This is a report on our first time playing with the Bose Personalized Amplification System. This was a private outdoor October fest. The band is a 4 piece guitar, drums, bass and keyboards.
The guitarist plays both acoustic and electric. He loved the system. The 1st set he played a Takamine F-360 acoustic. He is an aggressive soloist. It was a significant improvement over his SWR California Blonde. The line array really works for acoustic instruments.
He played a Telecaster and a Strike 2 electric guitar thru a Princeton Reverb for the 2nd and 3rd set. Once again the sound was better than the previous configurations we have used (a Vibrolux Reverb) There is a much more even sound at various distances and you can hear it on the other side of the stage! Not that it was knocking you over it just sounds really good.
The keyboard player really loved the system. Mark Mercier was a guest musician He plays in Max Creek, a jam band out of CT. He has used many different systems in the countless shows he has done. He said he was really impressed with the stage sound. He was impressed with how well he could hear the guitarist on the other side of the stage.
I played 3 different basses directly through the system. A Precision bass, an old Danelectro dolphin head and a Jerry Jones shorthorn. All are passive basses. The precision sounded the best. I rely on compression with the Danelecto’s and have not purchase a bass effects unit yet. My Personal Amplification System was augmented by a Bose 1800 power amp and 2 Bose MB-4 subs. My normal amp is a Nemesis 410 combo. The bass was very much like what it sounds like in a studio. This was outdoors and we set up almost 10 ft in front of the systems. I would have liked to have felt more air behind me as I’m used to having the cabinet 4-5 feet away from me. I also like to have compression. I tried the first gig without it. The setup was suitable for the gig. Playing outdoors is always different for bass. The Nemesis amp seems to feel not big enough for outdoors. I have a few things to try. I got a great bass sound out of the Bose system in our practice area. I still need to experiment.
We sang through the system through Shure Beta 87’s the sound was very nice. The experience of hearing a blend without having to share a monitor system is really nice.
We did not use any effects on the vocals. I set the vocals at the flat preset (00) and it sounded really good. I haven’t tried any of the others I certainly will. I have tried some different mic’s in my music room. I was impressed with a SM-58.
I will get more involved with the presets as we go. I think we are just so happy with the basic sound, that we haven’t been through many of the possible tweaks available.
We all used the tone controls on the remote. I do enjoy having the controls right near me. I’m on the fence as to where to have the remote. I want to make a quick easy setup so I’m thinking about putting my remote on a pedal board. I’m building this pedal board with multi-effects unit for vocals, a Sansamp bass driver and a tuner. I considering using a 4 channel 15-18’piece of snake to connect the signal stuff from the pedal board and my mic to the Power Stand. I wondered if the din connectors are anything special. I may want to get a right angle connector if such a thing exists. I use a company called redco for a custom wiring source.
This was a private party so we didn’t really have someone out in front of the band to give feedback. I announced that this was a new system and asked the partygoers for feedback. Everyone said it sounded good. Sometimes when you ask that question and press people feel like you are testing them.
The only negitive thing was our drummer thought the volume of everything was really loud. The stage was not very wide so the systems were right behind him. I am forever trying to get him to play quieter and this took me quite by surprise.
Tim Mayock
WWW.Themayocks.com
www.themayocks.com
[Ken-at-Bose changed “Personal” to “Personalized”]
[This message was edited by Ken-at-Bose on Fri October 31 2003 at 06:37 AM.]