I’ll admit, this isn’t the sexiest gear topic. But when you gig as much as I do, you’ll end up carrying quite a few instrument, mic and power cables. No matter how neatly you put ’em away, without cable ties, your gig bag quickly turns into a frustrating mess, slowing down set up and tear down. Velcro straps work well, but I was always irritated by the prices music stores would charge for these things. For instance, even on sale, Guitar Center charges three bucks (exclusive of shipping) for only five velcro straps. To me, that’s like paying three bucks for five paper clips. So when I recently ran short of velcro straps, I stopped by Lowe’s to check out their velcro offerings. Sure enough, they sell velcro cable straps at the same price point…but with a quantity of fifty! 
Just goes to show the value of looking for generic alternatives for “specialty” items!
Category Archives: Gear
Rig for “Not Fast Enuff” cover band
I’ve been rehearsing with a new cover band for a while now. As our setlist developed, we gravitated toward a hard rock sound. This shaped my decisions about the gear I’m using with this band. For some other recent projects, I’ve been using smaller tube amps (mainly a Peavey Delta Blues or a Fender Blues Junior), running the amp clean and using pedals for overdrive and distortion. But in this case, doing the cover scene, I know we’ll play a lot of smaller stages. And, I’ll need a lot of high-gain tone, but won’t need (or want) a lot of volume. So, rather than the tube amps I’ve been using, I decided on the Peavey Bandit 112 for my amp. The Bandit is solid state, but delivers solid clean and high gain tones, and has other useful features like a foot-switchable volume boost and a keep-it-simple direct out.
In advance of our first gig tomorrow night, I also picked up a new pedalboard. I anticipate doing a lot of gigs with this band, so I wanted to do a board tailored to the sounds we’re after. Pre-input, I have a Jim Dunlop volume pedal (with the Boss tuner hooked up to the “tuner out”) and a Morley “Bad Horsie” wah. Through the effects loop, I’m going with the Boss Giga Delay and the Line 6 Modulation Modeler. As this is a cover band, I wanted to have the broadest palette of effects with the fewest pedals. The Giga Delay is programmable, and has the useful feature of toggling between two delays. I generally have a short delay on, and use a longer delay for solos. The Line 6 offers a nice array of choruses, flanges, phasers and tremolo. Those two pedals easily cover the ground of six “single” stompboxes. In all, I’ve got a good range of sounds for this band, with the simplest setup (and lightest-to-lug amp) I think I could get away with.
To mount everything, I picked the Pedaltrain Pro, which is simple, has plenty of room for the layout I’m using (with room for future expansion), and a nice sturdy gig bag.
Here’s a look at the Pedaltrain Pro: 
Here’s the board loaded up, ready for tomorrow’s gig:
Though I’m always looking for possible improvements, I think this setup will work well for this project for the foreseeable future. If we book some events in bigger rooms, I will be tempted to mount a wireless on there, though!
An overdue pedalboard rebuild
In the past two or three months, I’ve transitioned out two cover bands. Moving forward, most of my gigs (for the time being) will be the Lebowskis duo with vocalist John Laprarie. Playing in the duo for a couple of years, I’ve collected a consistent set of pedals I like to use for those gigs. Since I won’t be using my “rock gig” pedalboard for a while, it’s a good opportunity to do a teardown, clean & rebuild.
Here’s my old setup:
There’s a Boss digital delay (for long delay), a Boss DM-3 analog delay for short delay), a Boss volume pedal, Line-6 MM-4 (choruses, flange & tremolo) and a Peavey channel/boost pedal. These pedals cover a lot of ground, and work well with the Peavey Bandit I’ve been using for rock gigs.
This cleanup job was way overdue! I have other amps and pedals for my practice area, so my gig gear gets stowed in between jobs, and I rarely see this stuff in daylight. After some heavy work with the shop vac and a damp cloth, the case started to look a bit more respectable:
For my duo gigs, I’m using a Peavey Delta Blues amp (tube amp w/15 inch speaker). Instead of amp gain with this setup, I’ve been going for a bluesy overdrive sound for leads, using the Vox Ice-9. I kept the Boss DM-3 for short delay, and now use an MXR Carbon Copy for long delays (especially with the tube amp, the MXR has a warmer sound). Also in the mix are a Boss Super Octave, MXR Micro Amp (clean volume boost) and Boss Loop Station. With this new configuration, I couldn’t fit in a volume pedal, but where I want to use a volume pedal, it sits within easy reach off to the right side.
