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  #1  
Old 06-17-2018, 06:38 AM
815C 815C is offline
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Default My portable live sound rig for solo guitar gigs

I play solo guitar/lap steel gigs for corporate events, weddings, etc., and I play during lunch when I can make it at a nursing home. I'm about to start doing some coffee house gigs as well.

Setting up the sound is a pain for me. I've had situations where I forgot a power cord, or an XLR cord, etc. There's just a lot of pieces and parts to bring. And it takes time to set up, and it seems I never get sound out of my speakers right away and I have to spend time figuring out what I set up wrong.

I've been wanting a portable unit that I could wheel in and minimize my set up time. I bought this road case off of Craigslist for cheap. It was configured for a DJ's turntables and laptop. It has rollers on one end so I can wheel it around!! I set it up with my mixer, a couple Strymon pedals (cabled stereo into the FX in/out of the mixing board), two LR Baggs para acoustic DI's and my laptop (for backing tracks). I can pack two Anchor AN-1000 powered speakers in it (these are great bang for the buck for small rooms). If I'm playing a larger room/venue, I'll haul along my large Mackie SRM450 powered speakers and use the Anchors for monitors. If I play a room that already has a PA, I can run Line Out of my mixer into the house PA.

I can use this for acoustic guitar, classical guitar, archtop, lap steel, and fiddle. The Stymon BigSky has a cabinet emulation switch which makes it great for using with a board.

This rig sounds surprisingly great. It took a bit of work to set up, but will save me lots of time & effort down the road.






Last edited by 815C; 06-17-2018 at 07:32 AM.
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Old 06-17-2018, 07:03 AM
Marty C Marty C is offline
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I went to your site. You are very talented and a great job on the video. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Love your set-up. I mounted a Play Acoustic, Bagg Para di, mixer and mic stand to my pedalboard to achieve a similar goal. I run my mixer out to a Bose S1 Pro with battery power.

Love your case. I have never seen those speakers. Are they set up to produce stereo sound? The raised area for the notebook is very cool.

My job is now including more travel than in the past so I don’t play out much anymore. Leaves very little time at home and when I am home, I need to spend time with my family.

Thanks for sharing this. Very well done.
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Old 06-17-2018, 07:09 AM
Nymuso Nymuso is offline
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Have you tested the phantom power on that Mackie? I have the same board and the phantom power adds noise on all channels. Not sure if it's just mine or if they're all like that.
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Old 06-17-2018, 07:19 AM
Davis Webb Davis Webb is offline
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So how do u power this?
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Old 06-17-2018, 07:28 AM
815C 815C is offline
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Originally Posted by Nymuso View Post
Have you tested the phantom power on that Mackie? I have the same board and the phantom power adds noise on all channels. Not sure if it's just mine or if they're all like that.
I use phantom power off the board and have not experienced any noise.

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Originally Posted by Davis Webb View Post
So how do u power this?
See that power strip behind the mixer - I just plug it in.

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Originally Posted by Marty C View Post
I have never seen those speakers. Are they set up to produce stereo sound?
They are not stereo speakers, but I run them off the left & right outputs of the board and have my effects panned left and right to achieve the stereo spread.
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Old 06-17-2018, 09:47 AM
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rick413 rick413 is offline
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I have what seems like the same case that I no longer use. I will sell it for $50 if anyone is interested. Local pickup, Ocean City MD. 610-7151172
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Old 06-18-2018, 06:53 AM
PorkPieGuy PorkPieGuy is offline
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I have that same Mackie board. It has been one of the best investments in music gear that I've ever made.
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Old 06-29-2018, 12:45 AM
The Kid! The Kid! is offline
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Originally Posted by rick413 View Post
I have what seems like the same case that I no longer use. I will sell it for $50 if anyone is interested. Local pickup, Ocean City MD. 610-7151172
How much to ship it to 14214?
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Old 06-29-2018, 12:48 AM
The Kid! The Kid! is offline
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This is amazing!

I want to do this with my board. I’d like to incorporate a mixer that raises up like your computer shelf and also holds a drum machine. I want to have everything connected and ready to go. How high up does the shelf come?
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Old 06-29-2018, 11:02 AM
gfirob gfirob is offline
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I must say I got a big kick out of that video of the Christmas song. Whoever did that came up with every possible visual wrinkle he could including the drone and putting a light inside the guitar. Fingerboard-cam too. And you were willing to stand out on a frozen lake in a snowstorm to play too.

I have a similar setup including the same mixer, a Tonedexter, a TCH Play Acoustic, all wired together with short cables. I keep them velcroed to a heavy music stand with a powerstrip on the floor and the powersupply cables going through a zippered sleeve velcroed to the music stand shaft. For some reason it was the power supplies and all those thin cables that were the biggest problem to solve since they were always a big tangled mess until I got the cable sleeve figured out.

The top of the music stand (with all the boxes velcroed to it) travels to the gig in one piece, so setup is very fast.

