You Know You're a Bonehead When...

6stringscott

Inspired
I'll start it off!

...when you realize 4 hours before a show that the reason your tone is thin is that you're using a strat and didn't notice the 12dB pad on the Ax8 input, and you barely tickle the lowest light. That might explain why I liked all the amps so much better with Trim set at 2-4. Going to be fun rebuilding my patches with a lower noise floor.
 
I like where this is going :)
-For our bassist it would be acting goofy when the song starts and then forgets to put volume up on the bass and here goes nothing
-For our drummer it would be to launch a song with the drumsticks without thinking about the tempo he has to give, hilarity ensues
-For our keyboardist/singer, nothing, he never feels like a bonehead
-For me, completely missing the MFC101 buttons like a retard, pluging my guitar in the headphones jack...turning on everyone's girlfriend, wait that's in a dream ;)
 
When you want to look badass for the solo, so you don't take a peek on the neck beforehand and although it sounds strange, you still refuse to look at the fretboard, because you want to look cool. Then you see people's face turn sore so you finally look at the neck and realize you just played the entire solo ...
... half step up.
 
Plugging your instrument into the Phones input and wondering why no sound is coming out of the unit.

Forgetting to plug the right side of your amp into your speakers and wondering why you are only hearing the left side of your preset.
 
You and the band have carefully choreographed to kick off a big show with Queen's One Vision and as the opening keyboards hold the final chord of the intro, the drummer sticks in the count, you get a spotlight on you and do the full Pete Townshend windmill ..... only to find you forgot to turn your wireless belt pack transmitter on. ...... 'drrring'

It was well over 10 years ago .... but it still feels uncomfortable to share :)
 
I've done plenty of bonehead things at gigs. Best one with the AXE was at home, low-volume, thinking the pitch shifter was no good. Hello? The ambient guitar sound doesn't get processed so of course it's not shifted.
 
You're doing your own sound , 400 person club , best sounding stereo monitor speaker system ever - pointing back at the band .....I'm lead guitarist/soundman , maybe 88-90. ( Time ....?)

Played the best rocking song ever. Nailed it. Rocked out , dancing on stage , dual solos , whole nine yards ( live amps etc - before fractal )

Then a friend walks up to the stage and says , " hey man , I think you blew a fuse or something"
Mains were MUTED. Old Mackie 1604 mixer with the dreaded mute button. The band never let me live that one down.
 
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You start a 3/4 tempo song with a four count.
I toured with a really solid drummer who had a brain fart one night at a gig and counted off "comfortably numb" with a three-count. Weird part was he couldn't pull out of it so we did it as a waltz. The panicked horrified look on his face the entire song was worth it though LOL.
Kinda looked like this:

Beaker6_280.gif
 
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Spending 20 minutes in a panic before a gig trying to figure out why there's no signal coming out of your new Fractal rig, only to discover you've got the heel down on your volume pedal.

Doing the same for about 5 minutes a few months later. (I learn from my mistakes. Slowly.)

Doing the same for about 3 minutes a few months later because the AxeFx is in Tuner mode.

Starting a song after switching guitars onstage only to realize you didn't plug your wireless into the new guitar. This seems to only happen on songs with a prominent guitar intro.
 
You start a 3/4 tempo song with a four count.

Oh man...done that...even with a click track in my ears. I still wake up in cold sweat remembering it. I'll never forget the look I got.

Other boneheaded things I've done:
Forgot to reset the magic transpose button on my keyboard before starting the opening song of a set.

On a night where I didn't have an in-ear system and had a horrible monitor mix, I managed to engage my chorus pedal right before doing some big distorted guitar thing. Only realized that about 1/2 way through the solo and decided to just embrace my 80's roots. (As I came to find out later, that's not necessarily a great thing to do in a church.)

As I've also come to find out, people aren't exactly appreciative of my desire to tune when I stomp on a pedal button which does NOT actually mute me and engage my tuner. (Public service announcement: Don't ever arrange your AX8 (or MFC) with your "lead scene" button right next to the tuner button. Public Service Announcement #2 - when playing in a church, double check that you're ACTUALLY muted when there's a solemn prayer happening.)
 
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