Hi everyone, I’m new to this forum so I don’t know if the answer to this question is around here somewhere. If it is I appologize in return.
I currently own a L1 Compact, that I use for acoustic solo gigs with the following gear:
- Rozawood Blues acoustic guitar (OOO/OM-ish) with McIntyre Feather or Fishman soundhole pickup and L.R. Baggs preamp.
- Resonator guitar (biscuit type)
- Shure SM58 for vocals
- Edirol digital mixer
Resently I’ve co-founded a blues band where I play acoustic, electric and reso guitar and sing, the rest of the band counts keys, lead vocal/sax, drums and hopefully soon bass.
I’d like to be able to play all three types of guitar through my L1 Compact using a Line6 POD for electric amp simulation (works fine), but I don’t know if I should use a SM57 or put a pickup in my reso, to get the best results and eliminate feedback? My acoustic feeds alot in the low end when I use the McIntyre Feather piezo pickup, if I turn down the lows with the preamp or mixer it gets really thin, anyone experience this with their L1 Compacts?
Finally I’d like some recomendations for getting the keys and lead vocal/sax amplified. I think of running them through a second Compact, the vocals through channel 1 and keys through channel 2 set to flat (no tonematch). Any recommendations? How much can you run through a Compact? If we need to lift the kick drum or upright bass?
Hi Floorockous,
Thank you for joining the Forum.
quote:Originally posted by Floorockous:
Hi everyone, I’m new to this forum so I don’t know if the answer to this question is around here somewhere. If it is I appologize in return.
I currently own a L1 Compact, that I use for acoustic solo gigs with the following gear:
- Rozawood Blues acoustic guitar (OOO/OM-ish) with McIntyre Feather or Fishman soundhole pickup and L.R. Baggs preamp.
- Resonator guitar (biscuit type)
- Shure SM58 for vocals
- Edirol digital mixer
Thank you for all the detailed information.
quote:
Resently I’ve co-founded a blues band where I play acoustic, electric and reso guitar and sing, the rest of the band counts keys, lead vocal/sax, drums and hopefully soon bass.
I’d like to be able to play all three types of guitar through my L1 Compact using a Line6 POD for electric amp simulation (works fine), but I don’t know if I should use a SM57 or put a pickup in my reso, to get the best results and eliminate feedback?
When I’m play live music I use pickups in my instruments. The only exception is quiet concerts where I know that the audience is listening attentively.
For blues and especially with a band I would use a pickup.
quote:
My acoustic feeds alot in the low end when I use the McIntyre Feather piezo pickup, if I turn down the lows with the preamp or mixer it gets really thin, anyone experience this with their L1 Compacts?
Are you using the ToneMatch switch on Compact Channel 2? It should be in the UP position.
Other than that - you probably need to move farther away from the Compact or get a preamp with a Notch filter. Another alternative is to get a Bose T1® ToneMatch Audio Engine. It has a ParaEQ that you can use as a notch filter.
quote:
Finally I’d like some recomendations for getting the keys and lead vocal/sax amplified. I think of running them through a second Compact, the vocals through channel 1 and keys through channel 2 set to flat (no tonematch).
Yes - I agree that you could use a second Compact for your band with the vocal microphone in Channel 1 and the keys through Channel 2.
quote:
Any recommendations? How much can you run through a Compact? If we need to lift the kick drum or upright bass?
I have run electric bass many times through a Compact and it was fine for situations where I have used the Compact for vocals and guitar. What I mean is… if the Compact could meet the needs of a room for vocals and guitar (acoustic oriented sound) then the bass was fine. BUT I have found that when playing with a drummer, then it is best if it is not a LOUD drummer. A loud drummer can overcome the output of the Compact.
Finally - I don’t think that I would be putting drums through a band with two Compacts. I would expect that if I needed to AMPLIFY the drums (to be much louder than they would be without amplification), then the overall requirements might be more than the Compacts can reasonably accomodate.
Does that help?
edit: grammar
Hi there,
I think you will find that in a band set-up, the L1 Compacts will likely not be enough.
To be fair, i’ve never used an L1 compact but i just can’t see it happening.
I’m a blues player - I play guitar and piano in a blues duo - swapping about between my roland RD700GX electric piano, and vintage National resonator guitars - loaded with. Highlander pickups.
I also play some acoustic guitars (Kay dreadnought, and a Gibson L50 archtop F-hole acoustic) loaded with vintage Dearmond magnetic pickups. These electricied guitars i play into a fender blues Jnr valve amp and mic up with a Shure SM57 mic.
Lot of gear to use, plus I need a vocal mic.
My bandmate uses National resonator guitars with magnetic stick on pickups, and a vocal mic. He also plays various vintage parlour 6-string and 12-string guitars.
How do we set all this up ?
We use one Bose L1 mk2 system with two Tonematch digital mixers - using one T1 each.
We sometimes each do solo gigs on our own, so having are own Tonematch, and set up to our own preferences make solo or duo gigs a synch.
Occasional gigs at festivals where we have multiple shprt sets during a day, with provided PA systems, we just use our tonematch plugged i to a channel of the provided PA instead of using the Bose L1.
I can’t recommend a Tonematch more highly - and suggest having per one to two musicians.
For my Tonematch, i set it up like this :
Ch1. Vocal Mic - Shure SM58 (with same Tonematch preset)
Ch2. Resonator guitar with Highlander pickup (on acoustic guitar with piezo preset)
Ch3. Electric guitar - plugged into fender Blues jnr amp, mic’d up with Shure SM57 mic (SM57 mic’d amp preset)
Ch4. Roland RD700GX e.Piano (General keys preset)
I leave the mute on Ch3 when not playong my electric guitars so no feedback problems.
Mute ch2 when not playing a reso guitar and mute briefly when switching between reso guitars for silent unplugging/ plugging of jack sockets on the guitars.
I have mentioned it before (a good few years ago) but I wish you could programme a channel on the tonematch to have user presets to have all your guitars eq’d and set up fully, into individual presets - so that each instrument is already optimised for sound. Change instrument, select the appropriate user saved preset and off you go !