Category: 2. Live Band Equipment

What equipment do I need to play live concerts? What equipment should I use in my home studio? Find out here.

Save Money With Price Drops On EMG Pickups

EMG Active Pickups

Over the years I’ve tried a lot of different pickups in my guitars. It seems like there’s a pickup made for every kind of music under the sun. So if your live band plays country or heavy metal, there’s a guitar pickup that’s perfect for your instrument.

One of the best heavy metal pickups ever made is the EMG 81 active humbucker pickup. What makes the EMG pickups so unique is their use of a powered onboard pre-amp that boosts the signal of the active pickup. This gives them a very hot output which is perfect for pushing amplifiers into heavy distortion and extreme sustain. Even with this high output, they are extremely low noise. (more…)
Shop For Used Music Equipment At Musician’s Friend

I’m always on the hunt for great deals on live band equipment. I have no problem at all buying a piece of used gear on eBay but I do wish the warranties were better. It’s tough to find a piece of used equipment that comes with a decent warranty and return policy.

That’s one reason I like to shop at Musician’s Friend. They have an excellent return policy so you can make sure a piece of equipment is really what you want before you’re stuck with it forever. They have a 45-Day Satisfaction Guarantee on anything that you buy from them and that includes their excellent selection of used equipment.

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Should You Bi-Amp Your P.A. System?

Rane AC 22S Crossover – The Key To Your Bi-Amp System

There are a lot of different ways to run a P.A. System in your live band. Depending on the size of your gigs, your P.A. requirements can be very different. If you’re just playing a small room such as a coffee house for 20-30 people then using powered speakers may be the way to go. If you’re playing medium sized to large clubs, it may be time to step up to a bi-amped P.A. System.

So what is bi-amping? Put simply, it’s using two separate amplifiers on your P.A. System with one of the amps powering the low frequencies and the other amp powering the mid/high frequencies. (more…)
Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups Video Demo

Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups

   The other day I wrote a review about the Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups that I have in both of my Fender American Deluxe Stratocasters. I love the sound of these pickups and they’ve been a huge success onstage in my live band.

   They are a bit warmer sounding than the classic vintage single-coil pickups but the fact that they are noiseless puts them way ahead in terms of live functionality than standard single-coil pickups. When you’re dealing with varying power conditions at every venue that you play in, not having to worry about your noisy single-coil pickups gives great peace of mind.

   Today I’m posting up a couple of really good demo videos that feature the Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster loaded with the SCN pickups. These videos are both really great examples of how the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups sounds. You can also hear the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups in the clips on my Fender Cyber-Twin SE Preset Patch download page.      (more…)
Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Guitar Pickups Review

Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups

My favorite electric guitar is the Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster. I use it onstage constantly with my live band. I have two American Deluxe Stratocasters. One is the 2004, 50th Anniversary American Deluxe Stratocaster and my other is a 2006 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster. They’re both equipped stock with Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups. In fact, Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups are found on all 2004-2009 Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster guitars.

One thing that I’ve always hated about traditional single coil pickups is the irritating 50/60 cycle hum that plague them. Obviously if you use a high gain amplifier or use any kind of compression, the hum is amplified and sounds even worse. I play a lot of high-gain, compressed sounds. The hum that comes with a traditional single coil pickup is unacceptable for a lot of what I play. Simply for the noiseless design, I have been very happy with the Fender SCN Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups.
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Download Free Fender Cyber-Twin SE Preset Patch “LMC Mid Grind ’66”

Fender Cyber-Twin SE Amplifier

Just in time for the weekend, here’s another free Fender Cyber-Twin SE preset patch for you to check out and download. I call this preset “LMC Mid Grind ’66” and it’s very loosely based on a Fender Super Reverb ’66 amplifier. I’ve made quite a few tweaks to this preset and I use it all the time in my live band. In fact, I like this preset so much that I put it in preset number P01 so that it’s the first sound that comes up when I turn on my Cyber-Twin SE.

What I really love about the “LMC Mid Grind ’66” preset is how it lets the guitars true tone shine through. The sound of the guitar that you’re using will really determine how this preset patch will sound. It’s one of those special presets that will have guitarists naming the type of guitar you’re playing through the amplifier. A Stratocaster will sound like a Strat while a Les Paul will undeniably be a Les Paul. There are some presets that sound pretty much the same no matter what guitar you play through them but not “LMC Mid Grind ’66”.
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Pigtronix Philosopher’s Tone Compression Pedal Demo Video

I recently added a Pigtronix Philosopher’s Tone compression pedal to my guitar rig that I use in my live band. I recently wrote a review of the Pigtronix Philosopher’s Tone pedal on Live Musician Central. I have been very well pleased with this compression pedal. (more…)
Behringer FCV100 Dual Mode Foot Controller Expression Pedal

Behringer FCV100 Footcontroller

In my live band, the guitar amp I use and love is the Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier. I’ve been using this amplifier for a couple years and it has never let me down. I program my own custom sound preset patches for the Cyber-Twin SE. The sounds the Cyber-Twin SE is capable of really are amazing!

I also love the MIDI capabilities the amp gives you with control over preset switching as well as control over many parameters in the amp controls and effects parameters. The MIDI controller I use is the Fender Cyber-Controller which has switches for controlling presets, the tuner, and effects on/off. The Cyber-Controller also has two controller pedals that I use to control various sound parameters such as Gain or effects levels. (more…)
Why Are Some Guitars Priced So Low And Some Priced So High?

Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster

One question I get asked all the time is “How come this Stratocaster costs so much more than that Stratocaster? Aren’t they both Fender Stratocasters?”. I get asked the same questions about various Gibson Les Paul guitars as well. As a matter of fact, every instrument that you find used in a live band such as drums, bass, guitar or keyboards have huge price ranges for instruments, that on the surface, appear very similar. (more…)
Gibson Les Paul BFG Demo Video

Gibson Les Paul BFG

The other day on Live Musician Central I wrote a review of my Gibson Les Paul BFG guitar. I use the Les Paul BFG in my live band all the time because it has fantastic tones and it can stand up to all the abuse I dish out onstage. I’ve had my Les Paul BFG for over a year now and it continues to play very well. In fact, the wood has aged nicely as the guitar has broken in and I think it sounds better now than when it was new.

I wanted to put up a Gibson demo video of the Les Paul BFG so you could check out the amazing tones this guitar can produce. Here it is and it’s a very good example of what the Gibson Les Paul BFG is capable of. (more…)