My "other" hobby...

I see Ronnie Van Zant's reincarnation, Superb!!

Lieven

looperdude wrote:overlord, my dad took the whole lynyrd skynyrd ban out in his boat to do some water skiing on high rock lake while they were staying at a producers lake house, we still got that 1975 wellcraft skiboat that ronnie van zant skiied behind.

I told "this story"... and all the other comments on this post; to all of the guys in the band this past Fri. night at another gig... They thought it was very cool!

anybody for some "Down South Jukin"?

looperdude wrote:yep roddie, we still use that boat regularly too, say the band got a kick out of that story

That's a great story! Our band's set-list is comprised of 60-70% Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes! The balance is an assortment of Allman Brothers, Molly Hatchet, Marshall Tucker, ZZ Top, Outlaws, SRV, Kenny Wayne Sheppard etc. etc. etc.

Last Sat. night I had a problem with my "Leslie" tone cabinet. The band had just "loaded-in" to the "Simple Man Saloon" in Clinton, MA. As usual, I plugged in the amp early to let the tubes/motors warm up. There's a 2 channel solid state pre-amp "pedal" that supplies power and signal to the cabinet's motors and tube amp. I plug the organs output cable into either one of the inputs on the pedal, and adjust the input level to where it starts to distort and then back it off a little. This time I was getting nothing... no sound:affraid: 

I checked everything that I could, under the conditions... everything "appeared" to have power, I swapped cables, tried my piano instead of the organ, neither of the 2 speakers have fuse circuits... and it was not likely that both speakers had blown. The tubes were all glowing and seated in their sockets... I had no "hum"... nothing!

Fortunately I use a separate amp for the piano... which has 4 channels, and was able to connect the organ to it... but I needed to fix the Leslie asap before the next gig (tomorrow night...)

Last night I brought the preamp pedal to a friend, who is an electronics engineer for EMC. He has helped me fix other problems with the Leslie before and I had a feeling that the trouble was not with the cabinet. The cabinet is also the size/weight of a washing machine... and I can't just "throw it in the car".

Opening up the pedal on the bench, quickly revealed a failed solder connection on a wire that feeds power to the circuit board. Re-solder-test-FIXED!!!!

The Leslie Cabinet is the one on the bottom in this pic

Our band is pretty much booked solid for 2014.. (with the rotation of regular clubs that we play) There's still plenty of slots left on the calendar though.

New logo/banner and mug-shot...





We'll be playing July 4th (Fri. night).. back at "Bentley's Saloon" in Arundel, ME... It's a HUGE biker venue we've played several times.. usually along with "Bike-Week" in Laconia, NH. If you're in New England for the 4th... Ride up to Bentley's and check it out!

Here's some older photos.

roddie wrote:

Imagine your daughter coming home with one of them! 

Got a gig with the band tonight... and another 8-12" of snow is in the forecast... with the heaviest accumulation being right "smack-dab" in the middle of it.   I hope it gets postponed.. because it's snowing here already.. and it's only 1:00 p.m.

dckrsn wrote:

roddie wrote:Got a gig with the band tonight... and another 8-12" of snow is in the forecast... with the heaviest accumulation being right "smack-dab" in the middle of it.   I hope it gets postponed.. because it's snowing here already.. and it's only 1:00 p.m.

It's coming down pretty good here Roddie.
I think the Leslie will be stayiing warm at home tonight.
Bob

  I wish you were right Bob... unfortunately; there are guests coming from out of state, who will be staying there (on-site) in the hotel overnight... so it's going to happen. If it's really bad.. the band may stay as well. The gig is in Milford, MA... and they're expecting 4-8 inches.

Where I live in Rhode Island.. (approx. 16 mi. S/E) we're supposed to get 8-12 inches. The storm is headed Westerly, off the ocean. I'm leaving for the gig around 4:15 p.m. and it's scheduled from 7:30-11:00 p.m.

The "Leslie".. is kept with the rest of the sound gear in a trailer that our lead-singer tows to the gigs. He's got a big Ford F-350 diesel/4X4... but it "can" get hairy, towing a heavy trailer in this kind of weather.

The gig went well.. There were a lot of guests that braved the weather. Our Bass player decided to get a room there at the hotel, but the rest of us drove home afterward. The storm had tapered off by midnight.. and did not yield as much snow as originally forecasted. I just "took it slow" in 4 wheel drive, as the roads were in better shape, than earlier on my drive "to" the gig. It was great to make some music, and play to a crowd.. after a break since last mid-December.

Thanks Bob! We actually played this song in public for the 1st time last night. It's by the band "Blackberry Smoke" and is titled "Up in Smoke"... It's a great tune, and fits our bands style perfectly (except there's no keyboards   )

These guys ROCK!!!!

getback wrote:NICE !! enjoyed seeing you guys play I was wondering what kind of music you played , nice choses all good southern music , reminds me of some of the friends of mine [long time ago] I use to go to there practices and gigs . Sounding good keep up the good work ,nice to have a job u can be happy at even if it is stressful sometime ....but seems to go away after you get started playing    the lighted Eric   

Thanks Eric!! yea... we have a lot of fun!

Leaving for "Bentley's Saloon" in Arundel, ME tomorrow morning for a gig Friday night... (see my previous post) This should be a LOT of FUN! I hope that hurricane "Arthur" doesn't dump too much rain on us! I remember playing this club; one rainy night about 4 years ago.. and it was really POURING! There was a long line of people standing outside, waiting to be able to come in. Night's like that; make up for the one's that aren't so great. Saturday.. it's back to Massachusetts to play a gig with my wife and our lead-guitarist at a place called "Liz's Diamond Bar & Grill" in Hopedale... on the grounds of an airfield!

Admin wrote:Cool, sounds like fun! If you ever make your way out here, you should try to book a gig here LOL.



Not the same spelling but close enough. I don't even know if they have a stage, have only popped inside once and that was years ago. Its out in North St.Paul, we go out there every Friday night for the car show.

I'll bet that most people pronounce it correctly too.. I've had countless people look at my license plate...



... and say; "Roady" or "Rod-die"   .............   After correcting them, I tell them that; in the English language... a double-consonant  following a vowel usually makes that vowel-sound short... doesn't it? Maybe they figure that "RHODY" (which is slang for being of Rhode Island) wasn't available from the RIDMV.

Rusty, that would be fun for sure! This gig tomorrow night in Maine is more of a "for fun" thing than anything else.. kinda' like a mini-vacation. After expenses.. (fuel, 2 night's lodging, food/drink etc.) it'll cost each of us hundreds more than we're getting paid by the club. Our singer has a "toy-hauler" style travel trailer. He and his wife load their Harley's up.. and camp on-premises. The rest of us are lodging at a nearby hotel.