Gear

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Comment by Marcy Marxer "Iona Martin" on December 10, 2008 at 4:09pm

Yeowza! Just found a wonderfully geeky piece of gear today. It's a keyboard cover made for Pro Tools! It's fantastic! No more frustration switching from format to format and mixing up the shortcuts!
La la laaaa la happy happy girl!

Comment by Michael MacLeod on November 22, 2008 at 7:55am

Howdy, Mike B. Sorry to take so long to respond. I've been traveling. I'm currently in Florida. Ain't the Innernet wunnerful? I'm not much of a guitar amp guy. More of a PA guy.
The AER sounds like a great guitar amp, I would suggest that the Cub is more of a PA sound.

Comment by Yiannis Gougourelas on November 17, 2008 at 9:17am

I've bought the Schertler Dyn-G and it's Pre II preamp;i haven't use them yet,but from what i read they give excellent results on acoustic guitar tone.Pretty $$ though!

Comment by Thorsten Jakobsson on November 17, 2008 at 3:55am

I have recently added equipment for my "solo career" . I play by myself in small places, so while the US $ was low I bought a K&K mini western and a LR Baggs Para DI. For our band PA I have a Laney CP12 floor monitor. Good thing with this monitor is that it can also work as a mini PA since it has 1 XLR mic input and 1 line input. So it is perfect for small solo gigs. I just bring the monitor, guitar, DI and mic. Since the LR Baggs Para DI has a volume knob, I can first set a good volume for vocals on the monitor and after that get a fitting volume for the guitar with the Para DI volume knob. The sound is very little colored with the monitor, I guess that is the purpose of a monitor, so this setup is perfect for me.

Comment by Eric Lambert on November 17, 2008 at 12:11am

I have great results using a Collings D2H through an Aura and a stage monitor.Doesn't really matter what kind.I also use a Sure wireless system.The pickup in the guitar is a K&K mini western.

Comment by Mike Bunting on November 11, 2008 at 6:20pm

For Mike MacLeod, how does the AER CUBE 60 compare to the Phil Jones Cub?

Comment by Steve Alexander on October 28, 2008 at 10:47pm

I've got a B-Band pickup in my Morgan Dreadnought. It has a 24db roll off on the bass frequencies which gives the pick up more clarity. I run it into a MK4.23 boost pedal from Creation Audio Labs (http://www.creationaudiolabs.com/mk423) and then on into a Roland AC-60. I'm happy with the sound. I got the Morgan for volume as my old '54 D-18 won't keep up with the jam crowd. Some folks don't understand that whanging on 180 strings to one isn't fair!

Comment by Russ Aubertin on October 27, 2008 at 10:34am

I have a question regarding mics. We have two setups, one with individual instrument and vocal mics which is almost required for the outdoor gigs, and one with two AKG C300B's set up about 3' apart we like to use indoors. The AKGs give us great sound but are difficult to prevent feedback and we can't use monitors with them, they are ultra sensitive. Would we be better served with just one AKG? Or, should we look for a mic that will give us better gain before feedback? Any other mic recommendations out there?

Comment by Mark Clark on October 27, 2008 at 9:59am

Marcy, I don't know how you find time to start all these great discussion groups... but thanks.

I play my trusty old 1970 Martin D-41 (currently in the very capable hands of Martin Reynolds at The Podium in Minneapolis for repair) and a Blueridge BR-260 (the Brazilian one) I picked up to play while my D-41 is laid up. I recently acquired a 2004 Martin D-28CW that is an exceptional instrument by any account and has a K&K Pure Western Mini pickup system installed. This is the first acoustic instrument I've owned that has has a pickup of any kind and I haven't really used it plugged in yet.

I also have an Eastman 815 mandolin, an archtop Mastertone copy banjo made for me in 1971 by Jan Michael, a reso made for me by Roger Anderson and a Telecaster.

Our band uses a single mic setup (AT-3035 LDC) plus an instrument mic mounted on the bass. I love this way of balancing the band's sound. I've always maintained that bluegrass music isn't truly acoustic music. That is the instruments aren't naturally balanced against each other like you'd have with a string quartet, say. Amplification is necessary in bluegrass to get the instrument balance right and to correctly raise and lower the volume of instruments and voices as needed. The single mic strategy is perfect for that and doesn't turn your band's sound over to another person. It also creates visual interest as people move into and away from the mic.

If we're playing a festival or larger show and not using our own sound system we ask the sound engineer to place our mic on stage for us. So far they've all been very helpful. Some experienced pros have even given us nice compliments on our setup.

I'm sure I'll find a use for the K&K. Maybe in solo or duet situations or perhaps for recording. It'll take me a while to figure out how and when to use it.

Are folks here using wireless guitar "cords?"

Comment by Kellar Winkelmeyer on October 26, 2008 at 6:23am

I use a dual source pickup in my guitars. Fishman matrix undersaddle transducer plus a Crown mini condensor mic in the soundhole played through a DTar Solstice Blender. My current amps for small gigs (coffee shop and parties) are an Ultrasound CP 100 and an old Trace TR100. I have been happy with my plugged in sound with both amps. I think the key is to be able to EQ the two pickups and blend their contributions to the final mix. My band played once through a Bose L1 system and we were all amazed at the quality of the sound and the ease of playing without monitors. I would love one of my own but it isn't cheap and would probably be overkill for a small venue. I think there are lots of good choices for acoustic amplification these days.

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