Back on the stompbox building which I love doing and want to do more, I need one of these to make things really interesting.

Here is a pedal I finished.


I’m currently using schematics from a web site (which I’ll leave nameless ) but they design original schematics based around vintage amps so their circuits are mostly distortion / fuzz / boost.

The “Bee Sting” is kind of a boost / fuzz and I’m in the middle of building a more ‘distortion’ sounding pedal based around a Dumble amplifier.

It’s nice it has Bass, Mid and Treble adjustment along with the usual gain and volume.

... and yes there are some Behringer pedals stuck in there which I plan to build replacements of. The top left hand (grey) box is yet another Behringer which I modded into a custom box with a true bypass. I know it seems like a lot of effort but I don’t get the thinking behind having to hold the pedal down for 2 seconds to put it in and out of tap tempo and then press it again to turn the delay off / on. In my opinion WAYYYYY TOOOOO long so that’s why.

Need to find me (or design) a nice tremolo pedal but I am real tempted by tap tempo trem too. I really don’t like the Behringer one, I need a smooth sine trem not triangle and certainly not square (that’s a different bag). I want to make my own with some crazy LED / photo resistor design. Again, a nice phaser would be sweet, any suggestions?

I know I never quite finished telling you about the end of the European tour but never mind that we’ve also completed 7 weeks around the USA (incl. Canada & Mexico). We’re due to do another 3 weeks around Europe in just over a week then 2 weeks in Oz.

Our last day off started at 15:30 after our ‘session’. After walking for miles Daniel and myself decided that we should really try and get to Berlin city centre so we caught the underground.

Although by this time it was getting late it was still worth it. Even more Christmas markets but this time with ice skating and roller-coasters.

Gig went well, crowd wasn’t great (plenty of people, just no atmosphere).

Had to do a guitar swap due to tuning but I called it. Bottom D just dropped a semitone during the 2nd song. After that all was good.

Most of the day was spent watching how crap the in-house lampie was and the arguments that followed.

I’m actually writing this from the next day as straight after the gig we went drinking at a 24hr sports bar until 7am when we decided a McDonalds breakfast was in order, in bed by 8am.

Gig was good, interesting that there were some people from the record label and it was cool that this gig was sold out.

Todays drama, with all the metal filings showering on the keyboard, today it stopped working. Worked briefly, but then stopped working. After quickly learning how to dismantle a Korg Triton Studio 61, John and I removed all offending metal flakes and assembled said keyboard, it worked.

Next up, making some new covers to shield the many crevices around the switches which involved a lot of sticky-backed-plastic, it felt like I needed some empty washing-up bottles.

Completely off topic - these late evening / early morning posts are accompanied by episodes of ‘Mad About You’ season 2.

Ooooh a theatre gig, nice. Nice venue (warm), P.A. was a bit under spec’d (2 x C4 tops, 4 C4 subs + B2 per side) but with the 100db cap it was fine. oh yeah, nice venue ≠ nice crew!

The drama for today is that one of the other bands tour bus was broken into and a few laptops and tool case were stolen. Reality check for making sure the bus is secure when leaving it.

(moments like these get you through the day)

So we all thought Italy was cold, it wasn’t snowing in Italy though. Oh my was it cold today! Still it keeps me on my toes huh.

Regular gig I suppose (sorry each gig is getting less info about it but I’d be repeating myself) Spent most the night falling over or trying to stop other people falling over a ground support leg which was placed right in front the door way between the stage and back stage. Spent most of the evening trying to fix the crappy media server which was never built for touring, luckily John and I got a show for the projector.

After a wonderful (not) night traveling to Dresden we finally get here around 2pm. A quick tram in to the centre and Daniel and I sat down to what has to be the most civilised meal on tour so far. We didn’t want to spent too long doing that however ‘cos we wanted to check out the famous Dresden Christmas market.

It was very similar to the European Christmas markets we have back home but there was a load more stalls but the did seem to repeat themselves very often. So if you like Gluwien, hotdogs, wooden dolls, hats + scarfs, or some strange local cake then you’d love it!

