Re: Small Equipment Possibilities

[Todd Madson <crash@waste.org>]

Hi.....

I thought about getting a 7-string guitar since you can get some decent
low end going on with those beasts and still sound rather guitar-like.
I was playing a $550 ESP LTD the other day and it played and sounded
really good - I was surprised.

That should work pretty well for flying off into any key.  As far as 
getting decent percussion loops going - I'm really familar with the 
Roland R-5 human rhythm composer.  I could probably have at least 20
different preprogrammed things ready to go and still create something
on the fly in a way that would sound artistic.

So, my current gear is:
Mesa Studio preamp, Lexicon vortex with pedal, roland JC-120 with
footswitch, then whatever guitar I feel like bringing (either a 
Heartfield EX-2, a Jackson Soloist or a Washburn acoustic-electric
cutaway).

Cool setup tips here though.

On Thu, 12 Aug 1999, K. Douglas Baldwin wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> >K. Douglas Baldwin wrote a message about doing a gig with a Roland D-50,
> >several amps, a PA, a marshall stack, a kitchen sink, and several large
> >pack animals to carry it all.
> 
> 
> Yes, and the worst part was getting the grand piano over the Alps.
> 
> >I thought about the smallest possible amount of stuff to bring on a gig
> >and came up with this configuration:
> >
> >Guitar: Steinberger (the little square one with no headstock),
> >FX Unit: Line 6 Pod (it's really small and sounds good)
> >Looper: Akai Headrush or Boomerang (the Akai is small, Boomerang less 
>so)
> >Drum Machine: New ZOOM unit (could replace FX unit above)
> >Keyboard:  Tiny $100 casio with MIDI into more expensive sound module*
> >
> >*Dave Torn has done this live!
> >
> >The only problem would be the amplifier; even a Roland JC-77 is rather
> >heavy (not as heavy as the JC-120), but these amps are clean and loud
> >and would amplify the above nicely.
> >
> >You could actually do okay with a rig like this and it wouldn't weigh
> >a lot and would work fairly well I would think.  Experiment!
> >
> >Todd Madson
> >Musician, Mountain Biker, Stunt Kite Flyer, BeOS/MacOS/Linux/WinNt user.
> >http://www.waste.org/~crash/index.html
> 
> 
> Tahnx, Todd. And good advice. I may take a Crate Acoustic Guitar amp out
> (the 120 watt model) for it's combination of very clean tone and relative
> light weight, but I am also addicted to big ol' tube amps. I like sounds
> that are real trad guitar as well as indefinable deep space (Mr. Torn is 
>a
> good reference, actually) so I will probably haul something around for 
>that
> sound as well. As for the drum machine and keyboard, it all got too
> constricting for me. I like to fly off into any key (or no key) at any
> moment, and I like to play the guitar, not push buttons. Button pushing 
>for
> music making is fine, it's just not me.
>     The setup at the moment seems to include: guitar (Hohner/Steinberger 
>or
> Yamaha
> Pacifica) into Rat distortion, Digitech Whammy, Alesis Microverb and 
>Mooger
> fooger Ring Modulator, then into Akai Headrush and out to Crate amp. I 
>need
> to experiment with adding a tube preamp, probably between the Rat and
> Whammy, then an A/B switch to route the signal to either the 
>Headrush/Crate
> or tube power amp for soloing over loops. This is a work in progress, and
> will always be so.
>     For absolute minimalism, I could use the Hohnberger, Rat, Headrush 
>and
> Crate (and maybe the Whammy) and be very happy.
> 
> Douglas Baldwin, Alpha male Coyote, the Trickster
> dbaldwin@suffolk.lib.ny.us
> 
> 
>