Tuesday night, after the official end of the Ashland Conference (Fall 2006), a number of us were hanging in the lobby of the Inn, with a baby grand and two acoustic guitars ... no L1's, no mics -- just people makin' music. Great, great fun.

There were a few times I wished we had a couple of L1's available (because I couldn't hear everything everyone was doing quite as well as I would have liked), and I was musing about how that session might have been enhanced with L1's.

One such time was when Alan was at the piano picking up and supplementing what others were doing on a guitar -- just wonderful, musically, but if one was on the opposite side of the piano from the guitarist/singer, it was tough to hear. In that situation, an L1 set in the 'curve' of the piano would have been great ... with a wireless guitar pickup and a mic on a stand (wireless, preferably) for the lead.

As the music wandered around the room (both acoustically, and literally, since we didn't stay by the piano all night, but were also clustered near the fireplace), my mind started speculating on what positioning of L1's and "connections" would have been least intrusive but still helpful in that environment.

Besides the idea of one L1 "in the curve" of the piano, I was thinking that 3 L1's, one on each of three sides of the room (the 4th wall was further away from most of our playing/singing) would have been nice ... but definitely would have wanted wireless guitar attachments. Alternatively, the L1's could have been around the roof support column near the middle of the room (between the piano and the fireplace).

Mics? 6 wireless handheld, with two stands available (for the guitar players ... or headsets), to be passed around and shared. We probably did have at least a dozen decent singers (and a couple of us indecent ones), and I'd bet that we would NOT have been a whole lot louder overall, but would have been able to enjoy the hums and doo-wops from those folks on the other side of the circle and be able to intertwine our harmonies with them a bit more deliberately.

Fun to think about...

quote:

There were a few times I wished we had a couple of L1's available (because I couldn't hear everything everyone was doing quite as well as I would have liked)

I'm with you Dan...us hard o'hearing types really benefit from a bit of reinforcement.
All thru the night I missed the L1s adding that sparkle that we had the night before.
But the music was still very fine.

I felt the same way, of course, because I couldn't sit in because there was no amplification available for my bass.

It was fun playing Larry's Martin as a bass tuned an octave higher (isn't that what guitars really are, anyway?) on a couple of songs, but I would have loved to be able to play behind some of the great songs everyone was singing.

Most of what I play/sing outside of church is sappy love songs and balads -fingerpick acoustic guitar stuff. I'm now pouting that I didn't get to stay for Tuesday night.

and in the future, I MUST bring an acoustic toy - maybe the banjitar or an acoustic bass.

Chuck, I played a Breedlove Atlas ABJ250/SM5 5-String Cutaway Acoustic-Electric Bass (BADDLY)
2 months ago. I'd love to hear you on that ( not enough to buy you one... but still <G> ) in a 'fire-side' jam.

I can picture a little, low, 4-wheeled trolly under the PS1, an extension cord, and a couple wireless mics.
Velcro the remote to the top stick.

Roll the L1 wherever the musicians wander.