BluesKing777
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Posts posted by BluesKing777
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You are within your rights to have the shiztens! What a drama.....
On the back of my Boss VE8, there is a tiny little overall gain knob - the Roy doesn’t have something like this hiding at the back? Or a screw adjust?
Speaking of Boss, they have a couple of acoustic guitar/ vocal amps that have most of the controls on my VE8 plus an amp and speaker combo. I know it is way ‘lower rent’ than what you have tried, but who knows? It may work! Boss Acoustic Singer Pro is 120 watts......
BluesKing777.
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That is disappointing for you. Doesn't seem to be right though with all the good word the amp has received.
So you either have a dud or you are doing something wrong...
Did you try it at a shop? Or has it arrived direct from Manufacturer? Guitar sounds great, you say, so the UK power setup must be ok. No extension speaker lead hanging out? Ohm problem? Do you use xlr connectors with your mics? Or PMG? Some inputs these days can electronically make their own mind up on settings depending on the plugs... wrong phantom power?
Do you have a SM57/58 to try?
BluesKing777.
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3 minutes ago, billroy said:
Maybe it's a little too much vanity, but this was one of the chief drivers :).
For use as an in ear monitor, do you think you lose a lot only having a single speaker?
My desire is to find a wireless set up... then if I find a wireless mic I like and one of those wireless contraptions for guitars coupled with my battery operated bose S1 - I will be portable and cable free 🙂
All free and easy for a solo performance but if the whole band wants in ears......you just about need 2 more roadies. Drummer wants more of the bass guitar in his ears, bass wants just him....etc
And all your mentioned dream bits have the nuisance - batteries and charging both ends constantly......mic, guitar, ears. I am with you though, Billroy, if there is a lead I will trip on the thing. But the old guitar lead and the old mic lead need no charging...ever. Just plug the ferkers in!
BluesKing777.
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1 hour ago, billroy said:
Hey BK, how do you like the shure in ear monitors?
The Shure in ear monitors I have were the top of the line when I got them a few years back and are truly sensational, Billroy. They are out of date now though. To attempt to explain, mine have 3 tiny speakers each side with bass speaker, middle, treble kind of like live concert PA in your head! I could plug them in to my Boss VE8 and run that to a PA with no floor monitor on, and therefore no feedback. You could do the same with headphones but yo could get mistaken for a DJ.
Because they are in your ear, you can turn down the volume of your mixer quite a lot so they won’t deafen you as much as headphones, we are told. Also because they are in your ear, if you have any ear wax problems it will sure (shure!) make it worse.
The other annoying thing is the wires....it is memory wire that you bend over your ears to hold in place. Headphones, you sort of throw on and off but these take a bit of fiddling until you are used to it.
Apple have the Earpods wireless now, so I hope Shure go that direction! Problem with Apple Earpods is they keep needing charging, whereas the Shures don’t. Of course the Apples only have one speaker, not 3. When I asked the Boss about them on the train to her work, she said everyone has them but she stays with wired ones so she doesn’t lose the little things.....
BluesKing777.
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Thanks KC!
I put the track and post up because I really enjoy using the Boss VE8 for plugging in an acoustic-electric and a mic to get a balance and effects/DI etc - and someone reading this might decide it is exactly what they need too.....no affiliations here.
BluesKing777.
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My friend had Pro Tools and I was the guinea pig when he was first learning it. I sat and played my old Dobro in front of a wall of mics he was testing. He then sat there editing out my breathing, chair noises, clothes noises and the hot car going past..... I learned some Pro Tools but had a job using Photoshop to edit real estate advertising and my retinas couldn’t look at a screen another second. And that leads to my current recording ‘style’ of pressing record and getting whatever I get. I do a fade in and out and run it to Soundcloud, no edits.
BluesKing777.
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Yes, needful things! (Steve King).....
