My Philosophy of Music Gear: More Do and Jutsu

First off, in my previous "Do and Jutsu" post a while back, I neglected to tell you how to pronounce the Japanese character, Do. I went back and added it in to that post, but in case you missed it, "Do" is pronouced "doe" as in the female deer (or zendo, judo, aikido, budo, etc.), not, "dew" as in morning condensation.
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Upcoming events:
- April 19, Craig Martin Experience, Blue Window Bistro, 7-9 pm
- May 3, Run the Caldera races (I plan to run the 1/2 marathon!)
- May 10, D.K. and the Affordables, Los Alamos Sheriff's Posse Lodge, 6 pm, party!
- May 16, Craig Martin Experience, Leadership Los Alamos Graduation Ceremony/Party
- May 24, Piano recital featuring MY STUDENTS!!!, 1 pm, White Rock United Methodist Church
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This week's musings:
The music gear that I travel and gig with has evolved significantly. (Heck, music gear has evolved!) When I was in high school, the school had bought a Yamaha Clavinova, complete with 4 tones and a heavy particleboard stand. Some early (but decent-sounding) Yamaha module was controlled by MIDI. Yes, we hauled it around, loading it into the emergency door on the back of the school bus. My parents bought me a Peavey KB-100 amp that I ran it through. In college, I used an arranger synth my folks bought me for Christmas one year, a beat-up Fender Rhodes stage piano, and that same KB-100. The Rhodes barely fit in my car, and we installed wheels on one end to roll it in and out of gigs (my then band mate Sean will remember that well, I'm sure). I sometimes played guitar, too, so that had to come with. Later in life, I stuck with the 2-tier keyboard system, but switched to a better synth up top and a more versatile digital piano on the bottom. And, somewhat regrettably, I sold the Rhodes.

Part of my rig, circa 2007, with DK & the Affordables. I still have the stand and the synth that's up top in this pic, but a lot of other stuff has changed.

 I also added a second KB-100 amp. I continued to drag guitar stuff along, too. If I put my keyboard stand on the roof rack, I could get all of my gear--2 keyboards, 2 amps, a bench or stool, a guitar or 2, and maybe another guitar amp--into my well-loved Nissan Sentra (it was a '92 with 270,000 miles). Hauling all that stuff around taxed the Sentra's already worn struts, and required a lot of trips to/from the car. During a break between bands, around 2009, I re-thought the whole system.

Good Lord, I used to haul around 2 of these beasts. That's a 15" speaker in there! My current Kustom amp is about 1/2 the physical size of this Peavey behemoth.

First, I vowed to never play keys and guitar in the same gig again. It just got too complex. It was especially a pain on a small stage.

Second, I wanted to get my rig down to one keyboard. I'd grown pretty comfortable playing the keyboard "split"--different tones/settings in different locations on the keyboard--during a stint with a church "praise" band, and thought that, with the right keyboard, I could make a single 88-key keyboard work in almost every situation I played in.

Third, I wanted to get back down to one amp. I had used 2 amps to get a "stereo" effect with my organ tones, but it was hard to hear that on stage, especially with an enthusiastic drummer, or a guitarist and his 40-watt amp. The KB-100s were also never quite lined up with my ears. I often just put the amps in different places on stage to cover the room, not necessarily to get the stereo effect I was hoping for. Failed experiment. I tried a couple of small PA systems and a powered speaker/mixer combo, but they were more trouble than they were worth for just keyboards (see my unifying point, below). I realized I was really just using an amp to hear myself on stage and to have local control of my tone, and running an amp's line out through a PA (or another powered speaker) would project more volume to the crowd while keeping the stage volume low. To top it off, the KB-100s were big and heavy. I ended up selling them both on consignment at Candyman Strings & Things and searching for something else.

Fourth, I wanted to improve my organ tones. I started with an effects pedal (Boss RT-20) that helped tremendously (using tones from my Roland synth), but the source tone still needed some help. That would involve buying a dedicated keyboard, running a MIDI module, or using some sort of software on a computer. I didn't have the money or the storage space at home for yet another keyboard, and I wasn't sure I wanted to be at the whims of a computer in a live gig. So, module it was. (That said, the Hammond emulation in the Garage Band iPad app isn't too shabby, except for the non-adjustable key click.)