Here’s the new setup:
When we do gigs seated on high chairs, this board sits nicely on top of my toolbox for elevation. And, getting these pedals mounted really cut down setup and teardown time!
Update: New gear!
Since we started the four-piece version of Creamy Goodness, we’ve been using a smaller P.A. left over from earlier projects. But no more — we recently acquired a new setup with much bigger cabinets and twice the power! This week, we’ve tested the gear, sorted the cables (with plenty of spares), and worked out other logistical details. In short, we are ready to blow some doors off!
These are the stage-left top and sub:
Brent, resident tech wizard:
Matt (and assistant) loading the power amp rack:
And the completed amp rack:
Maiden voyage for the new setup will be Breakroom in Maumee, October 8.
New gizmo!
I recently picked up a Boss RC-20XL Loop Station. Short story, the Loop Station allows me to create a real-time “loop” of a guitar part, and play another guitar part over top of the first one. There are a lot of tunes where I can thicken up arrangements by layering guitar parts. I’ll hopefully be ready to use the Loop Station on a few tunes at our upcoming Jed’s gig on July 14!
Let’s talk gear: tool box!
My music life is performance-intensive and varied. Different gigs have different demands. It should go without saying that without organization and forethought, there are myriad problems that can arise at a gig. Simple problems can be a major pain if you’re not prepared.
Five or six weeks ago, I had an eye-opening experience while playing a job. John and I were playing PizzaPapalis. While setting up, we realized that between the two of us, we had only ONE functional mic cable. Then, I managed to tear a fingernail (index finger, right hand) and I didn’t have clippers or a file with me. And this is an acoustic gig where I’m playing freestyle. So there we were, our first night at PizzaPapalis, really hoping to impress the manager and get more jobs, and I’m stuck with a hangnail and can’t sing backups because three of our four mic cables don’t work. Real professional, man!
So at the next Rayz practice, I mentioned to the guys that I wanted to get more organized and be prepared when problems arise at a gig. Gary offered me a toolbox he wanted to get rid of. I had been shoving stuff into an old backpack and my guitar cases, so the toolbox seemed like a promising alternative. Gary brought the toolbox to next week’s practice, and it was just what I needed! It’s a lot easier to keep track of things when they’re in one place, instead of spread out between various instruments and a backpack. I’ve been adding stuff every week, and now have two vocal mics, plenty of spare mic and instrument cables, mic clips,batteries, packs of strings, etc. And, needless to say, I’m fully prepared to deal with a damaged fingernail.
And, it’s always a good thing when you can solve multiple problems with a single gear upgrade. Playing acoustic gigs, I’m always sitting on bar stools or high chairs. So, I couldn’t really reach my effects pedal and tuner while playing, which is kind of a pain. I had been thinking about finding (or building) something to elevate my pedals. But, as it turns out, this toolbox is a good height, and works really well as a stand for my pedals. Definitely a good acquisition!
Let’s talk gear: music stands!
To move my various music projects forward, I’ve really started to spend time thinking about stage setup. In particular, stage gear can affect multiple aspects of the performance experience. Great example: for playing in classical guitar ensemble (or solo classical), a music stand is a must. When I started playing gigs with Ben and Carol, I alternated between a standard size Manhassett stand, and a small folding stand. Having done six or seven coffee house gigs with our ensemble, I noted several issues affecting my ability to perform. First, we’ve been working on pieces longer than three pages, often without a good opportunity for a page turn. Second, the lighting in smaller coffee shops and restaurants is often suboptimal for reading music. Third, Ben plays a much nicer guitar than I do. Since we’re going unamplified, I’ve had a rough time competing with Ben as far as projecting sound.
Recently, I picked up a new music stand that addresses each of these problems! The stand has “side-out” extenders to display more pages of music than my old stand. An orchestral-style lamp solves the lighting issue. And, this stand is half the height of my old Manhassett stand, so now I’m playing over the music, and projecting more sound outward. I’ve already heard some positive comments about the balance of sound since I made the switch.
No doubt, always keep an open mind about stage gear. In this case, changing music stands directly addressed multiple factors affecting my comfort level while performing, and the sound heard by the audience.