Before that 8 tracker, I had the Portastudio 4 track that used a cassette tape - 2 tracks each side of the tape! I went to a guitarist friend’s one day in the 90s approx and he said : “Look what I bought!” Record to a cassette in 4 tracks! “No! Really? Where do I get one?” The Akai reel to reel went to the pawn shop and a Tascam was mine! And soon enough I had a Boss drum machine so I could make band style tracks with a Boss Octaver on my Strat doing the bass. I did some tracks with a friend and he went mental and bought The Works with a 32 channel desk and all kinds of STUFF.
After gaining some recording confidence, I did a demo of a blues band I played in for a while. We used the singer’s house, upset his wife, had the drums in the lounge and the rest in the kitchen! We did about 10 great tracks! Apart from the cassette tape HISS, we had a better band demo than a pro one we did. Copies of our tape went all over the map and we got all kinds of strange gigs off circuit....including an eye opening Hookers and Deviate’s Ball!
And then one day the Tascam drive broke...and I have had it repaired a few times but never worked properly again....now at the bottm of the closet somewhere. May as well piff it, no competing with Garageband etc, is there?
BluesKing777.
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3 hours ago, Holiday Hoser said:
Boss VE8 is quite a toy after seeing a Youtuber showing it off. Nice live rig. I just picked this beauty for a couple hundred bucks. Used to belong to Charlie Wilson of the Gap Band. Tascam 2488 neo
Should be some fun in the home studio!
I have an 8 track Tascam Portastudio sitting in a box in a closet. I tortured that poor thing hooked up to Band In A Box and a full digital orchestra! Spent a huge amount of time entering the music to BIAB and recording the result, only to realise that it didn’t really want a guitar player. The preamps were not that good, ok if you had plenty of level like a 57 on an amp, but a lot of hiss if you wound up the gain with a 57 to record an acoustic.
My Allen and Heath 4 channel is a superb little mixer, and has replaced the Tascam.
BluesKing777.
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Main thing I miss not working in the city anymore....Basement Discs for many years had free lunchtime concerts of solo artists that were travelling past on tours....one of the reasons I am a Lowden lover is...ha ha...going down the steps to the Basement and Richard Thompson played!!! Though I saw many artists there...across from the entrance in an arcade was a lunchtime type bakery with a swing out window and a long bar you could sit and eat at.....then waddle over to see some guitar players. Martin Simpson was superb another day! John Hammond played there one day, but I couldn’t get down the stairs for people everywhere!
BluesKing777.
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Hands up anyone who has played both the LG2 American Eagle AND the post 1955 LG3 like mine (batwing pickguard models)....
My 58 has a chunky D neck but with a 1 11.16" nut and narrow bridge spacing, whereas the newer American Eagle LG2 has the slim modern Gibson neck with the 1.72" nut...don't know the bridge spacing.
If they made another (currently not on their guitar listings), it would be good to make it a chunky neck with 1 3/4" nut for the fingerpickers! Make it any finish you like, Gibson - call it whatever too - maybe the LG23 or the LG32 and you can have both the 2 and the 3!!!
BluesKing777.
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45 minutes ago, Cabarone said:
Not to be contrary, but I just pulled the trigger on a '17 LG2 American Eagle w/a Natural finish...maybe they changed up over the years?
Probably should be called an LG3!
So, Gibson called them LG3 if they were natural finish from approximately Point A to Point B...😵 except for the ones where the owner has sanded the paint off....
BluesKing777.
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Natural finish LG is the LG3, sunburst LG2....
My 59 LG3 on holiday a few years back...
BluesKing777.
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I just sat back down in my lounge room after spending some time playing and singing through the Boss VE8 using my Shure In-Ear Monitors (545s?) and my 4 channel mixer. It is a bit tricky to get used to having the in-ears when you stop playing mainly. The sound is just superb, like playing through the best PA available.