The unifying reason for the change, though, was that I wanted to simplify.  I wanted to reduce my trips to and from the car down to TWO AT THE MOST (at least for my personal gear).  I wanted to reduce connections and plug-ins to minimize setup time. I wanted to minimize the amount of stuff I had to keep track of. And I had limited storage space at home. So, after a lot of selling, shopping, swapping, buying, and trading, I ended up with this set up for most keyboard gigs:

- Casio Privia PX-5S (keyboard). Best keyboard out there for $1000 or less (I paid $850 on sale!).
- Kustom KMA-65 (amp). Good amp for the money ($250-ish, though it got in on sale for ~$200).

The Kustom amp. The FV-500 volume pedal and M-Audio damper pedal are on my home-made pedal board.

- Voce MicroB (module). Oldie but a goody, killer Hammond organ tone. $100 eBay find.
- Boss RT-20 (effects). This is a rotary effect pedal. Another $100 eBay find.

I built the MicroB and the RT-20 into a box side-by-side. It's a Hammond organ AND Leslie in a box! The plastic on top of the MicroB is there to hold down my set list on outdoor gigs.

- Boss FV-500 (pedal to control rotary effect speed, or volume, whichever; $100).
- Boss FV-50 (pedal to control volume, $50). (Boss stuff is awesome.)
- M-Audio piano-style damper pedal ($30).
- Proel platform-style keyboard stand. I use the 2nd tier for a music rest, if I use it at all ($100).
- PDP drum throne to sit on ($85).
- DoD direct box. Line out from my amp goes through this, then to the board to reduce ground noise.

All of this stuff--pedals, organ stuff, cables, direct box, powerstrip--fits into a single backpack/briefcase.

For shorter, simpler, piano-focused gigs I often leave the Micro-B/RT-20 and the FV-50 pedal at home. For gigs where I have to carry my stuff a long way (like the memorial service I played at recently at Bandelier National Park), I also have a Roland RS-70 (nice little 61-key synth I bought used) that fits in a backpack case.

This gear is all stuff that works well, is durable and lightweight, didn't cost a fortune, and fits easily into a car. It's easy to set up and take down. If it were stolen or broken, I'd replace it, and it wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg to do so. I could easily compare and contrast this rig with other options, and give you more details as to why I picked what I did over all the other choices out there (contact me if you want more of that info!) but it's a digression. At the end of the day, I bought the best stuff I could find for the money that I had, in order to put together the simplest, yet most flexible, rig possible. Pretty straightforward.

In action with DK & the Affordables, with the Casio Privia PX-5S. I'm probably playing some kind of split setting here with organ in the left hand and piano in the right.

Someday, when I'm rich and famous, I'll tour with that Hammond B-3 and Leslie 122, maybe a Roland V-Piano or/and a Nord Stage or two, a rack of modules and effects, heck, throw in a 12' grand! Who knows, maybe I'll relent on my vow to never play both guitar and keys during a single gig and will travel with a bevy of those instruments, too. I won't have to fit it in a car anymore because I'll be traveling by bus with a truck and roadies and tuners and techs. But for now, I'm hauling my own gear in my own small car so it has to be manageable by me and affordable if I have to replace it. Money-wise, I'd much rather have to drop $999 to replace my PX-5S if it was damaged or stolen than $5000 for a V-Piano, as awesome as the V-Piano may be.

I saw a post on Facebook recently that summed it up nicely: A musician is a person that will load his or her expensive gear into a cheap car and drive 100 miles to play 4 hours for $50. It's nice use that $50 for food or rent or gasoline or beer (or saving!), instead of paying off credit card bills accrued from financing dream instruments. In my opinion, it's snobbery that makes people buy the most expensive gear, especially if they are not sponsored, "top-tier" musicians. That's a topic for another day, but be assured: I do have more to say!

A final thought: Sam Maloof, the late great chairmaker, started his illustrious woodworking career with a 3rd-hand, small-bladed (7") benchtop table saw (most woodworkers use 10" saws for increased cutting power). His advice: don't go into debt for your craft, and if you do good work, you'll be recognized and rewarded for it, regardless of the equipment you have at your disposal (taken from the excellent Taunton Press book, Setting Up Shop by Sandor Nagyslansky). Guitar maker Bob Taylor made a guitar from reclaimed pallet wood, demonstrating that it was the luthier's skill rather than choice exotic woods that made a quality guitar (see Guitar: a Complete Guide for the Player published by Quantum Books for a lot more great info on guitars). At any rate, the craftsman makes the tools he can afford and the materials he has on hand work for him. The musician should do the same, which is part of the "do" and "jutsu" of music.

Take care, and thanks for reading!