Basement vs. Reality

I haven’t had a chance to practice with my band for a few weeks. The holiday season is always a rough time to schedule practice. Seems like one of is always out of town, etc. That’s fine though, I set up my rig in the basement, start laying pedals and guitars out and the basement quickly changes to man-rock-cave. God awful tones, horrible licks and general ruckus happens shortly after. I like this time, it’s a way to work on some new licks for leads, maybe a new riff for a new song, truly a time of free experimentation.

I wanted to write this post, because I’m always surprised and worried/concerned when I work on new sounds/pedals in the basement. I always say “it sounds awesome in the basement, but how will it sound in reality”.  When I play in the basement, I always seem to gravitate to more low end in my tone, less mids. I’m by myself, no drums, no second guitar, no bass, and those factors need to be considered when playing ‘solo’.

As a few of you may notice, I just recently picked up the Analog Man Beano Boost, and I’ve also been playing with a new Creation Audio Labs  Holy Fire pedal and in the basement, these have been kicking my ass, but in reality, I have some pretty serious issues with the Beano Boost. I normally play with a Travis Bean guitar which are pretty responsive in the high end frequency, and the Beano Boost is generally a bright pedal (treble boost). Too much of a good thing?  Not sure, but the point of it working in the basement doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work  higher volumes, additional instruments, etc. It’s always a crap shoot when it’s time to introduce the sound to the band, which can be exciting when it works, but a bummer when it doesn’t.

Curious.. do you have similar experiences? If so, or if not.. please comment below!