Current set-up...

I decided to move the kit upstairs... just because! So here I am now tucked into a corner of what was the dining room of an old Queenslander. You really don't need a whole hell of a lot of room when everything goes through the board....






... the guitars are  - today!! - Spectrum GTBass, Electra Phoenix X195, Vantage X-99, Vantage 696-12 and Spectrum ST Telecaster. I've been doing oddball stuff that needs textures, hence the 12 string... the Tele because Teles can do just about everything... the Phoenix because every now and then I need a bridge s/c and I wanted something different to a strat!... the X-99 because it is an absolute killer of a lead guitar; covering Rory Gallaghers' 'Shadow play', I couldn't get even an approximation of Rorys' strat sound with a strat or the Phoenix, but nailed it very quickly indeed with the X-99!!
This lineup will change as I need different sounds, but this is getting close to a very good all-round set-up...

All those 'lectric geetars. . . and no amp!
How does he do it?

I know, right?! But the guitars go through a multi FX on the floor there which acts as a pre-amp, I guess, and from there into the board and thence to the interface thingy and the Mac where you get your sounds either through the 'phones or  - in my case - a small PA amp and some foldback wedges. Seems to work reasonably well but then, I have nothing to compare it to, and the results sound just fine when fired through a stereo as an .mp3...

Nice.

Barry wrote:All those 'lectric geetars. . . and no amp!
How does he do it?

I know. I've got four perfectly fine amps but hardly ever use them.

For band practice and gigging I go through a multi-effect and straight into the PA. At home I either don't bother with amplification or use a Blackstar Fly I got free with a magazine subscription that sits on my office desk.

The days of lugging a 35kg combo around are thankfully behind me

I can appreciate not having to lug heavy amplifiers about. That was always the least attractive part of gigging for me, especially at the end of the night!

Don, you must have a fairly substantial PA system to compensate, no? I have always run my acoustic guitar through the PA but electric guitars and vocals through the same rig can be problematic if you don't have a very good system with excellent EQ'ing. One of my few luxuries was playing where they had a actual "sound man". Bliss.

Heavy amps... nah-uh! I have an 30W 80's 2 channel Crate here which would be my gigging amp, should I ever go down that road again!! Plenty of poke for small gigs; bigger gigs... well, just thread it through the PA with a mike!

All of my fiddling with mixing boards and stuff over the last two years has led to this: flat EQ until the board gives the best results. But. I use a multi FX for guitar FX and at the moment it is inline between the guitar and the board; in fact it is the pre-amp that the board needs to work, so there's a little flexibility there!

And my vocals go through a TC Helicon Perform V which is the most epic piece of gear I use! Really; it is; if you sing, check one out - they are simply astonishing, at least to this old head! It can perform all kinds of harmonies, has the most mega reverbs and echos on tap and can make my reedy tenor into a Lorne Greene style baritone/bass should I ever wish to cover "Ringo"... which I don't wish to do... at the moment...

The gun slinger or the drummer. . .either way you're right, not something to emulate.

I'm done with heavy amps as well. My current gig-rig is a '61 Fender Deluxe. Not exactly sure what it weighs but it aint much.

Barry wrote:I can appreciate not having to lug heavy amplifiers about. That was always the least attractive part of gigging for me, especially at the end of the night!

Don, you must have a fairly substantial PA system to compensate, no? I have always run my acoustic guitar through the PA but electric guitars and vocals through the same rig can be problematic if you don't have a very good system with excellent EQ'ing. One of my few luxuries was playing where they had a actual "sound man". Bliss.

We've got two set-ups. When it's Mrs Don and myself - two voices one acoustic guitar - we go straight through a simple 8 channel mixer and then as many active speakers as the venue demands. We take our monitor feed from the main mix and the only problem we experience has been switching from an inexpensive Schecter "plastic" bowl backed acoustic to an all wood PRS Angelus is that I sometimes now get a bit of feedback.

When the whole band plays, we have a 16 channel desk running active bass units and speakers (again as many as the venue demands, I think our nominal total output is somewhere around 3kw) but I play through a cheap Zoom G5n multi-effects box and Morley volume pedal. It's not the last word in audio fidelity but given that we tend to play in noisy pubs and local festivals (and that by definition our audience aren't particularly discriminating musically ), that set up seems fine. 

We've used the same PA for the last 5 years or so and play through during band practice (almost every week) and for almost all band gigs. We really seem to have found the sweet spot as far as the mix goes in the last year or so. The vocals are really clear whilst the instruments are all perfectly audible. 

We also tend not to run the PA (or drummer) too loud, something we picked up pretty early. IMO too many local bands are simply far too, indeed uncomfortably, loud which results in a significant degradation in sound quality. When we play local festivals where a PA and sound engineer is provided I reckon about half the time we end up asking them to turn us down a bit .

Sound reinforcement writ large, Don - I couldn't agree more! I've walked on many pub or club gigs that were uncomfortably, indeed painfully, loud not because of the volume but because the sound quality is just pants.
I certainly agree with the fidelity aspect of your set-up, too - noisy clubs and less than discriminating patrons generally means that any subtle nuances in the music and/or sound are well and truly lost, so why go through conniptions trying to reacquire them? Play what the punters like to hear, at a comfortable, listenable or danceable volume and you'll be asked back!!