No Money And Gigs To Do

August 17, 1998

So much equipment, so little money. Sound like your problem? Well, you are not alone. Many musicians face the same problem everyday. You have the talent, you have the desire, you have the look, but you don't have the money to compete with those well-armed bands at the clubs. You know the bands; big mixing board, light show, amps taller than the musicians. How does a young band compete with that? With careful planning, budgeting, fund raising, and some creative uses of cheap items, you can make your band gig ready.

My current band, "Armed to the Teeth," really is armed to the teeth. We have a Tascam 24-channel board, 1200 watt power amp, monitor system, JBL PA speakers, Marshall amps, Gibson and PRS guitars, Korg and Roland keyboards, ADAT, high end lighting show, and more, but I wasn't always this lucky. When I first started I hardly had anything. My bands then had to scrimp, save, and make the most of every piece of equipment we could afford (which wasn't much). However, we managed to play some real good gigs and had a lot of fun doing it. Along the way I've learned a few things about gigging on a budget and I'd like to share them with anyone who may find themselves in the same position.

The most important thing to remember is commitment to the goal. In order to do a good show, you have to really want to. If going off to Florida for a quick blast with your friends is more important than that new amp you need, you have a big problem. The one thing that good club acts have in common is that they want it really bad. If you can't compete with money, at least compete with attitude. In the words of Jim Henson, "Life is a movie, write your own ending." Work those extra hours. Don't buy that extra drink. Save where you can and spend your funds wisely. If you truly want it, you will find a way.

Now, let me get off my soap box and get down to more practical matters. The first thing that any musician needs to think about is his own personal equipment. If you play guitar or bass, you will need a serviceable guitar and an amp. This is where most musicians make their first mistake. Many guitar/bass players spend the majority of their budget on the best guitar they can afford and buy an amp with what is left. A Gibson Les Paul played through a small 15 watt combo practice amp still sounds bad. You're much better off to buy a better amp and scrimp on the guitar if you have to. A good amp will make even a bad guitar sound passable. Another method of saving money for a better amp is to buy a cheap guitar and put better pickups in it. Good pickups mounted on a stick will sound fairly good with a decent amp.

Select your amp carefully. Always buy more power (watts/speaker inches) than you think you need. Having to sell an amp in order to buy a bigger, more powerful one two days before the gig can cost you a lot of money. Not only will you lose money selling the amp on such short notice, but buying your new amp without time to shop around is also costly. Check out as many amps as possible before you buy. Talk to friends or even strangers that have played the type of gigs you are looking to perform. If you think 25 watts will do it, try to afford 40 watts. Having just enough power to play the gig will make your amp sound poor. Pushing an amp to 10 (full volume) will cause the amp of display its greatest amount of distortion. Running an amp at 5 (half volume) will make it sound clearer.

Bass amps take more power than guitar amps do. A general rule of thumb is that a bass amp needs four times as much power as the guitar player's amp. If the guitar player uses a 25 watt amp, a 100 watt bass amp is generally acceptable. If you can only afford a single speaker cabinet, choose a 15" speaker. The larger speaker will give you the low frequencies and air current push to compete with the rest of the band.

Carefully consider what features your amp will need. If your band does not have a PA system and can't afford to rent one, you will want an extra input on the amp for a microphone. Don't laugh -- it won't sound great, but it does work. Please remember that the mic will draw power from the amp and lower its volume. Also, if you can't afford a separate effects box, you may want an amp with reverb or overdrive built into it. Singing through your amp has many built in pit falls. If you're a guitar player and use a lot of overdrive, your vocals will be distorted. If you're a bass player with only a 15" speaker, your vocals will be hard to understand since they will lack clarity. Keyboard amps generally make fairly good vocal amps.

If you are a drummer, none of the above information matters at all. For drummers it is important to remember the way music is perceived by the human ear. The high and low frequencies are heard and paid more attention to than the mid-range sounds. This is why solos are usually played with high notes and the bass player is so important to the overall sound. Put your money where their ears are. A good bass drum and cymbals should be the core of your set. Also, a good set of drum heads that are well tuned can make up for a lot. When buying your drums think about sound before appearance. A drum set is fairly easy to repaint by anyone with experience. Often buying a scuffed up set that sounds good can save you a lot of money. I have also seen drummers who have coated a beat up set of drums with contact paper in order to improve appearance.

