Help with my Gig Rig

[cyeiser]

Hey, Cafe. #I play in a rock band that's just beginning to play shows in our area. #I'm hoping I can turn to you all for some advice on how to best set up my gear for performance. #I've been an entirely acoustic musician for over 15 years, so I don't have a whole lot of experience with the considerations of amplified playing.

In the band I switch around between my mandolin (Gold Tone GM-110), my octave mandolin (Sherwood with Fishman under the saddle), my mandobird IV, my Soares'y Reso-tenor (single coil), and my Bari Uke (soundboard transducer).

In rehearsal, I plug directly in to a Mackie Onyx 1640 mixing board. #I have to change input levels, etc. every time I switch instruments. #That's no problem in rehearsal, but it is unwieldy at best on stage.

I'm looking to get myself the right set of peripheral equipment to make this all go much smoother, as well as to be able to craft my sound. #I know I want a pedal tuner, which would double as an "off" switch for changing instruments. #I'm also thinking about getting the Boss EQ-20 pedal which would allow me to store up to 10 individual presets. #That way I could hit the tuner, switch instruments, call up the EQ setting for the new instrument, and hit the tuner again.

Would I be okay plugging that setup into a soundboard? #Do I need to add a preamp to the end of that chain? #A direct box? #Should I use a guitar amp instead? #What if I want to add some effects pedals into the mix, such as a compressor or an overdrive pedal?

Each of my instruments pushes out differing levels of signal. #Is there a preamp that has memory slots for settings?

What is the big issue I'm leaving out?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Chris

[Dave Butterbaugh]

Hi Chris,
I play in a four piece “sort of” string band. All four of us switch off a number of instruments. I switch between a Electric bass through a bass amp mic’ed, acoustic guitar, 6 string banjo and mandolin, I am using small mixing board, Behringer Eurorack UB1204-PRO Mixer and run the out to the main board. I don’t use a lot of effects. I mostly use a little chorus on the guitar. I run effects through “my” board’s aux sends.

[dillo]

Yeah Chris,

a mixer is a good way to go. #some of my favorite players use this method to switch between multiple instruments (Bo Carper of new Monsoon & Andy Goessling of Rail Road Earth). #This way you get dedicated EQ settings per channel (translated to per instrument). #Every venue/PA system sounds a bit different, so a programmed EQ could slow you down in the long run. #A mixer with mute switches on each channel will make your life a lot easier. #You can take the output of the mixer through any pedals you want, then to a DI & you're there. #A volume pedal couldn't hurt either. #For Stage tuners, the pederson is the shiz-nit, but a Boss TU-2 has served me well for years, and is a heck of a lot cheaper. I recommend using a tube amp for the Mandobird. It'll make it sing like it's s'posed to.

[grant_eversoll]

I third the motion on the mixer and a Behringer would be a good one. I have had one for about 5 years with 4 years of road use (it is hooked into my recording systym now) and never had a bit of trouble with it and you can still hook your peddles through it. You can go inst. to peddles to board or ins to board with the peddles in the FX loop. You would probably want to go ins to tuner peddle then to the board

[Blueglass]

a-ha I feel your pain. Here is one trick. Plug into a preamp, use one that has BOTH a balanced out and an unbalanced out. Any good tube preamp will be like this. Use only the balanced out as your direct input into the soundboard. Then use the unbalanced out and have that go into a (stage amp/moniter) of some type, your choice. You at no time should or have to, nor want to, ever mess with the preamp input. The sound person, whoever that is will simply adjust your mix based on what they hear out in the crowd. Your only responsability will be to turn the little volume knob on your personal stage moniter, which will only effect you, not the what is going out into the crowd.
any questions?

[mikeomando]

I think the sound of an electric instrument plugged directly into a mixing board sounds a little dead. I would at least add some reverb to the input to deal with this. A tube preamp will definitely help in this regard. Most electric folk spend a huge amount of time finding an amp that will give them their sound, and they wouldn't give up that sound and leave their tone at the mercy of the mixer. A line 6 Pod would let you model a bunch of different amps, save some presets, and provide you with a tuner that kills the output. It also comes in a floor pedal version.