Guitars

[Gregg Froman]

Fun Beatles gig we did last week!

Rickenbacker 1993Plus 12-String

[surprisetech]

15 hours ago, Gregg Froman said:

Fun Beatles gig we did last week!

Rickenbacker 1993Plus 12-String

 

Very cool. But where's the Hofner? 

[Gregg Froman]

No Hofner, but do have a George Harrison Duo Jet!

[Hilltop Hippy]

Hey guys, me again!

 

Things are progressing with my daughter's playing. She had her first little pub gig in December! I need to get her a PA, which I'm fairly across the options. One things I'm not across is a mixer. Anyone here have any recommendations on something decent but not stupid expensive?

 

I was thinking a Yamaha MG12XCV. I like the idea of one with faders and foot switch controls. If she's performing, it'd be way easier to slide a fader or use an effect with a foot pedal as opposed to stuffing around with knobs or a touch screen.

 

Any suggestions or thoughts? 12 inputs is way over the top, but as I say, I like the idea of faders/slides.

 

She'll need a mic too....

 

I'm going to try and plug it into our hifi whilst I figure out something for the speakers/PA....not sure if I'll be able to get that to work. I thought it'd be good to have a mixer that could send audio into our media PC, then out of that into the AVP.....but latency is probably going to be an issue

[Tweaky]

On 15/02/2025 at 11:54 AM, Hilltop Hippy said:

Hey guys, me again!

 

Things are progressing with my daughter's playing. She had her first little pub gig in December! I need to get her a PA, which I'm fairly across the options. One things I'm not across is a mixer. Anyone here have any recommendations on something decent but not stupid expensive?

 

I was thinking a Yamaha MG12XCV. I like the idea of one with faders and foot switch controls. If she's performing, it'd be way easier to slide a fader or use an effect with a foot pedal as opposed to stuffing around with knobs or a touch screen.

 

Any suggestions or thoughts? 12 inputs is way over the top, but as I say, I like the idea of faders/slides.

 

She'll need a mic too....

 

I'm going to try and plug it into our hifi whilst I figure out something for the speakers/PA....not sure if I'll be able to get that to work. I thought it'd be good to have a mixer that could send audio into our media PC, then out of that into the AVP.....but latency is probably going to be an issue

I've been out of the loop regarding current equipment for live use, but one thing remains a constant, different rooms will change the sound of her, and her other band mates [presuming she isn't playing solo] instrument a lot, and a mixing console alone will not be able to sort that out.

 

Joe Bonamassa explains why you should get a 31 band equalizer.

I just had a look on Ebay and there are a few decent ones used for around $300 [Look in the Pro Audio section, not the HiFi Audio]

I used Australia only and used as a search filter on Ebay

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=graphic+equalizer+pro+audio&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p4550459.m570.l1313&rt=nc&_odkw=graphic+equalizer&srsltid=AfmBOootbHQcjNWS128NzLUJC8INgkrdl11urZS3TobrOsuRu4tX-yB7&LH_PrefLoc=1&LH_ItemCondition=3000

 

 

As for a microphone, well you can't really beat the tried /tested and rugged Shure SM58 , its been the live /and studio industry's trusted workhorse for a reason.

Edited February 18 by Tweaky

[surprisetech]

On 15/02/2025 at 11:54 AM, Hilltop Hippy said:

Hey guys, me again!

 

Things are progressing with my daughter's playing. She had her first little pub gig in December! I need to get her a PA, which I'm fairly across the options. One things I'm not across is a mixer. Anyone here have any recommendations on something decent but not stupid expensive?

 

I was thinking a Yamaha MG12XCV. I like the idea of one with faders and foot switch controls. If she's performing, it'd be way easier to slide a fader or use an effect with a foot pedal as opposed to stuffing around with knobs or a touch screen.

 

Any suggestions or thoughts? 12 inputs is way over the top, but as I say, I like the idea of faders/slides.