If you're a keyboard player, less is more. You're better off to have a keyboard that does ten sounds well, than having one that does 200 sounds badly. The four basic sounds most important for most forms of music are piano, organ, strings, and horns. All the strange, oddball sounds in the world will not make up for a missing or bad basic set of sounds. There are a few exceptions to this rule, namely techno and dance, which have a much greater emphasis on samplers.

Built-in speakers on a keyboard are a waste of money for a performing musician. Built-in speakers will never be loud enough to play over a drummer, will sound bad, and cost money for the manufacturer to add to the unit. A serviceable keyboard amp is a much better route. Many keyboard amps have a vocal mic input that sounds fairly good. However, if your band has a PA system, try plugging your keyboard into the PA board. Your keyboards will sound good and you can spend the extra money on a better keyboard instead of an amp. Plugging your keyboard into the PA also has a side benefit in that it will allow you to play stereo sound patches that sound better than mono patches.

Now lets talk about the PA or vocal system. This is normally the hardest part of band equipment to afford, but one of the most important parts of the sound. PA's are hard to afford because no one in the band considers it to be part of his/her personal equipment. Even singers usually only own one mic (and usually not a good one at that). This is why planning your PA purchases is the most important thing a band can do. When you're on a budget, don't think flashy -- think serviceable for the lowest price you can get away with. The most important part of the PA is the power amp. PA systems take a lot of power. A guitar player can use 50 watts and sound very loud. A 50 watt PA is way under powered for most applications. Your singers shouldn't have to shout (of course unless they want to). A power amp of at least 300 to 400 watts or more is required in most cases. Be careful when buying a PA amp; you can't just look at the wattage in order to find out how loud or clean it will perform. All power amps will have a power rating (watts) that will change depending on the ohm level. An ohm is a measurement of electrical resistance. All speakers have an ohm rating. Some power amp companies will rate their power amps at 2 ohms, meaning that the amp will perform to this level if you have speakers with a 2 ohm rating plugged into the amp. However, very few speakers are rated at 2 ohms. Most speakers are rated at 8 ohms. If this doesn't sound important, please note that a 600 watt power amp may only perform at 125 watts when two 8 ohm speakers are plugged into it. Also don't be fooled by amp makers that list the "BRIDGED" rating. What bridged means is that you take the two stereo signals and join them together so that the power will only support one speaker. You will need two power amps to support two stereo speakers if you bridge the power amp.

The next important part of the PA system is the speakers. Speakers are more important than a mixing board. Remember, you can also plug two mics directly into the back of the power amp and not have a mixing board at all. A 12" speaker and a radial horn will give you the best results on a budget. Look for speakers that have lower ohm ratings. Remember, the lower the ohms the more power/volume you will get from your power amp. Be careful to check the power wattage of the speakers. If your speakers are not rated at the same or more wattage than your power amp, you can blow the speakers. Placing the PA speaker on a stand during a performance will also make them sound louder. An elevated speaker will sound louder because the floor will not absorb the sound as much. Speaker stands can be expensive however. You can eliminate the need for speaker stands by putting the speakers on low cost milk crates draped with black fabric.

When buying mics on a budget, stay away from mics that need a preamp or phantom power. Preamp or phantom power systems cost money you can't afford to waste. Phantom power mics usually sound better, but in a live gig situation most audience members will never be able to tell the difference. Make sure you buy a mic that can take a beating. Cheap mics may sound all right, but if they break quickly, they aren't that cheap. A number of companies make mics with a steel shell and ball to protect the mic from the abuse that gigging will surely put on it. Also, be sure that you buy the right type of mic. If you need a drum mic, don't use a vocal mic. Using a vocal mic on a snare drum is the quickest way to destroy the mic.

Lastly, you may want a mixing board. Mixing board technology has come a long way in the past five years so try and buy a newer mixer if you can. Many companies such as Mackie have mixers for under $500 brand new that will work in a large number of situations. Here too, you should over-buy if you can. If you have four mics, don't buy a mixer that only has four inputs. You will at some time get another mic and then be stuck having to buy a new mixer.

So now your band is sounding pretty good, but there is more. For many bands, the sound is only the beginning. A good stage set up, lights, costumes, etc. can make a band look much better and be more marketable to many audiences. Here is where creativity and a little hard work can really pay off.

