Gear for a show

An entry about the gear I use on stage…..sometimes.

     The other day I read a blog from a man named Adam Rafferty his entry was all about the equipment he brings to his gigs. I really enjoyed reading what he used and am interested in what other people bring to their gigs as well, and now that I think about it I remember reading another entry from someone else doing the same thing. Well, not to be left out of the fun here’s mine.

First, I almost always bring two guitars, and I use both of them. I have a Taylor 210-E which was made in 2000 (if I’m reading the serial number correctly), 

Photo credit: Trevor Marty

and a Republic Guitar Duolian which was made in 2010. I have used both of these at almost every gig I’ve had since I’ve gotten them. They are troopers. 

Photo credit: Trevor Marty

     I’m not super particular about the cables I get; although, I probably should be. I’ve heard tons of bad recently about Monster cables. I am however very particular about how they are gathered and stored. That could be another blog post for a different time.

     I haven’t used pedals all that much throughout my gigging career. Sure, I've used an EQ and/or a DI or some kind, but I’ve mostly just had one ¼ inch TRS going into a board and a pencil condenser microphone pointed at the 12th fret. I mixed those two sounds alternately ether 80/20 (condenser-TRS) or 60/40 (condenser/TRS) depending on the song and what I liked it to be. This worked fine for years and still does; however, recently I’ve gotten into using pedals a bit more. I really enjoy experimenting with sound and life in general. It brings me great joy to try something new out. Below is a photo of my pedal board. 

Photo credit: Trevor Marty

1. Boss 7 band EQ- I use this to take some of the tinniness out of the TRS and try and make it a bit more acoustic guitar sounding.
2. FK CNCR - this is a reverb pedal as you can see it either goes with a spring verb or a hall verb. Both are glorious
3. Soul Food - I wanted to try out a little dirty and tone for a couple of blues tunes that I do.
4. Ditto - The newest one which I have yet to use at a show is a looping pedal. I think looping is super cool but if it’s not done right it’s just icky.

That’s my pedal train and it goes from signal entrance at 1 to signal exit at 4.

     I have a couple of different options as far as sound reinforcement is concerned. The gigs I get are smallish. They are either small clubs, riverboats, dinner type of environments, and sometimes I’ll get a bigger gig and need to bring bigger stuff. Most of the things I use have to be versatile. Today, we’re just going to focus on two things. The one I use the most is my two channel Fishman Loudbox. 

Photo credit: Trevor Marty

Photo credit: Trevor Marty

Photo credit: Trevor Marty

This is a great amp and will cover a smallish club or a dinner place easily. It even has a post mix out for those bigger places with their own PA. You can go direct out from your amp (vocal and guitar) and right into their PA. I’ve heard of folks doing this so they can run their own sound. For bigger environments and small environments this next couple works equally well.

Photo credit: Trevor Marty

An Allen & Heath ZED 10FX mixer into an RCF art series 310A powered speaker. It’s a very quiet set up perfect tone. I love it. My only regret is that I didn’t save up more and get two of those speakers. 

Photo credit: Trevor Marty

     Well, this is my setup. All of it fits in my little Ford Focus Wagon and we toodle down the road.

Thanks for popping by and having a look at my blog, and now for your homework.

Blow bubbles. Go and get some bubble making stuff and blow some bubbles.