Baggs Para Users...

[TRU]

This is aimed mostly at folks who gig with the Para in venues with sound engineers, but any input may help.

Do you find yourself making frequent and severe changes to your settings from gig to gig?

Do you ask the sound man to set your guitar eq flat, thus enabling you to control every bit of the hi-mid-lo?

[chitz]

I havent used my PARA in a while. Since I switched from PA to Acoustic amp exclusively.

Back when I used it a lot, I did not find myself making frequent or severe changes. Subtle changes if any.

[janmulder]

Same for me. I used it a lot in the past. I only really made minor changes. The only times I'd completely redial things was when I changed guitar.

But for any one guitar the settings would stay quite static ... using it more or less as a DI into whatever I was using at the time.

I sometimes adjusted the bass depending on the room and players (usually to reduce a bit to give a bit more room to the bass player)

I pretty much left the Notch and Mid dials alone - it almost always ended up being the same fequencies that needed cutting so in the end I just stopped adjusting them too much.

I sometimes adjusted the Pres and Treble knobs ... again depending on the room and players ... but not much ... no more than an 1/8th turn tops.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by TRU

…Do you find yourself making frequent and severe changes to your settings from gig to gig?

Hi TRU...

No. I find that once I've dialed in my tone with my K&K dual source rigs (K&K pure mini plus internal microphone), minor tweaks are all that are occasionally needed.

And since my preamp sits in front of me on a tray, it's within reach.

We use ParaDI preamps for singles source rigs all the time, and find if we know what the pickup is, we can guess what we need to do to set tone within an acceptable range quickly (lots of years of experience).

I actually find the Baggs Venue more guitar focused than the ParaDI. The ParaDI back in the day was our only sophisticated (and portable) option, but you really have to know what you are doing with it.

The Venue is written in plain-English, and the effects of twiddling are clearly evident.

I ask the sound guy to set the EQ to what he usually thinks works best for the room, and to send that EQ'd signal through the monitor. I then make minor adjustments to the PADI accordingly, and pretty much leave it alone after that.

[hawk]

It took me a while to get used to mine but now I usually just have to make minor adjustments and I'm good.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by TRU

…Do you find yourself making frequent and severe changes to your settings from gig to gig?

Do you ask the sound man to set your guitar eq flat, thus enabling you to control every bit of the hi-mid-lo?

Hi TRU...
In re-thinking about this...

No, once I've set it for a particular guitar, it's never required me to be radical from that point on. The number of isolated instances where there was need for particular consideration have numbered in 3 over the past 8 or 9 years.

And I'll try almost any other solution to resolve issues before resorting to radical EQ surgery.

As to my guitar in the house, and interaction with the sound-man, I just let them handle the room.

Since I work with a stage amp (my monitor) which I feed it's signal separately from the house, I'll set it's sound/tone and let him/her worry about the the sound in the room. If I sense them struggling, I'll make a couple suggestions (or ask my wife or gigging partner who know my likes/dislikes how it sounds in the house).

I don't want to micro-manage them, and certainly don't want them micro-managing me.

[thefonz]

I use my Para in different rooms- I spent a few hours setting it when I first got it, but honestly, really haven't had to make any other changes to it maybe except fiddle on the notch filter from room to room.

I never request anything in specific EQ front he sound guy- that's their instrument. I trust they know what they are doing, and it is extremely difficult to judge an Eq from on stage, usually behind the mains/line arrays. As an ex-sound guy, it was always frustrating to have artists tell me how EQ my system for their guitar when they are on stage and cannot hear what I am hearing out in the house. Just as I wouldn't want a sound guy coming up to me and telling me how to play a chord better...

-trev

[varmonter]

I agree leave that up to the sound tech.Thats what he gets paid for.
Have faith that what you hear is not what the audience is hearing.
generally I find the sound behind the speakers to be a bit more boomy than what is heard up front...just play on
The baggs para is actually a pretty good unit. But i don';t tweak mine too much anymore just volume and occasionally the notch.I switch from guitar to mandolin so need more volume for the mando as it's PU is a bit more passive.