Memorial Day,Beach, Wind, T5, AER...

[dcopper]

Had my first gig of the summer at this cool little Mexican Grille and outdoor patio at the beach. It was beautiful but with a steady ocean breeze going straight through this patio area where I was set up. Like many of you, I have played many venues, some traditional and some "odd". The warm ocean breeze gave me a real challenge to get great tone, not too loud, that would allow people to chat during happy hour without getting drowned out.
As lots of you know, I have posted extensively since 2005 about the T5. I had to take mine this weekend due to less room in the car after people and luggage got packed in. My T5 is actually a T7, since I added an LR Baggs Element Active and used the second strap button as an output, and also have a Roland GK3 pickup if I want to add some synth patches.
Sooo, I did my regular setup- AER 60/3 with and adapter on a standard speaker stand. I ran my vocals through a TC ELectronic Harmony Singer and into the 2nd channel. I ran the T5- Element pickup into Channel 1 of a RedEye Twin preamp and mixed in the T5 onboard electronics first to the Harmony Singer and then to Channel 2 of the RedEye Twin. I got a good mix and sent it to Channel 1 on the AER.
With this wind whipping through the patio and coming from behind my amp, I couldn't hear much of the guitar. I also didn't want to drown out the vocals so I was getting tied up fiddling with the balance between the guitar and vocals. I usually engage the "color" switch on the AER guitar channel which scoops the mids. Since I really could not hear much of the guitar, I disengaged the "color' turning it off and allowed the mids to come through - and VOILA!
I was getting good tone and it was sweet and balanced.
The wind was just whipping the sound around until I added some more mids to the mix and that worked. Like playing with a band, increasing the mids really allowed me to cut through the "noise" created by the wind.
So, if you are ever faced with outdoor wind, you may give this a try.
BTW- the T5 sounded excellent. I am going to put in a K&K pm in place of the LR Baggs Element Active though. I have become a big K&K fan, putting them in all my other guitars.
Happy Belated Memorial Day,
davidc

[Cochese]

Funny I just removed the D-Tar Wavelength from my T-5 and replaced it with my Barbera Soloist/pickup/saddle/ The D-Tar always seemed a bit too bright. I use it with the new Fishman Platinum Analog preamp. The Soloist sounds better and fuller but as you always say a T-5 is a T-5. Maybe the K&K will be a good option. Let us know how that works out. Oddly enough the Wavelength went in my old Taylor 612 that had the K&k mini in there. The K&K always sounded good but with the 612 it was a constant feedback problem. On solo acoustic gigs no less. I could always notch it out with the Fishman but you could just tap on the guitar and hear the resonant frequency the K&K was exaggerating. It could just have been a bad combination in that guitar.

My other complaint with the T-5 is the noise of the internal preamp. It's hard for me to believe that Neve designed such a noisy preamp. When playing the guitar electrically with gain it's a waterfall of hiss. I've asked Taylor and they said the hiss is normal. The T-5 is such a cool guitar but it really seems to be the red headed step child at Taylor.

[dcopper]

Cochese- good points,

I often wonder whether the folks at Taylor understand the T5 as well as many players do.
I agree that at least in the "acoustic guitar" world, the T5 is a red-headed stepchild. I had not used mine on a gig for a while, preferring my other Taylors. It was great because I played Friday night at a coffee shop with my 814 cocobolo which I removed the ES and put in a K&K and soundhole pickup combo. Then I played Memorial Day with the T5 and the Element +T5 pickups which not only sounded very good and very acoustic, but gave my fingers a break with the short scale and 12-52 Elixirs.

I previously had a T5 Koa custom that I put a D-Tar wavelength in and it sounded really good in that guitar. I think that it was necessary to balance the preamp which had a bass adjustment . Once I got that right, it sounded sweet but have since traded it to get to my current setup.

The nice thing about the T5 and the K&K is that once you pop the back off, it is easy to get access to the underside of the bridgeplate and you can actually experiment with placement before superglue.

I will let you know how it works. I always use the RedEye preamps for my K&K guitars. I find them to be easier to manage and much more smooth than the K&K preamps.

davidc

[jonfields45]

My main guitar is a T5z, roughly 50/50 acoustic and electric tones when I gig. I am curious to hear how a K&K PM works in your T5. I've always liked K&Ks and have installed dozens for friends, but they were for me a problem with feedback using floor monitors (which I don't carry but when we use a house system they are pretty much standard).