 

She'll need a mic too....

 

I'm going to try and plug it into our hifi whilst I figure out something for the speakers/PA....not sure if I'll be able to get that to work. I thought it'd be good to have a mixer that could send audio into our media PC, then out of that into the AVP.....but latency is probably going to be an issue

 

Yamaha is always a pretty safe choice.  I'm using a Mackie 12-channel for our band at the moment which has been very reliable.  I also have one of the smaller Presonus StudioLive mixers and very happy with the quality and performance from that brand as well.  Two different PA pros I know are both currently using PreSonus.

Behringer can be tempting with their rich feature set, but I've had issues with build quality and longevity.  I wouldn't recommend them beyond bedroom use.

 

You also want to make sure your mixer has at least 1, if not 2 AUX SENDs per input.  The mix you want in the foldback is often very different to what you want going out to the audience and your AUX SEND lets you do that.

 

Tweaky's on the money with the SM58, (& SM57 for instruments) but I can also recommend the Sennheiser e835 which is also very highly regarded, and in my experience, just as robust.

[Hilltop Hippy]

Sweet, thanks fellas. 

 

@Tweaky that's a really interesting vid, thanks. Lots of good content from him. It helps me to understand what's going on. I'm trying to stay out of it so she learns by herself, but its good to be able to help when she gets stuck - this happened on the weekend with her Boss amp - once we got the software running, it was an amazing change

 

@surprisetech thanks heaps. I found a good vid comparing the Mackie to the Yamaha. I'll see how we go. When you say PreSonus, do you mean PreSonus PA speakers?

[surprisetech]

21 minutes ago, Hilltop Hippy said:

 

@surprisetech thanks heaps. I found a good vid comparing the Mackie to the Yamaha. I'll see how we go. When you say PreSonus, do you mean PreSonus PA speakers?

Thanks.

I was referring to the PreSonus mixers, but I believe their gear is pretty good across the board.

 

What direction are looking at for speakers?  Powered or Passive + Amp?

[Darryl]

I think pretty much all the PA speakers that you look at these days are powered.

[LogicprObe]

 

You gotta be careful of fake SM58s and 57s.

Only buy from Shure distributors.

[LogicprObe]

1 minute ago, Darryl said:

I think pretty much all the PA speakers that you look at these days are powered.

 

Yeah, saves a lot of hassle and a lot quicker to set up.

The last ones I bought were JBL EON series with 15" bass drivers.

Use them for front of house and lay them down for monitors too.

 

https://www.jbl.com/eon600.html

 

It will all come down to your budget as there are cheaper makes around.

[Hilltop Hippy]

11 hours ago, Darryl said:

I think pretty much all the PA speakers that you look at these days are powered.

Most, yes

 

@surprisetech

 

I was toying with having a pair of 12" 2 ways made for her - use when soloing, use as monitors if with a group. The person (making them) was pushing an active powered arrangement. I'm more inclined to go with a passive or active/external amp arrangement with an external DSP. Get a baby rack on wheels, keep the mixer on the top or in a drawer. Keeps the weight of the speakers down a bit (though surprisingly not much). But then it could take too long going down that path (I've a rather large hifi order with the same person that's 2.5 years in.....my wife is ready to kill me over that)

[Tweaky]

1 hour ago, Hilltop Hippy said:

Most, yes

 

@surprisetech

 

I was toying with having a pair of 12" 2 ways made for her - use when soloing, use as monitors if with a group. The person (making them) was pushing an active powered arrangement. I'm more inclined to go with a passive or active/external amp arrangement with an external DSP. Get a baby rack on wheels, keep the mixer on the top or in a drawer. Keeps the weight of the speakers down a bit (though surprisingly not much). But then it could take too long going down that path (I've a rather large hifi order with the same person that's 2.5 years in.....my wife is ready to kill me over that)

From what very few live music situations I run across these days, I've seldom seen any act use anything but relatively small, light, plastic cabinet, powered PA system mounted on pole stands.