Hi peeps, so what day is it, and where are we, & does it actually matter? Another day, another gig.

We were able to set up nice and quick today so sound check was over before 3pm and the gig isn’t until 10 (hence me updating for you guys).

It’s a bit of a worry when the local crew are telling us not to leave our aluminium truss outside for long ‘cos it’ll get stolen.

[update]
Gig went quite well, they’re a good crowd the Hungarians. It was also nice that tomorrow is another day off (we’re traveling to Dresden, Germany tonight) so there was a load of crew + bands drinking, eating and laughing. Winding down is the best!

BTW, a big thumbs up for the local crew, good guys

Tonight’s gig was by contrast to last nights gig really good. I think the crew + venue were collectively the best so far. I still had some temperature related tuning issues with the guitars. I think it’s part of what comes with winter touring. I guess I’m going to have even more fun in America come January where it’s going to be much colder still.

Oh my it’s cold! This gig might as well have been outside.

This was perhaps our worst gig so far. Not in terms of performance but of venue, crew, equipment and the temperature topped it all off.

I particularly liked the cable ties used as safety wires on the lighting bars. There was also more ‘unofficial’ merchandise than official.

Anyway, the less said the better.

This gig was odd, it was in what looked like a converted industrial building (converted in to a venue). The stage was small (well small to fit us + support) and there was a 100 db limit (you can just about see the wall mounted db meter on this picture). You can also see just how cold it was on the way to Italy.

Ok, now I’ve slept properly and been fed properly, nice.

Rosie wasn’t and still isn’t well. She was able to play keyboard last night but she was sat next to me off stage with a sick bowl. Last night (this morning) was the first time I was able to shower too, yey!

Went for a walk around Saarbrucken which is quite a nice town, especially with all the Christmas markets open.

Day off = not a lot to talk about, (so far).

[update]
Rosie has just gotten back on the bus and she appears to be much better.

Bottom picture is the monitor engineer for a couple of the support acts, Spencer.

Wow, ok, so I think I’ve fixed Charles’ tuning issues, I’ve seen first hand why not to fall asleep on in the lounge on a tour bus (especially with your shoes on) and that merchandise girls and spirits = crazy merch girl who offend band members. But hey what do I know, it’s 8:28 am and I’m about to go to sleep.

I’ll talk more about last nights gig after I wake up...

Yey I finally get a chance to sit and relax before the gig, so no, we haven’t done the gig but the event has started but I’ve managed to get back to the bus and talk to you guys.

Hopefully fixed Charles tuning issues out, I guess we’ll see later. Guitar world has swapped with monitor world tonight as the tie-lines to FOH were stage right so I’m stage left for today. REALLY want Charles to have no issues tonight though, fingers crossed.

It is unfortunately true that you don’t get to see anything of the countries you visit. The whole day in Paris I only walked from the front doors of the venue to the back of the truck which was 6 meters in a straight line, back and to. So no I didn’t get to see the Ifel tower.

We can still be quicker on the in and out as we are still buying bits to make the gig work properly.

I am feeling pretty drained at the moment, really looking forward to a nice day off of doing sod all.

[update]
Back in bed after the gig. I thought the gig went really well even though I still had some (but less) issues with Charles’ tuning even after I stripped the whole bridge locking mechanism.

I took plenty of pictures tonight so I’ll update again when I’ve transfered them.

ok, I’m sure it’ll get easier soon

Today was another pain, mostly because we didn’t start loading the equipment until 12. This was due to the fact the equipment truck caught the ferry unlike us who took the Eurostar, even so we only arrived at the venue 45 minutes before the truck.

The actual gig went well, which was nice.

I managed to take some pictures which I’ll upload another day as I’m knackered and need to sleep, goodnight.

Well bugger me!

This was an interesting day. Mostly spent trying to figure out how to put together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle where you don’t know what the final result looks like. The set was there, a few pieces missing, a few pieces wrong and some half made. Somehow we managed to put a pretty good gig on. I’d like to say thank you to the Forum crew who were very helpful in getting things done. I think we’re all hopeful that tomorrows gig will flow a little more smooth.

