Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I like the M108 EQ's. I've got it on my loop just after the VP Jr. and use it to adjust my tone a little when switching guitars. Since that is where I have it I also use it for a slight mid and volume boost when running my fuzz which helps it stand out in the mix better. I sometimes use it as a boost in front of tube amps to push one on the edge of break up over the top. They are a pretty useful tool to have on hand.

Jonesing for some new gear ... but so busy that I don't have the chance to do anything about it!
Almost pulled the trigger on a lap steel guitar yesterday - cheap Rogue one, could have got it for $59 from GC with a $10 coupon I have, but then I probably would have had to upgrade the pickup, pots and tuners. I've got an old Epi LP jr that has high action (I need to reshim the neck) that I can use for slide when I need it.

I ordered a set of Dunlop egg shakers, though! $3 - big spender!

I'd sent you my Dunlop egg for free.

It just don't cut though for a rock band.

Need some honest to hernandez mariachi shakers man . . .

What DO you call those things anyway ?

Maraccas? I've got some my wife gave me 2 years ago, sound and look real good, but would not use them live for fear they could drop and break too easily.

Maraccas, yeah that's them! Thanks . . . brain fart. LOL

Things change so much.

When we lived in the Corpus Area a trip to Mexico would inevitably entail maraccas and a bull whip for the kids.
( dang bullwhip always got me into trouble )

Cheaper than a poisonous "happy Meal" for one today.

I still have the real cactus hand made rain stick we used in NKF.
Sounds great ! But no substitute for a shaker of course.

Zar - what kind of PA system did you get for $170?! Please don't tell me it was a Harbinger!

Actually Mike, It is a Harbinger. I know its not the best quality equipment, but for what I need it for, small acoustic sets, party's and voice work. For the price Im not going to have over-the-top expectations, it should be quite capable.

The problem (besides long term reliability) with Harbs is really bad sound once you start turning the volume up. THD (distortion) that can be measured in whole %. But if it works for you ...

I know George on here swears by Carvin equipment, the guy I help do open mics with uses a 12 channel powered Carvin mixer, Ive loaded it up and its very light, and he ussually where ever he is playing hooks it to thier speakers, last night they had drums, bass, 3 guitars and 4 vocal mics running into some house speakers and sounded great.

I personally have a Behringer 10 channel, rated at 500 watts, PA head for my practice room or small gigs.

When you use some of these cheaper smaller pas, the problem with them is everyone wants to use the effects in them, most of them in mine sound horrible, for vocals I set mine on the shortest delay in it and it makes my vocals sound thick and I dont add any effects for any instruments that go in it.

If you are doing a small acoustic gig, there is nothing that annoys my ears more than a guy talking on a mic with a bunch of delay or reverb, and so many guys do it. And if you are doing any heavy guitars it just turns the guitars to mush in my opinion, you want your guitar, bass or drums clean.

So if your small pa is sounding bad, my first advice would be to turn all of the effects off and get your eq set for your vocals.

Thanks for the heads-up Mike. I havent experienced any of that, (yet). Just been tinkering around with it, but have cranked it up. So far so good

We had a Behringer we utilized before we out grew it.
It was serviceable.
Nothing wrong with inexpensive equipment utilized within its reasonable parameters.
Knowing limitations is all part of the game.


Carvin . . . indeed.
I heartily endorse much of their equipment . . . but not all of it.
As far as their smaller powered PA systems.
They are hard to beat, and sound amazing.

Recently picked up an EV Cobalt Co 9 mic. Its a very inexpensive mic but sounds good. I am currently in-between jobs and will have some time to play with my stuff before my new job starts up. I will try to post some audio/video but my comp is old and doesnt support my cam, hopefully I'll get it figured out....

If you are doing a small acoustic gig, there is nothing that annoys my ears more than a guy talking on a mic with a bunch of delay or reverb, and so many guys do it. And if you are doing any heavy guitars it just turns the guitars to mush in my opinion, you want your guitar, bass or drums clean.

So if your small pa is sounding bad, my first advice would be to turn all of the effects off and get your eq set for your vocals.

Good advice! At the acoustic open mic I was at last week, the host had a huge amount of sucky reverb/delay on the guitar and vocal when he first started (Behringer Xenyx mixer) and it sounded pretty bad. I kept telling him to turn the reverb down. When I finally got my chance I told him to turn it off the guitar completely and barely on the vocal. On the guitars it was the most jangly awful sound!
My Mackie board has reverb/double fx, and I'll add just a small touch of reverb to the vocals.
Got a pro soundguy to come help me at my first open mic in 2 weeks. I trust his ears to set up something good so that when he's not there, I'll just duplicate his settings.

Has anyone tried it?


www.ebolmer.com

Any comments?

I pickup an Epiphone ES175 Premium vintage sunburst from Guitar Center today for $765.00 plus tax = $826.00. Labor Day sale with no interest financing for two years = about $35.00 a month. Tomorrow morning I’ll be putting on D’Addario Chromes and spend the day with it. I hope my wife doesn't get jealous.

http://www.epiphone.com/Products/Archto ... emium.aspx

Nice!


Despite all my misgivings regarding the lower priced Behringer products, I bought a used Behr Xenyx 1202FX on ebay the other day. $62. I wanted a spare mixer as a 'just in case' my main mixer ever dies on me while at a gig. (you know that if you don't have a backup readily available, you've probably screwed yourself out of a return gig!) Considering I've had a couple of hiccups with my mixer recently (one channel had the right side just give up one night, but it worked fine when I tried it at home).
I have spare cables, mics, and guitar that I bring to my open mics, all 'just in case'. Even the most-reliable gear can fail at the wrong time.
Bought some XLR male-male adapters cheap on ebay,, too, so I can use one of my old mic TRS-XLR cables for my stage monitor - my Mackie mixer only has a 1/4" TRS monitor out, and when I tried the monitor with an XLR cable all the hum that was there with a TS cable disappeared. This'll also give more cabling options if anything else goes funky. I'm a Boy Scout kinda guy - "Be Prepared".