 

They are built for quick unload/setup/load back up, and can sound pretty good if the act knows how to set their equipment up and change settings for the particular room, EQ being the main ones, as like lounge rooms and HiFi, you are going to get huge room nodes that will boost certain frequencies that you are going to need to cut.

 

Gone are the days of needing a van and a roadie to load a double 4 way in and out of a gig

[surprisetech]

31 minutes ago, Hilltop Hippy said:

Most, yes

 

@surprisetech

 

I was toying with having a pair of 12" 2 ways made for her - use when soloing, use as monitors if with a group. The person (making them) was pushing an active powered arrangement. I'm more inclined to go with a passive or active/external amp arrangement with an external DSP. Get a baby rack on wheels, keep the mixer on the top or in a drawer. Keeps the weight of the speakers down a bit (though surprisingly not much). But then it could take too long going down that path (I've a rather large hifi order with the same person that's 2.5 years in.....my wife is ready to kill me over that)

 

I can relate to all of that!  All my PA Speakers over the years were either DIY or modified to suit my needs up until I decided it was time to get the weight down!

My setup is not too different from what you're thinking.  I have a baby rack on casters with the Mackie CFX12 mixer in the top (which has 9-band GEQ & Digital effects built in), Power Amp for the passive main speakers and a dbx AFS2 for foldback EQ and feedback suppression. 

Main speakers are Samson 15" (not the ant's pants, but great bang for buck).  Foldback speakers are a pair of QSC CP12 Actives.

 

The choice of passives for the mains was 3-fold;  I already had a very reliable power amp that I was happy with, I don't need to run mains power to the speakers and it keeps the weight down.

Having said that, the Class D amps in many of the active speakers these days keeps the weight down so I wouldn't be averse to going that direction.  But if I did, I would go for a pair of those 10m combo cables that have the power & XLR in the one cable!

 

The 12" QSC Actives are little rippers.  They are quite capable mains for smaller gigs if we don't need foldback and also make for a really simple setup for the occasional DJ job.

[Tweaky]

6 minutes ago, surprisetech said:

 

I can relate to all of that!  All my PA Speakers over the years were either DIY or modified to suit my needs up until I decided it was time to get the weight down!

My setup is not too different from what you're thinking.  I have a baby rack on casters with the Mackie CFX12 mixer in the top (which has 9-band GEQ & Digital effects built in), Power Amp for the passive main speakers and a dbx AFS2 for foldback EQ and feedback suppression. 

Main speakers are Samson 15" (not the ant's pants, but great bang for buck).  Foldback speakers are a pair of QSC CP12 Actives.

 

The choice of passives for the mains was 3-fold;  I already had a very reliable power amp that I was happy with, I don't need to run mains power to the speakers and it keeps the weight down.

Having said that, the Class D amps in many of the active speakers these days keeps the weight down so I wouldn't be averse to going that direction.  But if I did, I would go for a pair of those 10m combo cables that have the power & XLR in the one cable!

 

The 12" QSC Actives are little rippers.  They are quite capable mains for smaller gigs if we don't need foldback and also make for a really simple setup for the occasional DJ job.

 

From what I've been seeing in various Band/Gear videos, a lot of acts are doing away with monitors altogether, and just using wireless in-ear headphones, since the cost of these have come done considerably.

Of course you need to do your homework on these, as some are a lot better than others, plus you need ones that have a choice of what frequency they base station transmits at, so you can change it if getting interference on one

 

 

[surprisetech]

35 minutes ago, Tweaky said:

From what I've been seeing in various Band/Gear videos, a lot of acts are doing away with monitors altogether, and just using wireless in-ear headphones, since the cost of these have come done considerably.

Of course you need to do your homework on these, as some are a lot better than others, plus you need ones that have a choice of what frequency they base station transmits at, so you can change it if getting interference on one

 

Good point.  If I was playing solo or in a duo, or in a professional band I would definitely look at those.