So here is a possible alternative approach to gigging or open mic’ing........practice at home with your Boss VE8, guitar plugged, mic plugged, get your balance between guitar and vocal and effects, and guess what? On the Boss VE8, you can save your settings, very handy. After you have it mastered a bit, pack a bag with the Boss VE8 loaded with batteries (yep, it takes battery power too!), one or two acoustic guitars, one vocal mic, one guitar lead, one mic lead, tuner, strings etc..AND your in-ear monitors. Park yourself on the stage, plug everything in to the VE8, run a lead to the PA and go! You get the sounds you have practiced with and SAVED and the soundpeople can do their best/worst with the Front Of House PA and you do your thing regardless.....😎
BluesKing777.
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I am having a lot of fun testing various pickups in my Boss VE8 lately. Here I do a short version of Neil Young's "Harvest" with a Baggs M1A soundhole pickup on my Waterloo WL-14L . All I used on the guitar section of the Boss is the volume control - just straight guitar pickup...I like it! The vocal is through my plain jane Shure SM58 with just a splash of reverb, with Keef on harmony in the choruses!😎
And then straight to record in Garageband on my old iMac:
BluesKing777.
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The VE8 is fantastic for working on a 'sound' in the music room. So the theory is that the settings in my recording above should be the same if you plug in to a PA on a stage like, for example, an open mic night....
So you can look at things a couple of ways - you can just turn up with your guitar to the open mic and hope it works out standing in front of the mic. I have done this a few times and while the people out the front hear you loud and clear, I didn't hear much at all, and didn't perform as well as I could have if I just had a bit of monitor! The 4 songs I did were over before the sound was sorted. They may still be scratching their heads.
The next plan is to take your acoustic amp and hope they get your vocal right to suit. I have done this a number of times and the last time, the vocal was so loud that I couldn't hardly hear my guitar in the amp at all...was a little tiny thing way over there. And a guy I know said I should get closer to the mic to hear me better. So obviously the guitar wasn't coming out the front of house properly either. Why did I lug all that stuff?
Plan number 3 is to put batteries in the Boss VE8, take 2 types of leads so I could plug a guitar lead out of the VE8 if I really had to and run mono to a house PA, or take 2 xlr leads and ask the nice soundperson if I can plug my Boss VE8 in stereo xlr to their desk! If they let me do this, all they would have to do is run their channels with flat eq etc and just turn the master volume up and the sound I worked on at home should come tumbling nicely out the front of house, crystal clear with a touch of reverb on my vocal, none on the guitar - all as I set it at home. (I take my own fairly clean looking Shure SM58 too!😥). A big time saver would be to take a guitar that is ready to roll pickup wise - like my Maton 808 or my Taylor 717. The Blues King in the recording with the Sunrise pickup needs too many gadgets to lug... To guarantee HEARING myself as I do at home, I could take my Shure in-ear monitors or my set of lightweight Sennheiser headphones - the Boss VE8 has a headphone plug with volume control. This open mic/blues jam that I used to go to back in the dawn of time is starting up again at a great location in a tourism district..........put my money where my mouth is? My tendency is to go with plan #1 above.....try plan #3 on a future occasion...
BluesKing777.
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Thanks!
The S1 would be ok with the Boss VE8 in mono, but my little Genz is stereo so I can run 2 xlr out of the VE8 into a channel each. The effects are far better and adjustable on the VE8 than the Genz amp. But ideally the VE8 is meant for a nice PA, plug in with your sounds that you practice with at home saved...including the crucial balance of guitar vol and vocal vol. plus harmony setup. You can for example, save a vocal harmony with one voice, save the next with 2 voices, next ‘doubled’, next ‘radio’, or the next ‘distorted’ (like a harmonica mic).....flip between these is useful.
The recording I made above had no effect at all on the guitar, and a splash of reverb on the vocal. That’s about how I like things, but people can do all kinds of stuff. I have intended trying plugging stereo to a friend’s large PA to hear how it sounds but....haven’t. His PA sounds great with just mic or mic and pickup and it seems a bit unnecessary to take the Boss... The theory is to be able to take ‘your sound’ and plug in any PA, eg..open mics.