I don’t think there was a real drama today other than the show starting late. Ah well, it’s 3:34 am and we’re due to get the channel tunnel around 4 and I won’t be back in the UK until 21nd Dec so next gig is Paris and let’s see how smooth we can get things. Bye.

So we have completed our first gig it’s 2:14 am and we’re parked up at “The Forum” London ready for our second gig.

Today was really tough, I had to setup 3 guitars and re-wire 2 guitars on top of setting up guitar rigs, keyboards and restringing 5 guitars (2 with floating trems)

I know it may not sound like a lot but this was the first gig and everybody was scratching their heads at some point in the day.

Still everything went great and more importantly we all get on (at the moment ).

Perhaps the biggest news of the day was that one of the venue crew had some steel staging fall on him and he now has a broken ankle in 4 places and is due to have pins put in in the morning! It was an impressive scream though.

We have new concerns with tomorrow because we haven’t seen the set yet never mind see how it’s put together.

Hi people, today I make my great return to blogging from a tour bus. YEY!

I’m really looking forward to keeping my blog up to date on my new Macbook, taking photos with my new Lumix DMC-LX3 all whilst on tour with Cradle first around Europe and then across many waters.

I need to take some photos of our sweet bus before we all trash it Although the bunks seem really small at first, considering there are 16 bunks, a toilet and a lounge up stairs and a lounge with TV, DVD and PS3, kitchen and loads of storage down stairs, things really ain’t bad at all.

First stop, Northampton, this is (for the crew) a production day, i.e. let see if a load of new equipment we’ve just bought works!

Daniel Paine (Front Of House) chose the new DiGiCo SD8 as his spanky new mixing desk, which being a fan of DiGiCo I look forward to seeing what she can do.

When I’ve finished setting up the guitars and guitar world I hope to take some pictures so stick around and you can tag along for the ride.

Next up was 4 gigs with the Rubettes.

The first was near Zürich. All went well, if I remember writely it was an MH3 which (from my Cavern Club days) made the gig easy. The only restriction was the 93db limit made all the more difficult by the fact the audience cheering peaked at 106db!! Heaven help “The Sweet” that were on after us.

The day after was much better as we had a day off and I caught a train in to Zürich and spent the day there.

The following day we had an outside gig which due to the fact there was going to be a lot of kids around we had a limit of 88db!!!! Argh, you’re killing me, we were outside for god’s sake.

Again, all went great but at this point I was really getting fed up with the number of flies in Switzerland, “get off my food”.

2 more gigs followed in Belgium, practically in the same place. The first was on the back of a moving trailer (a float if you prefer) which consisted of me mixing on the trailer with headphones and trying to not inhale carbon monoxide.

The second was a full on gig in the town square which we had previously driven through earlier in the day. It was raining and I was getting blinded by a knob with a laser. FUN!

So, stompboxes. I have finished 2 (of the same) but I have realised that I need an oven to bake the paint on. It scratches too easily and takes ages to dry anyway. They sound great, I will post some audio clips when I set everything up to record it.

Crikey!!

I really need a small laptop (netbook / macbook / air). So it’s been way too long and sooo much stuff has happend since I last blogged. Where do we start.

(BTW I’m having to follow what I’ve been up to by going cronologically through my iPhoto)

So now you can add stompbox making to my list of interests! Tonight I had the joy of making my first stompbox. I used a design from Run Off Groove called “Professor Tweed”. I’m in to crunchy guitar tones rather than heavily distorted ones so I really liked the sound sample of this and thought I’d give it a go.

And here’s the result:


So ok, it’s not in a pretty box yet, but I have the box I just need to drill it, paint it and assemble it. I really like the idea of “boutique” guitar pedals but I don’t like the price. It’s the idea of having equipment that most other people don’t have, yes other people can go build it but you can’t go to your local music store and buy one off the shelf.

I’ll be sure to post a picture of the final box when it’s done.

