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My Gear For The Acoustic Gigs

My mind is on the upcoming acoustic gigs we’re doing. I haven’t gigged since 5th May 1992 (funny how that date has stuck in my mind). That’s so long ago, I’m effectively gigging for the first time.

I thought it’d be useful (both for me and anyone else looking to move out of the bedroom and onto any kind of stage) to talk about the gig, the rig, and any lessons that come out of actually doing it.

The Act

We’re starting off as a two-piece semi-acoustic act. Tess is on vocals, and I’m on guitar. Why have we gone for this format / approach?

Long and short of it … we’re hoping that it’ll be much easier to gig regularly as an acoustic act. It’s an act that scales down nicely to small venues / bars / cafes and the like. There’s a lot more of those than venues that can accommodate a five-piece rock machine with a live drummer.

The Guitars

The main guitar for our set will be my Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster. I’ll also be using my Taylor T5z during the set.

Originally, my Taylor T5z was going to be the main guitar for this band. I bought it back in 2017 exactly for that purpose. Then the Acoustasonic Tele came out, and that changed everything.

The AT simply sounds much better at the acoustic thing, thanks to the onboard Fishman modelling. And it’s eminently more replaceable should the worse happen at a gig.

But the Taylor isn’t completely out of the picture.

Seeing as I already have it, it’s coming along to be my backup guitar (just in case). And we’re using it for one song in the set. One of the songs requires an alternate tuning. During rehearsals, we decided that it’s too much faff to retune the AT, so we’re going with the T5z already retuned for that one song.

If we manage to land more gigs, I’ve already decided to get a second Acoustasonic Tele to be the backup / alternate tuning guitar. The set list and arrangements are all built around how the AT sounds and plays. It just makes sense to be able to have a like-for-like as the backup guitar … eventually.

The Amps

Here, I need to give a huge shout out to the wonderful folks over at AStrings. They let us come in for a couple of mornings and audition every single acoustic amp in stock, using our own gear. I’m so grateful that they did, because there was one amp in particular that stood out as perfectly suiting our sound.

We’re using a pair of Acus One 8 acoustic guitar amps.

These are 4-channel solid-state amps. Each channel has its own separate preamp controls. I’ve set one channel up for the AT, and a second channel up for the T5z. All I’ve got to do during the gig is remember to zero the channel volumes when switching guitars 🙂

We haven’t decided yet whether we’ll run Tess’s vocals through the same amp (which does sound great), through the 2nd Acus One 8 amp, or straight into the venue’s PA. We’ll sort that out on the night.

The main reason for having two Acus One 8 amps is to make sure we’ve got a spare with us.

Other Items

There’s a few other things I need to take along with me to the gigs: tuner, capo, and guitar picks. Oh, and instrument cables!

Atm, I’m using TC Electronic Polytune headstock tuner. I need to put a fresh set of batteries in before the first gig. And a spare wouldn’t hurt at all. If only they weren’t out of stock right now …

In the back of my mind, I’m wondering if I should be using a floor-based tuning pedal as well or instead? A floor-based pedal would also give me a kill switch. That might be useful.

Things I’m Not Using

For now, I’ve decided against putting together a pedal board for acoustic gigs. There’s a couple of reasons why.

My instinct is that I don’t want to be worrying about power-related problems at gigs. I just want to plug straight into the amp, and not be worried about finding somewhere to plug in the pedal board – or be worried about someone somehow unplugging it during the gig.

I’m open to the idea of using a small board with all the pedals running off batteries. Unfortunately, I haven’t found many pedals that run off battery and work with acoustic guitar tones. Especially compressors, which is the main effect I’m interested in.

With Brexit looming – and the likelihood of supply chains being disrupted for months afterwards – I probably need to make a final decision on this in the next couple of weeks. I might be better off getting the pedals that I can whilst they’re available, and then selling them on if I end up not needing them.

A pedal board that includes an acoustic DI box might also come in handy for travelling light – just guitar and nano pedal board.

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New Arrivals For March

So March has been and gone. In the end, February’s absolute deluge of available 2nd hand gear wasn’t repeated this month. But a road trip later in the month brought a chance encounter with something a little bit different …

These are my initial impressions of this month’s new arrivals. I’ll do full articles on each of them when I’ve had some time with them.

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New Arrivals For February

February has been a very strange month for gear.

The Winter NAMM announcements are over, and now we wait for actual stock to appear in the shops. Some items – like Marshall’s new Studio line of heads, combos and cabs – have arrived quickly (and largely sold out just as quickly). Other pieces – not so much.

eBay started slow, but in the middle of the month, there was a lot of great gear up for grabs at surprising prices. I was expecting most people to be waiting for the “free for private sellers” changes coming at the start of March. I was wrong.