Great playing too, by the way.
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  #11  
Old 07-10-2018, 10:01 AM
The Kid! The Kid! is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 815C View Post
I play solo guitar/lap steel gigs for corporate events, weddings, etc., and I play during lunch when I can make it at a nursing home. I'm about to start doing some coffee house gigs as well.

Setting up the sound is a pain for me. I've had situations where I forgot a power cord, or an XLR cord, etc. There's just a lot of pieces and parts to bring. And it takes time to set up, and it seems I never get sound out of my speakers right away and I have to spend time figuring out what I set up wrong.

I've been wanting a portable unit that I could wheel in and minimize my set up time. I bought this road case off of Craigslist for cheap. It was configured for a DJ's turntables and laptop. It has rollers on one end so I can wheel it around!! I set it up with my mixer, a couple Strymon pedals (cabled stereo into the FX in/out of the mixing board), two LR Baggs para acoustic DI's and my laptop (for backing tracks). I can pack two Anchor AN-1000 powered speakers in it (these are great bang for the buck for small rooms). If I'm playing a larger room/venue, I'll haul along my large Mackie SRM450 powered speakers and use the Anchors for monitors. If I play a room that already has a PA, I can run Line Out of my mixer into the house PA.

I can use this for acoustic guitar, classical guitar, archtop, lap steel, and fiddle. The Stymon BigSky has a cabinet emulation switch which makes it great for using with a board.

This rig sounds surprisingly great. It took a bit of work to set up, but will save me lots of time & effort down the road.





You have inspired me and you have probably singlehandedly made my gigging life MUCH simpler!

I am going to do the project in two pieces.

http://www.odysseygear.com/odyssey-p...mcx8000bl.html

Going to go with something like the Odyssey FZDNMCX8000BL on the floor and use this folding keyboard stand as my “shelf.”

http://www.gatorframeworks.com/keybo...w-utility-tbl/

Probably going to get a custom case built for the folding table so that I can have the mixer, drum machine, and power supplies for both always attached.

Trying to fit everything the same box was proving difficult. Trying to source special folding legs and build my own shelf would’ve been almost as expensive as buying this keyboard stand that I found for $80.

The DJ controller cases have the right dimensions and are low profile enough to not be too bulky.

I’m going to put a power strip on each side of the floorboard and have the keyboard stand directly above it right in front of me. If I don’t like that set up, I can always just move it over to my right.

It’s a couple more things than I wanted have to plug-in, but it’s not that big of a deal Will still take me less than five minutes to set up.

Thank you for the idea and the inspiration!!!
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  #12  
Old 08-11-2018, 07:27 AM
The Kid! The Kid! is offline
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Finally finished! Because of my needs, I ended up with more pieces, but it’s still very simple. I have a bunch of gigs on this new system now.

Turns out it ended up being two flight cases, a cable snake between them, and a folding keyboard stand that is very sturdy. It’s more pieces than I originally wanted, but everything in one box would’ve been way too bulky and heavy. Pieces are manageable and everything set up in a little less then seven minutes.

For some reason, I cannot get these to embed.

https://imgur.com/gallery/ObbqF3w

https://imgur.com/gallery/oT2hZLG

https://imgur.com/gallery/Pr8XTXr

https://imgur.com/gallery/Oowkutt

https://imgur.com/gallery/d1bvvic

https://imgur.com/gallery/o6eilQj
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  #13  
Old 08-11-2018, 11:11 PM
815C 815C is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Kid! View Post
Finally finished! Because of my needs, I ended up with more pieces, but it’s still very simple. I have a bunch of gigs on this new system now.

Turns out it ended up being two flight cases, a cable snake between them, and a folding keyboard stand that is very sturdy. It’s more pieces than I originally wanted, but everything in one box would’ve been way too bulky and heavy. Pieces are manageable and everything set up in a little less then seven minutes.

For some reason, I cannot get these to embed.

https://imgur.com/gallery/ObbqF3w

https://imgur.com/gallery/oT2hZLG

https://imgur.com/gallery/Pr8XTXr

https://imgur.com/gallery/Oowkutt

https://imgur.com/gallery/d1bvvic

https://imgur.com/gallery/o6eilQj
Man, that looks great! An hour of proactive work = 10 hours of reactive work! Now that you've gone thru the effort of getting that set up, you'll save a lot more effort down the road.

Hope that gigs go great!

David
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Old 08-12-2018, 12:48 AM
Br1ck Br1ck is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PorkPieGuy View Post
I have that same Mackie board. It has been one of the best investments in music gear that I've ever made.
I wonder how many of those old Mackie boards are still going strong. Always had great mic pres.
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  #15  
Old 08-12-2018, 10:41 AM
The Kid! The Kid! is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 815C View Post
Man, that looks great! An hour of proactive work = 10 hours of reactive work! Now that you've gone thru the effort of getting that set up, you'll save a lot more effort down the road.

Hope that gigs go great!

David
I do 6-10 per week in the summer and 4-6 per week the rest of the year. It’s going to save me a lot of time and make it possible to do doubles with tighter time tolerances. It’s a dream rig.
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