Solo Show Prep and Gear
We're a few days—maybe three or four, before my return-to-solo-gigs show! I'm thru the overthinking stage, well into the practical. Now I can concentrate of three solid days of working the kinks out. Feeling good about the set, and I've got the equipment figured out.
Guitar-wise, I recently traded for a Fender Mahogany Highway Acoustic Hybrid; the dreadnought. Found a really great price on a used one, as if it was just sitting there waiting for me. Made a small adjustment, and it now plays wonderfully.
With this model you need to accept it on its own terms. If you're trying to sound like a pristine acoustic, these may not be the thing for you. But if you're going for a let's-get-weird, pawn-shoppy mentality, which is certainly my aesthetic, it's amazing. It's just a really cool instrument that does not do too much. (Side note: people really want to see an acoustic guitar when you're stood up there by yourself.)
This is going into a Red Eye DI. I don't know what it does other than make everything sound better. It broke once and I took it by the guy’s house and he fixed it. Amazing. I've never really had much of a reason to use the boost button, but it’s very useful from fingerstyle to pick-style.
What I definitely don't use is the treble boost. No one needs that for sure on an acoustic. But then I found out that it cuts too. Again, really useful just about anywhere in any situation.
My mixer is a Mackie 1202—first generation. Thought about using different, more updated stuff. I have a digital mixer, but the 1202 so hands on with it’s 1:1 knob ratio.
I'm also using a Boss reverb pedal and a Boss analog delay—very digital reverb, very analog delay. And with the knobs you can really get into some cool effect swells and volume stuffs.
And with the levels at peak or just below, all of this comes out as a kind of lo-fi, dark sounding, glued-together rig.
Sprinkled over the top of all of this is the OP-1 synthesizer which I'm not trying to do much with, just using the E-Piano preset that it came with. I’ve had it for years (original and the upgrade mkii), and I just love everything about it.
My vocal mic is the EV-650A, and I'm going to self-monitor through Shure earbuds going through a super-cheap wireless unit. No sitting for me. I don’t know how other people do it.
I've got crib notes on the iPad (a lot of songs), and I can turn these with a foot controller.
It's been a bit of a journey. I started with digital mixer and an electric guitar, going into a helix etc. stuff, but it was all turning into a lot.
Now I basically have three things to plug in. I'll just make sure everything is charged and has new batteries. And there are about 4 different ways everything can be configured insofar as backups and backup-to-backups go.
All and all, I’m ready for the show. I've simplified all I can, as well as really dumbed everything down. It's amazing how much candlepower you lose when a stage and people are involved.
Ciao-jd