BASS
Jordan Vlasschaert is the bass player for alternative folk-rock band Shred Kelly. Based in Fernie, BC, Jordan loves skiing, skateboarding, cooking, and
spending time outdoors with his wife and daughter. Shred Kelly is set to drop their new album, Like a Rising Sun, in June 2020 and look forward to
bringing it out on the road in the coming year. www.shredkelly.com.
By Jordan Vlasschaert
Travel
Packing, Protecting Your Gear & Maintaining
Your Tone on the Road
I
t feels strange to sit down and write
about travel and touring given the current
global situation with COVID-19. Perhaps
my motivation to write about it comes
from the simple fact that I was supposed
to be playing a show in Zurich tonight with my
band, Shred Kelly, as part of a tour opening for
our friends, The Dead South, across Western
Europe. We are grateful to be home, happy,
and healthy with our families, but what a time
we would have had…
As most of us in the music industry
know, travelling is how the majority of a
touring musician’s time is spent. Whether
you’re winding through back roads north
of Saskatoon looking for the Ness Creek
Music Festival, sitting on a ferry heading to
Newfoundland, driving over Roger’s Pass in
a snowstorm, or sleeping on the floor of an
airport instead of spending money on a hotel
room, there are many lessons to learn.
But, just as there are many lessons, there is
a lot we can do to prepare ourselves and our
gear for travel.
Public service announcement: this article
is directed at musicians who are travelling on
a budget in half-broken vans, not tour buses;
the ones on the red eye after playing a show
and driving through the night in snowstorms
dodging elk.
Packing & Protecting Your Gear
Buy yourself a good case! I still haven’t officially
learned this lesson since my case is held
together mostly by packing tape and “fragile”
stickers. When my bass spent an extra week
at the Amsterdam Airport, I had no idea what
shape it would be in when it finally made it
back to Fernie, BC.
My good friend and bandmate, Ty West, is
the master of quality cases and making sure
his gear is safe. Luckily, my Fender P is about
as tough as a 2 x 4.
Not only do quality cases protect your
gear from the jaded baggage handler and
unexpected airtime in the back of the van;
they also pack well, and packing gear is what
we do most, second only to travelling. Luckily,
my gear has never been badly damaged due
to the bogus cases I keep buying, but I have
had to replace several midway through tours.
(Ok, I’ll buy a better case…)
When we arrived at the check-in desk
for our first ever flight as a band, we had no
idea what we were doing. No idea what the
baggage allowance was, weight restrictions,
excess baggage cost, or how to save money.
Since then, we have learned a few little tricks
and lessons, mostly regarding how to spend
the least money possible. Again, the King of
the Case, Ty West, buys every large plastic
suitcase he finds on his daily Sally Anne runs
so that we can combine small things into
larger cases. Turns out when you tape two
cases together, it turns into one piece of
luggage, and being kind to the airline staff
can lead to gate-checking or carrying-on
acoustic instruments. But the easiest thing
to do is pack light and fit all of your personal
belongings (and maybe some merch) into a
carry-on suitcase.
Maintaining Tone on the Road
Sharing backline with other bands, festival-
provided backline, or renting backline for fly-in
tours has become more and more common.
I love using provided backline because not
moving bass amps and speaker cabinets when
you don’t have to is such a treat; however,
using different gear can make it difficult to
find your tone – especially during a 15-minute
festival-style changeover and line check.
I am not a tone expert and can only share
what has worked for me. First, get to know
common amps that are used for backline. I
cannot count how many times I have played
an Ampeg SVT Classic through an 8x10 cab
without ever owning one. Others that I have
come across a lot are the Gallien Kreuger
1001RB and Eden World Tour 800, to name a
couple. Do your best to figure out what works
for you on these amps and take a picture on
your phone. You might not be able to get
your tone exactly the way it sounds on your
record or in the rehearsal space, but if you take
pictures of the settings, finding your tone can
be a work in progress that continues the next
time you come across the same amp.
Something that has been very helpful in
finding my tone on unfamiliar amps is the
SansAmp Progammable Bass Driver DI from
Tech 21. This pedal/DI was a real gamechanger
for me. It allows you to add something small to
your travel rig that inserts a lot of what makes
your tone yours. It will sound different through
various amps, but it has made it much easier
for me to find my tone on the road.
I learned – and am still learning – these
road lessons “the hard way” through trial
and error, and now, I leave these nuggets of
knowledge for those of you who are excited
to sleep on a floor or in a tent and are willing
to do anything to get to the next gig because,
as we all know, the show must go on.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 27