Here’s a list of everything I’ve picked up in February, along with my initial impressions. I’ll write up a full article on each of them once I’ve had a bit of time with them.

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Initial Thoughts On The Marshall Studio Amps vs Marshall Origin For Pedals

At Winter NAMM 2019, Marshall made a major announcement: they launched not one, but two 20W amps based on classic designs. The Marshall Studio Vintage 20 is based on the famed plexi-era amps, and the Studio Classic 20 is based on the JCM 800 – the amp of 80’s rock.

And, by all accounts, both of these amps absolutely nail those tones.

Where does this leave last year’s big new amp, the Marshall Origin? Will the Origin finally find its audience, or is it going to disappear?

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New Arrivals For January

The turning of the year can be a great time to hunt for new (to you) guitar gear. The second hand market is normally flooded with folks who are moving on gear they no longer want – or sadly can no longer afford to keep. And there’s Winter NAMM, where brands large and small drop announce new products.

I’ve been lucky enough to pick up some stuff that I’m interested in, and I thought I’d share it with you. Some of it is new to me, and some of it is me taking a second look at things I’ve had before but didn’t gel with. And there’s a few very special items too.

I’m going to do full articles on each of them, once I’ve had a bit of time with them. For now, here’s the very first impressions for you.

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Wampler Launches The Pantheon – Their King of Tone Alternative

It’s finally here – the Wampler Pantheon overdrive pedal. Based on the original Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal circuit, it aims to be an alternative to that legendary pedal: Analogman’s King of Tone.

As well as Brian’s own demo (above), there are plenty of demos from the YouTube pedal demo community and several retailers.

As is usual with Brian, he hasn’t made a straight-up clone on the King of Tone. There’s an extra – and active! – bass EQ knob, and external switches both for the amount of gain and the kind of clipping available.

The Analogman King of Tone is possibly second only to the Klon when it comes to restricted supply and hype-fuelled demand.

The KoT is still in production. To buy a new one, you have to send an email to Analogman to join the waiting list. Unfortunately, they don’t send acknowledgements, so you’ve no way of knowing if you’re actually on the list or not. Then you have to wait until you’re at the front of the queue. At the time of writing, the queue is around two years long.

As a result, there’s definitely demand for a KoT-type pedal that is easy to obtain, and easy to replace if it stolen or otherwise lost.

Please head over to YouTube and leave a like and a supportive comment on the videos.

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Slate Digital VRS8 Interface Launched

Slate Digital has launched the VRS8, their 8×8 recording interface for Thunderbolt-equipped Macs.

https://youtu.be/mP3IhLrnDW4

For home studio enthusiasts who want pro-level gear, there’s really only three ways to do it: Universal Audio Apollo, Slate Digital VRS and the Everything Bundle … or buy a standalone interface and collect your own plugins from lots of different vendors.

The UAD system relies on DSP chips in the Apollo hardware to run emulations of analog outboard gear. You have to buy these plugins separately, and they cost hundreds of pounds each. The results are fantastic, and not only well worth the money, but also far cheaper than buying (and maintaining!) the real outboard gear.

There’s just one problem, and it’s the reason why I haven’t bought any UAD plugins this year. The Apollo hardware is simply underpowered. It doesn’t take many plugins to max out the available hardware. And if you’re a home studio enthusiast, it’s a lot of money to move from the Apollo Twin up to the Apollo 8.

Enough money to consider looking at switching to something else.

Now Slate Digital has its own serious problem to take into account. It’s secured by an iLok key. Look at a modern Mac. Where the hell do you find a free port to plug the iLok into these days?!? One port is taken up by power, one by the external storage that the session is on, one by your audio interface, and one by your external monitor.

Yes, I know there’s a virtual iLok now. I live in the UK, where our broadband is about as reliable as a Trump tweet or a Brexit promise. I don’t want a (rare!) creative day ruined because of a broadband outage.

That said, the Slate Digital VRS looks really interesting. For pretty much the same price as the Apollo 8 Quad, you get 8 preamps and a year’s access to the Everything Bundle. (The equivalent UAD Ultimate Bundle is currently over £2,300 and doesn’t include all of the plugins). And your Mac will be able to run far more plugins at once than the quad-DSPs of the Apollo 8.

Thing is, if I’m going to use all 8 preamps, I’d want the Apollo 8p, not the Apollo 8. The difference? The extra Unison preamps, which model the electrical behaviour of whatever outboard gear you’re simulating. I’m a big fan, and a big believer that part of the organicness of a recorded tone comes from the interaction of the electrical circuit.

Question is, though: is it a difference that is noticeable in a final mix? And is it a difference that’s worth the extra money?