First, lets talk about lights. Lighting can really help a band, but it can get expensive. So here is my own $100 light show that will make you shine. First you will need a lighting controller. You can spend $400 or more on one, or you can build one for $25 in parts. [If you do not have the experience, you should be supervised by a qualified electrician when building this controller.] Here is what you will need:

• One piece of ply wood ($5)
• Five two way contact switches ($5 - make sure you get ones that you can step on.)
• Five three way electrical plugs ($5)
• One dimmer switch ($5 - use only high output switch.)
• Electrical wire ($1)
• One extension cord ($2)
• One can of black spray paint ($2)

The ply wood can easily be cut and nailed into a box that can be placed on the floor. The top surface of the box will have the five contact switches mounted though holes in the wood. The five electrical plugs will be mounted in the back. When the box is all wired up, it can be placed on the floor of the stage and be used to run up to five flood lights by simply stepping on the switches. Finally, spray paint it black so it's harder to see by the audience. (See diagram below) I built one of these a long time ago and it is still in use by one of my friends today.

Low-Budget Lighting Controller Layout (Click for a larger image)

You can buy clamp-on flood light holders from most hardware stores for under ten dollars each. These light holders are designed for workmen or mechanics, have a large shiny metal focusing dome on one end, and a simple clamping mechanism on the other. Optionally, these lights can be surrounded by wood boxes or large tin cans painted black so that they look better to the audience. Get different colored flood lamps for each holder and clamp them where ever you can. They can be clamped to the ceiling, drum stands, amps, even mic stands. You can also use old Christmas tree flood lights, strobe lights, flashers, or anything else that will plug into your new lighting board mentioned above. There are a number of electrical plug effects that will cause lights to flash and dim and can be purchased cheaply. The nicest thing about this set up is that it can be packed up quickly, set up fast, and run from the stage. With a little work, this set up will make your band look much more professional.

Another little trick that can add to the stage is to build a drum riser. By raising your drummer even a foot or two off the floor you have greatly improved the professional look of your band and enhanced the sound of the drummer. You will need some building experience to make a riser platform, but if you are good with a hammer and you can read building plans, you're all set. What you need is building plans for a small deck (like a deck on a house) which you can get from the library. Please note that you will want to use cheaper wood than in the building plans and you can cover the top of the platform with 3/4" ply wood instead of boards. This will make the platform cheaper to build and have better playing stability for your drummer. Make sure that the platform is stable and secure before you put your drummer on it. Lastly, carpet the stage with low pile carpeting. This keeps the drums from sliding or falling and improves the appearance of the platform. Carpet remnants can often be gotten from carpet stores cheaply. Some carpet stores may even have old carpet that they would be willing to give you for free. Darker color carpet works best on stage.

You may next want to think about costumes (if your band plans to wear them). Retro is in right now. This gives your band a lot of cheap alternatives to expensive clothes. Check out garage sales and look for older garments that can be used in combination. Old hats, gloves, scarves, etc., can be had for a song. You may also want to check out local clothing resale shops for used jackets, suits, even tuxedos. If you're looking for fancy duds, check out formal wear rental stores that may be selling out of date clothes cheaply. In order to get this type of stuff cheap, you need to be persistent.

For anything you wish to buy, remember to always look for the best deal. In many cases, if you buy the item used you will save a lot of money. Right here on Harmony Central they have a very good, free classified section where you can find lots to great musical equipment. There are also links on Harmony Central to several other music web sites that have music equipment classifieds as well. Trading over the web is not as hard as you may think. If you can't buy the item you want used, always search for a good price. There can be hundreds of dollars difference in the price tag of an item from one dealer to another.

In closing I would like to add that it is important for the band to work as a team. Pool your resources and plan together to make sure that one members equipment will work well with everyone else's stuff. Take a large portion of the money the band makes and reinvest it into the band. By slowly building up your equipment you may soon be one of those armed to the teeth bands.

Thanks for reading and I hope these tips help. If you would like to contact me about this or any of my other articles, or have ideas for articles you would like to see written, my email address is cliffnotes@harmony-central.com. I would also love to hear about any ideas you have about saving money on equipment, stage props, costumes, etc.

Keep Jamming

Cliff

Cliff Suttle (cliffnotes@harmony-central.com) has been studying music for over twenty years including studies at the University of Michigan. Fluent on keyboards, guitar, and bass, Cliff is currently playing in an all original rock band Middle Earth. Cliff's motto: Understand the theory and you can play anything.