Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

We have a real practical joker in our band. Here's what he's done. Two weeks ago, we had a gig in a small town about three and a half hours away. The four of us went down the evening before and got a motel room. He was going to meet us the next morning, driving to the gig directly from his home.

So the next morning, the four of us are sitting around at breakfast when the bass player's cell phone rings. We're starting to wonder where's Wili? And yes, it's Wili on the phone saying he's really going to be late, and he overslept and we might have to start the show without him because he might be five or ten minutes late.

So we're scrambling now to rewrite the set list to cover for his absence. And just then, who do you think walks into the lobby with this big cheese eating grin on his face? The four of us just about wanted to give him a new banjo necktie! But instead, we all had a good laugh, because he really had us going for a while.

But wait! There's more. Last week end, he pulls a variation on the same stunt. Only this time, he gets his sister to make the phone call, pretending to be his girlfriend. And he's overslept again. Now this time we're not buying it. And we're sitting there thinking "OK, paybacks are Hell."

Your assignment, fellow Forumites is to design a practical joke which is safe, funny, and won't **** him off. Minor embarrassment is permissible. After all, he is a good friend, and we'd like to keep him in the band. I want to emphasize FUNNY. He's gotta be able to laugh about it when he discovers he's been had. Got it?

I submit this with the full kowlege of the rest of the band. I told them I had some ...resources...yeah that's the ticket...resources.

JimK

You could always tell him that the halloween gig is a costume gig...

If you have sufficient access to his equipment before a gig without him noticing, there are lots of fun things you could do. A fairly mild one would be to replace the fuse on his amp with a much lower valued one so it'll blow when he turns on the amp. How many people carry spare fuses? He could get really worried about not being able to play before you give him back the real fuse.

A little nastier would be to have his bass "walk away" just before the gig, though this could end up in the ****** off category pretty easily.

Electrically triggered pyrotechnics in/near his amp are always fun, but require a LOT more care/expertise to not actually do any damage...

if he's got an effects loop in his amp, take a pitch shifter, stick it back there without him noticing and set it up to play 1 tone high. Whe he gets ****** off and re-tunes, set it to play 1/2 step lower, and so on and so forth.

tennis_nick wrote:You could always tell him that the halloween gig is a costume gig...

You could also give him the wrong address to the gig. Say for example the gig is at 123 N Main, tell him it's at 123 S Main.

I like the tube replacement gag and the effects loop gag, too. I realize now I forgot to tell all of you that we're an acoustic band, and our Practical Joker is (who else?) the BANJO PLAYER! (Figures, eh?)

JimK

tennis_nick wrote:if he's got an effects loop in his amp, take a pitch shifter, stick it back there without him noticing and set it up to play 1 tone high. Whe he gets ****** off and re-tunes, set it to play 1/2 step lower, and so on and so forth.

Good idea...only he's the banjo player. Who'd notice?

JimK

I dunno. Next time he rings, whatever for, don't listen to him and immediately complain that you've all overslept and he'd have to start the gig all alone & you'll all join him later.

After you're set up for a gig, everyone distract him, and have one person retune his banjo 1/2 step lower.

Tell him you have retuned one string on his banjo, but refuse to tell him which one it was!


Whats the difference between a Banjo and a trampoline?















You take your shoes off to jump on a trampoline!

Eden.

If you can have access to it, remove one of the skins and tape a whole bunch of toilet paper to the inside of the skins of his banjo.

That should result in an interesting sound...

We've got a couple of those cheapo Korg tuners laying around the rehearsal garage. They have adjustable reference pitches, you know... I tuned up, and reset the reference pitch at something like A=430. Then I left it laying on the bass player's amp.

He was one puzzled dude for a couple of songs.

On second thought, I'm not sure if a banjo requires tuning.

I think the costume idea is a great one. He seems to have a sense of humor, and the laughs might make the gig more fun.

jingle_jangle wrote:On second thought, I'm not sure if a banjo requires tuning.

Well, they do require enough tension on the strings to hold the bridge in place...

Of course, it'd probably sound better without the bridge there at all...



BTW, I do own and actually play an old Gibson Mastertone from time to time.

Oh, thinking about the banjo's bridge, you could always move the bridge a half inch or so and retune it so it's OK on open strings...