David

it would be best to get in touch with the promoters/venue first to see what they have for you to use and if they can help you with any special needs you may have of the venues i have played, all have had a house drum kit, but take your own pedal/snare/cymbals as these were not provided (or were crap) all have had mics to use, but as said above, i would check if you are needing more than three to see if they have enough mics someplaces have a bass amp to use, but i know kef dosent and i dont think anywhere has had a guitar amp, i always took my own, and other bands also took their own or borrowed other ones as they needed (get this worked out beforehand if you need to borrow kit) one think, as for instruments and the related gear (guitars, amps, etc...) i think it is best to alway take your own, then you at least know you will have a sound you know you like and sounds good, so you dont get to the venute to find the other band have taken along a fender amp and you really want a marshall sound... David

today i learnt the chords to 'i will survive' so now my hunt for good (but very very cheap) keyboards commences (and trying to persuade my parent i need said keyboards) David

bah to all your Vl-tones and fancy big keyboards... behold the might of the Yamaha PSS-9 (or somehting like that) i still want a SK-1 and a Vl-tone fo some sort though David

according to the carlsbro site, the 50 top has 1x16 and 2x18 ohm outputs, no mentions of 7.5... if you dont really know what you are doing (putting in the valves, or opening it up) then i would definately take it to a tech there are lethal voltages inside guitar amps, and even if the amp is switched off capacitors still hold these charges, so if you dont know what you are doing, keep away from them David

for the mains try 225 as for the ohms part, i dont think your amp should have a setting of 7.75 ohms, the only ones i have EVER seen are 4, 8 or 16 (there are a few others, all moltiples of these though) and ignoring that, you would indeed be fine using 7.75/8ohms (having a quick peek at the carlsbro page, all the amps seem to have 1x16ohm and 2x8ohm outputs) as said above, i would check all the valves are seated correctly and installed the right way and valves should definately not be blinking... the light given out should be steady if you dont really know what you are doing with regards to the valves, get the amp to someone who does know what they are doing, and hope that you havent accidentally put them in the wrong way and damaged something which amp is it? the 50 top? David

www.healthystrokes.com David

that sucks to hear, as said above, go round all the secondhand shops (or phone them at least) to say that you guitar was stolen ad to contact you if someone tryis to pawn it, it might be worth calling up some shops in dundee or other places too i hope the guitar turns up, the scum who steal stuff like that deserve to get shot (repetedly) David

thats what ive been wandering lately i was thinking along the lines or a not entirely clean boost, but what would be a suitable 'lo-fi' sounding pedal im not sure David

it deoends on the user... i think lo-fi seems to be being used by band who are not particualrly talented musicianwise (ie indie punk and all theat stuff, and also demos that carent recorded well, when reviewers are looking for something to say i think of lo-fi as a gritty dirty kinda sound (when referring to guitars or recordings) not perfect and nice, but with an edge David

i think it was because of excessive drug consumption getting in the way of the band (sounds a bit silly coming from metallica dosent it...) David

i did get halfway through typing out lot of stuff, then i realised i got most of it from frostys link, so have a read over that, its very usefull and brilliant information of r anyone who intends gigging David

most loopers are only really what i have posted above for some proper professionally built loopers' date=' check out [url']www.loooper.com they make some top class loopers and switching units David

then a looper is more what you would be needing, you know the concept of true bypass? basically a looper is a row of true bypass loops, when they are off, the signal goes straight through the pedal, and only touches the switches and the wiring inside (leaving your signal completely unaffected) when you activate any of the loops, it redirects the signal through the pedal this means you can have all the peals out of the signal when not needed, and you will be able to switch on more than one and get the usual results (not sure how good a few effects in parrallel would be, impedances and stuff can sometimes bugger this up i think) i have a feedback loop/true bypass loop i made a while ago, they are pretty simple to make is the diagram for a looper, if you want more loops, just cascade the circuit, output on one into the input of the next (repeat until you have as many loops as you desire) if you want leds, you need to get hold of some 3pdt switches, then use the extra poles to switch on/off an led this is the diagram for a feedback looper, basically connecting the send and return via a variable resister and a switch (so you can use it as a normal loop to) i havent had good results with the feedback loop i made, but thats mroe down the the pedals i have to use with it, as the reuslts vary depending on what effects you use, and the propertys of individual stompboxes David

Sonic Youth - Youth against fascism David

i started reading this and was wandering where i had heard this before... (i saw it earlier looking at the diystompbox forum) the little triangles refer to ground, all these are connected together (including the ground connections on the jacks) and are connected to the negative tag on the power supply all the little chevron style marks are refering to off board wiring, ie the chevron represents a piece of wire, and the component will be external to the board (a pot or jack for example) so the component should have a chevron between it and all its points of contact with the rest of the circuit i ament completely sure, but the transformer part look slike its taking a normal voltage from a plug, and converting it to the supply the pedal needs (as opposed to using an external transformer, and just giving the pedal 9v) it may be possible to miss this out if you are going to use an external transformer or batterys i would check that out first, as i am not completely sure, it might be an idea to try and find someone that already has the MXR distortion II to see what adapters it needs if this part can be removed, you will still need to include the end part, ie, the op amp and the network kof resisters attaching it to the =15 line, as this is used to change the voltage down for some parts of the circuit im not aure how similar they sound, but it may be an idea to try and find the schematic for the MXR Diist+ or somehting like that, they might be simpler, and the dist+ is a more common pedal so there are likely to be better schematics out there (and less buggering about with power supplys) David

i heard muse were cancelling one or two gigs, though i think they were on the continent not sure if they will be at t or not David

what pedal is it? and how much? it could be fun to make noise with David