Re: The Well #14 - Welcome to WahWah World!
Nice to see some stuff about the rockbender.
As a superchamp user, monitor mix and quality must be paramount to you. I always find that a monitor 'enhanced' onstage sound is always inferior to hearing a similar volume straight from the amp. Do you have any tips for making monitor mixes sound more natural?
Ever tried hauling your own monitor? -I've thought about doing the Iommi/Beck trick of loading one with guitar speakers...
During the Farnham gig, did you have to play any Brett Garsed stuff note for note? -that would be challenging in spots...
Name a few of your favorite dishes. Feel free to go into recipe details if necessary.
Name your all-star, dream band (players alive or dead may be included).
What non-guitar playing musicians do you dig?
I can't stand the sound of the mic'd amp through monitors either, unless the foldback guy is Mr Wizard. For that reason I prefer to keep the amp real close, as in this pic from the Bryan Ferry tour.
With the amp at that distance as a constant, I get all the volume I need. Fortunately it's not a loud band onstage. On top of that, a few of the other guys get the guitar put up through their sends, so it gets spread across the stage, but just not in my face. I also like to hear the guitar up through FOH, not to cue off, but for that extra bit of 'vibe.' But if I were to have it sent through sidefill or a monitor send, I would get them to roll off everything above 4k @ 12dB per octave, and set a high pass filter @ 80Hz, especially if I'm relying on that send for my vocals as well. But generally, I will try to avoid it. If I'm playing with a much louder band, I'll just use a bigger amp.
As a result, I've never hauled my own monitor, but I like Beck's idea of having guitar speakers in a monitor. It would also be cool to have a good tube mic pre after the amp mic before it gets sent to power. That might help in getting a monitor mix that isn't raspy or cold.
Fortunately with the Farnham tour I did, we had Jack Jones (aka Irwin Thomas) there to cover Brett's gig. I was basically there to do Stuart Fraser's gig, because he was off doing a Noiseworks reuinion tour. But Farnham's repertoire is really very simple, they're just straight forward songs. The pressure comes from the fact that they ask for no less than 100%, so there's no room for error. They set a very high standard, and it was a great discipline to meet it. Brett Garsed is a freakishly good guitar player, and I wouldn't have a hope of covering any of his fancy stuff. But Jack Jones tore it up, and Stuart and I have swapped gigs on many occasions, so I was confident of covering his guitar parts.
Favourite dishes include Thai curries, a lot of Vietnamese dishes, peasant style pastas, many of the Indian curries, and a well grilled rib eye, medium rare. I also love fish, Sea Perch for grilling, and one of my favourite Vietnamese dishes, Rockling fillets with ginger and garlic. Lightly steamed or stir fried vegetables, lots of steamed rice.
My all star dream band would have Paul Rodgers on vocals, Bonzo on the drums, Tal Wilkenfeld on bass (why not have a bass player with a cute rack? Especially if she can play like she does!) and Tony Hymas on keys.
Bonzo is probably my favourite non-guitar playing musician. But I also dig Andy Fraser, Jan Hammer, John Paul Jones, Andy Newmark, Tony Hymas, Stevie Wonder, Double Trouble, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Simon Kirke, Ian Paice, Jon Lord, Steve Winwood, Colin Moulding, Bernard Purdie, Jim Keltner, Pete Thomas and Bruce Thomas from the Attractions, and many, many more!