Recommendations for my gigs
 

HI all,
I know this has been beat to death on here but why not one more time? I play mostly singer songwriter type gigs in small places with myself another vocalist and another guitarist. I play a Clapton 000-28 and a Larrivee LV-03. Neither one of these guitars have pickups in them.
It is my New Years resolution to invest in some equipment of my own so I won't be at the mercy of the house sound equipment or soundman. My first choice would be to mic my guitars. How troublesome would that be? Also, can anyone recommend a good mic for this purpose?
I have also thought about having pickups installed. Looking for suggestions there. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

If you don't want to be at the mercy of house system - you'll have to bring your own. How much do you want to spend? How much do you want to haul, setup and takedown? What do you want for effects?

Sadly, a pickup is the most practical solution in most settings - unless you have great sound engineers and plenty of time to sound check!


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This is where I am presently :

For my club and for smaller gigs - an elderly Rode NT1. This picks up both guitar and vocals all around up to about 2 feet.

I also have three guitars with K&K pure minis (Collings and Martins) veryb unobtrusive, either straight into the mixer, or, better, via a simple pre-amp. (Keep it simple).

Last year I finally sold of my great Peavey system because it was just too heavy for this old guy, and I bought a used Rode L1. Haven't used it in anger yet - ask me again after the 18th.

Most of these gigs are throw-and-go and the environments tend to be a bit noisy. I would not rely on instrument mics or SBTs. A good quality sound hole pick up or a UST through a quality pre-amp represent, in my view, your two best options. Both have advantages, both have short comings, all well documented here on the AGF over the years. I have, and have used all of the above. Today I never use an instrument mic, rarely use my SBT guitar, keep the sound hole pickup in my bag as a reserve and go with the UST/pre-amp combination.

Thank you all for the responses. In response to questions asked. My budget is 2-3k. I am not looking for an overprocessed sound. I would only like to recreate my guitars natural sound only louder. Of course EQ and reverb are probably a must. Beyond that maybe only a compressor. My singing partner and I harmonize very well together and we both like a minimalist, natural sound. CSNish.
As far as pickups go, I have tried about everything in previous guitars. Fishman UST, L.R Baggs UST and Lyric and sound hole M-1active. I am leaning toward giving the K&K a go if the mic idea can't work. K&K users what are you having the best luck with?
I appreciate all the help.

For your budget, I'd get a small mixer and powered speakers along with a fairly small acoustic amp as a monitor, that can also be used in smaller settings.

I chose an A&H Zed mixer, EV powered speakers and a Fishman Loudbox Artist and they've served me quite well. Soundcraft and QSC would be my choice for other options for the mixer; JBL, QSC or Yamaha for speakers; amps are always changing and there are many great options out there (a key consideration for me has always been connectivity).

The other big option that can simplify your life is one of the many array-style towers and sub combos. The best known is the Bose L1, but the last few years have brought forth many other competitors at various price points.

I've yet to hear anything that truly accomplishes the "my guitar only louder" ideal. That being said, a little effort and careful listening will make sure that the unfortunate "quack" toned UST pickup sound is left to history. I've used a Takamine palathetic pickup, a Fishman Aura UST and a K&K SBT. None of them are perfect, but they all can sound great. If you're going to be playing in a typical pub atmosphere, the pursuit of a perfect pristine acoustic tone is tough to accomplish and probably only appreciated by you alone if you manage to get there.

My last bit of advice is to take a look at the dbx GoRack (if you choose the mixer into powered speakers route). I just hooked one up last night and it's the best $30 I've spent in a long time.

Thanks for all the replies. Obviously it is gonna boil down to me doing some homework and legwork. Always chasing something intangible I guess.

I would encourage you to give a B-Band pickup a shot. It's what I replaced my Lyric with. I was very, very impressed with the sound.


Warning: do NOT get a cheapie one off of Ebay. It will pick up all kinds of RF interference. Get a real one.

With that said, I'm running my JJB (very similar to a K&K) into a Fire Eye Red Eye (for impedance matching) and then into an Empress ParaEQ. I'm pretty happy with the sound.

Recommendations for my gigs
 

There are plenty of options available.

For a $2000 budget, I would suggest the following.

1. Active Pickup with battery: K&K with internal preamp, LR Baggs Lyric or Anthem, Fishman with Aura, or Tance Amulet. $300 with installation.

2. Vocal and Guitar Effects systems: TC Helicon Play Acoustic. $300.

3. Good Vocal Mic: Sm58 or Sen E835 $100

4. Packaged Personal PA: Fishman Solo Amp 330, JBL Eon One, Bose L1 Compact, Line 6 L2t, Carvin S600, Carvin AG200, or Yamaha Stage Pass. $1000

5. Stands, cables, iPad holder, etc. $200

6. $100 worth of beer.






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Slope - I recently started amplifying so as to play out. Like you, I am not a fan of overly processed sound. I'm using an Ear Trumpet Labs Josephine mic into a Carvin AG300 amp, with an extension cabinet. No pickups. No monitors. The ETL will accommodate 3 people for instruments and vocals without too much choreography, you just need some mic sense. When the full band is present there are 7 of us, so I added a second mic for pickers/solos (AT 4020). This setup won't produce a ton of volume, but I am pleased with the sound quality. It's compact and somewhat scalable with the extension cabinet. The interaction with my band mates is awesome as compared to the more standard indvidual mics with monitors setup. I'm no expert, just reporting on my experience FWIW.

Thanks gfa. Your approach makes sense to me.

No one is going to argue that the best sound comes from using a mic. The key is the environment you're going to use that setup in. If you have an attentive, listening audience and a minimum of background noise then this setup will work well. Most of the places I play require me to create more volume to overcome the background noise of a busy bar/pub, hence pickups, amplifiers, etc.

I've played in a listening environment with a single mic for my guitar and voice and been quite pleased with the result. Unfortunately, that just won't work in most of the places I play.

Recommendations for my gigs
 

I think this is the key. If you're in a place where a mic will work, then it's a great option. If you're in a room configuration, or other environment where the mic will feedback, or pickup crowd noise before getting to the appropriate volume, then consider a quality pickup and preamp system. In other words, players who use pickup aren't less discerning, or less concerned with their sound. It's just a practical reality.


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