It seems I’m now the Cradle Of Filth’s drum tech! An interesting turn of events but a good direction to go in if I want to do more touring. I’m actually looking forward to going with my good friend Daniel who is luckly enough to be doing front-of-house and with make traveling far more fun. One of the most interesting things is that the first gig which is in Latvia which will be a first for me. Sound engineering has so far taken me to Northern Ireland, Belgium, France, Germany & Holland, soon to be added to the list are Switzerland, Latvia, Finland & Spain. Not too bad when I look back at it really.

So anyway, I’m currently away on holiday in a little hideaway in Cornwall called Coverack. It’s great to almost be forced to calm everything down. No internet, 4 TV channels and no shopping other than Lou’s who is well known for being expensive and unless you like weather proofs or dust gathering tat then you aren’t interested anyway. I also get the time to understand the concept of having a pint or 3 before your evening meal which unsurprisingly gets you drunk a whole lot quicker than drinking after a meal.

So I was involved with the recent Hope Street ’08 Parade which I had to rig an outdoor stage and the stage inside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool. Although it would seem very simple and quick to set up it actually took ages due to long cable runs, 14 vocal mics for the gospel, full band set up including perpex drum screens, 8 Nexos (SP10s, 15s & 2 subs) all in the round and all in a room which unless you were sat 2 metres or less infront of a speaker sounded like a rave in a car park.

Yesterday I got back from doing 3 nights in Northern Ireland with the Cavern Beatles. First we had to catch a 3am ferry from Fleetwood which at the time seemed like an odd time but with having a cabin and an 8 hour journey we slept most the way.


The first gig was in Riverside Theatre, Coleraine which was a nice intimate venue and a good gig. Halfway through setting up some of us decided to take a short trip to Giant’s Causway which is odd when you’re there. Sometimes nature can do things which make you question whether it’s happened by coincidence or been put there.


Although there were moments when it looks like a Marshalls exhibition!

So, with a drummer scaling wet rocks, in the rain, with smooth soled leather boots on, all before we’ve performed one gig we decided maybe we should head back and get down to business.



Accomodation wasn’t sorted until after we arrived in Coleraine and we were given a local B&B to stay in. It felt like we were staying in a friends grandmothers house, especially when you walk through their living room, past the birthday cards to get to the dining room.



After breakfast we headed on down to the Island Arts Centre, Lisburn.

Now that's a place with a great stage delivery entrance, you can practically park your van on the stage! Really nice bunch of people, they're currently in the middle of upgrading their system, new lighting rig, new audio rig including an M7CL.

Nice, new theatre but acoustically crap! Not helped by the even crapier mix position.



Finally we moved on to Braid Arts Centre, Ballymena. Great new and old building conjoined unfortunately this meant compromises were made in design with regards to access. There was a load in bay, but.... we had to move all the equipment on and off 3 separate lifts! The bad design came from the fact that 2 of those lifts were only moving the equipment no more than 4 feet!! Please excuse the exclamations but it's just really bad design.

The actual theatre sounded great, it was nice to hear a reverb tail rather than a slap back delay. However due to there not being a full time technician no one knew where the stage power was so we had to use multiple 13 amp sockets which wasn't ideal (we did try some 16 amp sockets but after we found the lighting guy was able to turn our amps on using his dimmers we quickly disconnected the power).



One nice side story of our visit was blowing people away with my iPhone. Not knowing where we were and looking for sustenance after the 2nd gig I was able to direct us to a Tesco’s just as we were about to give up. The day after at the Braid, Roy (Ringo) was telling me about a clip of him on YouTube which within seconds I had playing on the iPhone (and here is the reaction).



So after the last gig it was finally time for a relax and a bit of a drink, when in Ireland there is only one official drink allowed.


One last thing worth mentioning was the food given both in and out bound on the ferry.


Next, Hope Street Festival.

Hey there people, thanks for popping by. I’ve updated this website ‘cos my old one felt quite messy and I want to do more!

I hope to add twitter updates on here, post pictures from gigs I’m involved with and have some where I can voice my opinions.