 

In a 5-piece band of old blokes that does low-paying or free gigs about once a month, the outlay for the equipment along with battery charging/replacement and convincing everyone to go that direction, makes floor monitors my preferred solution for now! 

My system occasionally gets used for open mic sessions too, where these would be impractical.

[Hilltop Hippy]

18 minutes ago, surprisetech said:

My system occasionally gets used for open mic sessions too

 

That's mostly what she's doing. There's a family who's kids have a 4 piece band and our daughter has started playing a little with them as they didn't really have lead guitar and they needed more vocals, which, to my surprise miss nearly 13 isn't half bad - we've been to some gigs where other kids her age are singing and its like nails down a chalk board, really horrible stuff and the parents are there, proud as punch......our daughter keeps wanting confirmation she's doing ok, I keep telling her "honey, if you were bad, I'd not want to hear it, so you're doing ok"......What we need is something she can use at home or for solo gigs. I don't mind spending some coin on it, because we'll use the system for parties and other things - right now I roll out some QSC install speakers and whatever amps etc I'm not playing with for this purpose. It'd be nice to have some good sounding/looking/well organised gear that's easy to set up.

 

Anyway, I think we'll go the Yamaha mixer (its cheaper) and I'll continue to mull over the speakers. Thanks fellas, this has been a very useful discussion. 

[Darryl]

I borrowed a pair of these from our ex drummer last year for a wedding and was surprised how good they sounded when playing music. Worth a look.

https://www.storedj.com.au/products/yamaha-dxr15-mkii-15-2-way-powered-loudspeaker

 

[LogicprObe]

7 hours ago, Darryl said:

I borrowed a pair of these from our ex drummer last year for a wedding and was surprised how good they sounded when playing music. Worth a look.

https://www.storedj.com.au/products/yamaha-dxr15-mkii-15-2-way-powered-loudspeaker

 

 

Yeah, I looked at these too and they are similar to the JBLs but were more expensive at the time.

Given the proven reliability of JBL, I went for them in a dance studio installation.

(and I'm a Yami fanboi)

[Tweaky]

Rick Beato is rapidly becoming the premier interviewer of musical greats, he just posted this excellent interview with composer  Hans Zimmer.

 

 

[Batty]

I just bought this as I have no idea how to play.

 

[Tweaky]

3 hours ago, Batty said:

I just bought this as I have no idea how to play.

 

 

Widely consider one of the best guitar tutorial sites available, and it's free.

https://www.justinguitar.com/

[betocool]

If you want to learn songs (for me that was the motivator) look at Carl Brown: https://guitarlessons365.com/song-lessons/

 

He's got thousands of songs and explains them in detail. Fun fact, Hotel California is NOT on the list, I believe the Eagles are very cagey about people teaching their music.

 

I hope you enjoy the journey, I started late with the guitar, 25 years old, I'm not really good, but I love it. If you can get past the initial frustration of chord changing it opens a world of possibilities.

 

U2, Pink Floyd, Oasis, Cranberries, these guys have some simple chord sequences to start strumming.

 

My 2c's.

 

Cheers,

 

Alberto

[Phill451]

Justin guitar and Carl Brown are both great, start with Justin is my advice. I’d throw these two in the mix as well:
 

Anyone Can Play Guitar

 

https://youtube.com/@acpg?si=NIPOir_62sNFIEks

 

Eric Haugen guitar

 

https://youtube.com/@erichaugenguitar?si=Y8j8RRUaYiImp8uy

 

The latter might be a bit advanced, but still worth checking out.

 

 

 

[LogicprObe]

On 02/04/2025 at 9:21 PM, Batty said:

I just bought this as I have no idea how to play.

 

 

Artist have great value guitars.

It's all practice...........what seems difficult or near impossible at first, becomes second nature after time.