BluesKing777.
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Thanks Billroy!
I started the day unplugged but you know, dipshite next door has one of those lawn mowers that sound like a giant Hoover and he stops, starts, stops starts, bang the bin, start, stop, bang the bin. The other side had a basketball bouncing on cement, the terd across the road gave the outboard motor and run and the little horrors out the back were playing on their roof!
So...pickup test number 457........fully plugged!
BluesKing777.
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No not me at sunrise...yikes - me playing my Blues King L-00 with a Sunrise pickup.
So it is my Sunrise pickup run to the Sunrise buffer box preamp and to my Fishman Pro EQ and then to my Boss VE8 to join with my Shure SM58 vocal on a nothing like it version of Neil Young's "Long May You Run"......forgive me, NY fans but I was playing the sounds, playing, playing, maybe I should record that, playing, playing, what am I going to sing and play?
This one:
BluesKing777. -
Don't think my strummy version of 'Freebird' would have cut it and I don't think my version of "By The Time I Got To Woodstock" would have amused either....😎
About approx 25 years ago, I went to a guy who taught 'Rock Lead Guitar' for quite a while every week and one of the tunes we did over and over and over and over and .....was the LS instrumental with the Woody Woodpecker guitar riff. (they had 3 lead guitarists and plenty of fodder for riff learning).
EDIT: I thought about that '25' years and it sounded wrong so I worked it out - it is actually 36 years since I learned 'Rock Lead Guitar' derrhhh.
BluesKing777.
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I took the photos a few years back when I had a new SLR Nikon camera and was looking for test subjects/victims. The place was quite a long way but I went by freeway to freeway to city to freeway to tunnel to freeway to freeway to ....little country road.
I intended to play my guitar there so I could say I ‘played at Woodstock’ but it wasn’t a very welcoming place and a couple of local boneheads were glaring at me when I was taking photos at the local hall for hire. The local hotel had what appeared to me all the same V8 sedans lined up out front so I vamoosed before it turned unto a Deliverance meets Dukes of Hazard scene with me as the star with the broken guitar.....
BluesKing777.
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28 minutes ago, jedzep said:
Hah! If you went to Woodstock 50 years ago you'd also be the only one there. You'd have to drive another hour to see the concert.
What was once a quaint, quirky arts community is now a bad soup of sad ol' drum circle hippies and black Amex cards. If you keep traveling north past and over the Catskills another 2 hrs you get to paradise, where I gratefully live."Sad ol' drum circle hippies"!
Love it, JZ.
There are 2 or 3 areas like that here - probably at least one in every country in the world.... a friend is busking at the one here right as I speak. I better head on up. Make some extra coin. I picked up the old Gibson L-0 from the Sydney version.
BluesKing777.
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A friend said: "Grab your guitar and get on to Woodstock!"
I did, but there was nobody there!
He gave me the wrong directions...again.
The correct address was 50 Years ago on August 15!
BluesKing777.
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On 8/13/2019 at 8:51 PM, Murph said:
To be honest Jinder, I've never heard an acoustic amp that does vocals very well. I think that's why the Bose units are so popular.
I have the little S1-Pro with 2 mic channels, and it's become my go to everything with resonator, mandolin and guitar and of course vocals. Even some banjo once in a while. I can line out to my L1-Compact for a pretty large room. Anything larger would have the full p.a.
Best of luck !
So what are the vocals like in the S1?
Acoustic amps and vocals, to me = 🐷
I have a Genz Benz 60 stereo which I bought at the turn of this century - acoustics and various pickups I try sound pretty good, but it doesn't matter what I do my vocals sound horrid in it - I need all the help I can get. I did a few years as vocalist in a rock band many years ago and the guitar player owned (and hired out) his full concert rig and used smaller configs at various gigs but the vocal always sounded sensational - absolutly huge lunatic megolamaniac full sounding with plain old SM58. Great big beautiful boomy Bass boxes and horns and mids and Phase Linear amps and, and, and...- delightful!
