Should I Bring a Bass Amp On My Cruise Gig?
We have a question this week from Ryan, who asks:
What kind of amps have you seen bass players use? I was thinking of using my Acoustic Image Clarus with a Markbass Traveler 102P. Small and light is good, right? Would a 2×10 bass cab be enough to play with?
I asked one of our writers that is currently working as a bass player on a ship if he could help us with an answer. He writes to us from Europe. – Dave
Hi Ryan,
First of all, let me state to David and everybody of my apologies for not being around lately. Internet on the ship is not great, and lately, there’s been server problems. When I am on, I just usually check my email and get off. I will be writing a new blog soon, especially due to all the time I’m going to have on the transatlantic crossing I’m on right now (FIVE sea days in a row!). Look forward to that.
Now on to Ryan’s question. No, you shouldn’t need to take an amp, and I would suggest you not take such great pieces of equipment as an AI and a Markbass if you did. For me, I use my Fender more than my Epiphone bass because it’s better, but maybe in the future, I might just bring the Epi or another cheap bass. For the basses, the weather changes so much due to the different ports, then the season changes in Europe, and now the crossing to the Caribbean to bring the weather back around to warm so fast. With my Japanese made Fender, that means I have to keep taking off the neck to do the adjustments, which could hurt its life expectancy.
As for amps, you wouldn’t want to keep it in your cabin because cabins are small. If you’re in one of the party bands, they might want you to leave your amp in the area you perform. But guests can play with equipment when nobody’s looking. Ships are not secure for our stuff. Think about that when you bring something that’s so great, AND cost you such a pretty penny. Plus, A/V will probably be handling your equipment, and from what I’ve seen, they don’t hire qualified stage crew or any A/V. The A/V manager here said he’d rather move up someone already on the ship and train them rather than bring in someone new that knows the gig and he doesn’t know. Case in point: the head office is seriously debating on whether they want to hire a qualified, PROFESSIONAL sound guy when the current one signs off, or if they want to bring in someone who’s been asking the job from, dare I say, HOUSEKEEPING, and train him on the spot. The professional that wants the job has a full resume and a very colorful background. The housekeeping guy knows how to keep the stage clean. If you’re in the stage band, they will most definitely be handling your equipment, especially when there can be some fast setups and strikes.
Trust me, you’d rather just play on the piece of crap they give you and play with it until you find a decent sound. Cruise ships are a good gig, but you won’t feel artistic about playing on one, so you only need what gets the job done, not what sounds the most amazing. I can’t wait to get home to my own equipment, but I’m glad it’s safe at home, waiting for me when I do my ideal gigs musically. I’m super glad I didn’t consider bringing my upright, since the ship’s upright was messed with by a guest when nobody was looking. It was sitting backstage in one of the clubs when someone got to it. What got me was the fact that my bow was with it, and whoever it was tightened the bow extremely tight, and I’m lucky it didn’t ruin the bow.
The last bassist that was here bought a cheap five string and sold it to the party band guitarist when he left. In a way, that was probably ideal.
When I first got here, I was using the Roland keyboard amps. They sound great with electric basses. When the guy they brought in to train the sound guys on the ship, he had them give the Rolands to the keyboard players, and I got another keyboard amp that doesn’t have a name on it. At first, it sounded godawful until I finally found a setting that sounded halfway decent. Around the ship, I play on the same model, but it’s not the same amp. On all of them, I plug in channel 3 since none of the other channels work on two of the amps. It’s good that they give me the same model, so I’m now used to it if something happens to the amp and I have a better chance fixing it.
To make the long story short, all the ship wants you to bring is your bass and cable. No need to do more than that. It just means you have to carry that much, and it gives more of your stuff a chance breaking down, getting stolen, etc.
About the author
Hi Ghost Writer,
Can you give me some tips on what I can expect as a showband bass player? I’ve passed an audition with Carnival… not sure when I’ll go yet. Right now, I’m just trying to prepare my reading.
I can read chord charts in any style, and I’m a tight player. I can play jazz as long as it’s out of a real book (I don’t have a repetoire memorized to the point where I can play in all different keys). I can read notation, provided that it’s not completly off the wall, syncopated 16th note rhythms, and crazy stuff like that. If that were the case, I’d need time to work it out. I did do pretty well on the audition, although I had 45 minutes to learn those songs. I’m worried that some crazy piece of music will be handed to me on stage (during a show) and I’ll be unprepared for it
Any advice?
Thanks,
Jason
efficacious7613@hotmail.com
1/7/2009
Thanks for the info. Now I know not to bring my nice AI. I’m kind of in the same situation as Jason. I can read chord charts in various styles, and can read music as long as it’s not syncopated 16th/funk type stuff or anything crazy. I’m a jazz major, so I have a nice memorized repertoire of jazz songs. Although I can’t really play some songs in all keys because, frankly it’s impossible to analyze and think in numbers with some songs (Moment’s Notice or 26-2, anyone?). I had to sightread the theater version of High School Musical (I was subbing) and I had a few errors, but for the most part I got it. If the music on the ship is simple as that, I’ll be fine (but I doubt it). So any tips, song examples, style/genre examples, whatever, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Ryan
1/14/2009
This is great stuff, thanks guys. I am auditioning at the moment for different agents and lines and spazzed my first audition completely as I was not aware of the material required. Others have been fine as I learnt from the first, I don’t know if anyone else feels the same but being given 6 pages of walking bass line at 210 bpm as an audition piece with no chord chart is kind of crappy. We can all put together cool and interesting walking bass lines but to try to play someone elses and drive the tune along is kinda hard. As far as basses I play a Musicman and just went out and got an OLP copy to take on-board because I had heard things were a bit kooky for your gear. Good luck to all in the same position as me.
7/31/2009
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