing my fingers to have a lighter sloppier touch.

In the past, I have come to realize that when I am having an off day, I just make sure I really "give it some", and things soon come back round.

I think playing badly for me was a bit of a negative feedback loop, the worse I played, the worse I felt, which made me play even more nervously, which resulted in worse playing etc. Now I just try to break out of that by Just going for it

"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)


   
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(@rparker)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5480
 

Those nights are not fun, but I guess that's the price you pay for good nights. I agree with others who say don't make any adjustments yet.

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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(@trguitar)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 3709
 

This kind of goes along with Roy's post when everything was going right. The more I think about this, and it used to happen to me often but not anymore, alot of it might be between our ears if not our ears themselves. Do the guitar and amp really sound that different or are we simply hearing it different.

"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --


   
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(@s1120)
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Joined: 16 years ago
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Topic starter  

Ya, Im thinking it was my ears for sure... I did adjust it, and it sounded pretty bad the next night. But you know... going back, I found a nice setting that sounds kinda cool also... Nice and clean when I roll the Vol down a tiny bit, a nice "LP through slightly overdriven tube amp" sound with the Vol up, and a little Jangly P90 through a over driven VOX when I realy dig into the higher strings... SO alls good. :D

Paul B


   
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(@s1120)
Prominent Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 848
Topic starter  

The more I think about this, and it used to happen to me often but not anymore, alot of it might be between our ears if not our ears themselves. Do the guitar and amp really sound that different or are we simply hearing it different.
You know... I used to have bad days a lot... and would get frustreted, and back away for a bit... and that caused me to realy not progress at all as a player. Well sence taking lessons I belive I have progressed well, and most all pratice sessions are a step foward... So I guess I was do for a bad one!!! I should have known realy... It was a bad day... I was in a bad mood, and realy wasnt feeling all that great... so after the fact, Im not suprised..

Paul B


   
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(@rparker)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5480
 

I know without a doubt that my ears change often. that's probably a different story, though. :|

I have this one patch on my GT-10 that I almost use as my default. I've butchered that patch beyond recognition in the past to make it sound decent then, but the next day I had to un-butcher. So, now I don't fiddle with a patch that's been used and abused often unless I think it's been many days in a row. Maybe the ear gets a bit more trained or something. :?:

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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