Now I returned to the little Genzer this week a few times after reading Jinder's adventures. No dice - Genz is still horrible.
So I have been enjoying the vocal/guitar sounds I get in my Boss VE8 in Sennheiser headphones with some of my (unmentionable pickup guitars) plugged direct and a Shure SM58 also direct.....so I braved it just a minute ago - ran a line out to the Genz from the Boss VE8, thinking maybe, just maybe the good sounds I am getting in the Boss will just magically get louder in the amp. No Dice! Got a nice sound down very quietly but as soon as I turned the master up a smidge, uncontrollable feedback and notch filters on amp or Boss did zip. But even down low, the vocal was exactly as feared/remembered.
Forget it.
Maybe get a Boss VE8, Jinder and just wear nice headphones while you play and enjoy your sound - won't need monitors and the FOH gets the line out and whatever they get.....
BluesKing777.
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I might install mine in the BK. I have persisted with the Gibson supplied Element running it to my Tonedexter, but it has been one of the hardest to get a nice sound out of.....downright perfect example of 'what not to have' plugged direct to anything! I have discovered I can get a fair Tonedexter sound with the volume wheel nearly OFF, the bass and treble on Tonedexter cut by a quarter turn. This indicates that the straight sound is way too flubbish.
Photo op! Sunrise looking good:
BluesKing777.
Acoustic amps...I need to buy one, but which?
in Gibson Acoustic
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Another one gone!
I hope the H&K works out and it isn't your mic or something!
Anyway, do any of the previous manufacturers of junk ever get back to you and tell you what happened? You know, for future reference and all that.
Too late but the manual for the Roy is out - it does have the variable input electronics I mentioned. I prefer a switch, thanks...don't want no machine deciding everything. Bet you that is what is going astray.
from manual:
1.1. MIC INPUT This input is electronically balanced for XLR type connections. The new MIC/DYN channel is now conceived for any kind of signal sources. You can plug in vocal microphones. The electronics will adapt to any situation. No special action is required 1.2. INSERT This stereo jack plug enables the connection of an external device (compressor, equalizer, etc.) in series to all the outputs 1.3. 48V The amplifier’s XLR input provides 48V phantom power for use with a condenser microphone. Most condenser (and dynamic) microphones, along with some preamps, can be safely phantom powered. In certain cases however, phantom power can cause damage to a device. This tends to occur with unbalanced microphones, preamps or stompboxes that have been modified for balanced XLR use. For any doubt, please contact us to check the compatibility of your audio device before using the amplifier 1.4. GAIN This variable gain preamplifier adjusts the sensitivity level to ensure the best possible processing of the MIC signal through the channel. It is important that this input level should be set and optimised in the best way to achieve the cleanest sound possible 1.5. OVERLOAD This LED (when lit) indicates that the level of the inputsignal is too high and it might introduce distortions 1.6. HIGH, MID, LOW These controls are devoted to high, medium and low frequency regulation. Offering cut and boost of ±15dB, they allow a wide range of tonal variations to be explored. Parametrics MID regulation, offers the possibility to cut or boost a frequency range between 300Hz and 3,3kHz. When the controls are positioned centrally there is no cut or boost of the selected frequency band 1.7. MULTIEFFECT This rotary control sets the level of the selected effect on the channels 1.8. REVERB (AUX) This rotary control simultaneously sets the level of the digital reverb on the channels and the level of the signal sent to AUX OUT. 1.9. VOLUME This rotatory control regulates the channel volume
Anyway, too late, sorry - could be anything. Sure you don't want to take your mic to a shop and try some amps in person?
BluesKing777.