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WesG

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Everything posted by WesG

  1. Am I the only one who gets a sore right index finger after every country gig? Did Floyd Cramer have a big callus there?
  2. I forget how, but there is definitely a way to not trigger sounds at all without the volume trick. I'm pretty sure it boils down to just not assuming any keys to the internal voices.
  3. Okay, I realize I'm a little late to the party, but how did it go? I just got a free 200 in similar condition and am about to do the same thing.
  4. Two X32-Racks, one configured as a stage box, in a good shockmount case with an online UPS. Very unlikely to give you problems, I see them reliably used in clubs night after night for years on end. Just turn it off when you're not using it! If something DOES happen to one, you fall back to 22 channels and 8 outs to get through the night. Bring the inputs out to rack-mounted transformer isolated splits like the Art S8-3way and carry a 15'-25' 32-channel XLR M->XLR F fanout snake for patching to the house snake. It occurs to me that with this setup, you should be able to have both X32s mixing and reading each other's inputs over AES50. If I'm right, you could theoretically use this rig to mix FOH and mons with no compromises. That also gives you a backup plan if you show up at a venue with a 16 channel board...
  5. I have to agree with Theo. The bass figure is strikingly similar, but the I bIII IV V pre-chorus section is missing, the chorus is missing, and so is the I7 intro; these are major landmarks in the song recorded by the Spencer Davis Group. Without those, all you have is the bass figure and some patter featuring the word "love" over a long-I, IV V chord progression with a long I outro. That's way too different to be considered "the original version".
  6. $300 is a smokin' deal. I would own it already if I was within 150 miles....and I need another A100 like a hole in the head. 64 with GI caps will be a tone monster and foam won't be a problem. Even if it has it and it's gone gooey, the manuals will have cloth-covered resistance wires. Stop worrying about maybe-problems and go get it! GI caps would also mean it's an early '64, decent chance it has only one foam manual, maybe none. All this, of course, assumes that you have correctly identified the year. But seriously, for $300, who cares? In the worst case scenario you sell the drawbars on eBay and light the rest of it on fire and you've broken even. @funkyhammond I'm based in Kingston, but I might be making a service trip out to the lower mainland and the island next year. "Might" is based on how much work I can scare up, I've been told BC is a Hammond tech wasteland, and I have family out there I want to visit. If there's anything I can do to help out, let me know.
  7. "Being able to power an outdoor gig without a noisy, unreliable generator is a benefit I hadn't even considered." While I love EVs, I feel obligated to point out that this is a false dichotomy. I power my gigs with a quiet, reliable generator.
  8. I use a basic wooden stool that is exactly the same height as a Hammond bench.
  9. "But to play this happy-ish Blues I’m sticking to playing the relative minor blues scale for each chord" I think it bears mentioning that A minor blues and C major blues have the same notes in them.
  10. Does anybody have a source for the left PCB, the one with the sliders and knobs, for the Roland RD-800? I need one, and they are NLA from Roland. No listings on eBay or Syntaur. Thanks for any pointers. Wes
  11. Thanks, Legatoboy - I'll play with the OD a bit more when I have that hooked up next. Rather than the Trek-II kit, I built the adapter in the Burn manual and it worked fine....although I noticed a much better signal-to-noise ratio by going from G-G rather than G-gnd. That could be organ-specific, though. I'm curious where the Burn vs. Vent preference falls, when taking clonewheel vs. organ players into account. I have a sneaky feeling that the Vent sounds more like a mic'd up isolated Leslie, and the Burn sounds more like a Leslie in a room. I'm looking forward to the A/B tests. I hear you wrt the switch on the unit. For me, the absence of a half moon switch on the rail is a total show stopper. It Fs me up every time. The last time I had to play a rehearsal on a CPA, I wound up putting it on a stool beside me, so I could push the button with my left hand! My feet are just too stupid to add one more thing. I also mount one on my Nord when rehearsing. One point in favour of the Vent - same halfmoon pinout as Nord and Hammond. I don't understand why GSi went off the reservation here..I can see how it would have made the Wah-Wah implementation easier, but ... who uses that? I didn't realize Josh was a fellow KCer...a local player recently lent me his Standard Deviations CD...I found it very inspiring. Small World! I saw him playing Gonzo on a YC-61 on his facebook recently. I guess that's why he doesn't need the Burn anymore.
  12. Thanks for the feedback. ImproKeys - I didn't know about the configurator...thanks...I dislike their stock CP4 case, but customizing one yields acceptable results. I might be in a position to get Thon cases for both boards. Mike, I thought about an Anvil-style case...we have Clydesdale in Toronto, which are similar in experience and quality. Problem is, great road cases weigh a ton...and unlike my organ rig, I don't keep my DPs in the van. They are in and out of the house and/or rehearsal hall a couple of times a week. An RD800 in a proper road case would weigh over 100 lbs; this is definitely a problem going up and down basement stairs. So now I'm contemplating the Thon roadcase-lite (7mm plywood) and the SKB molded case. The SKB seems like it would be slightly easier to move, but the Thon seems like it would last longer and offer between protection. They're close enough in price that that's not really an issue. I could get the SKB faster, and put it on my Long & McQuade account, which is a definite plus. Giving money to L&M every month is a fixed item in our household budget. I'm also thinking about doing a Thon custom case with a 6" accessory box at the end. Anybody ever used one of those? Thinking it would be nice to have a set of pedals and cords for each board tucked away inside the case, rather than in a gym bag. I'm always worried I'm going to forget something...although I guess it would be of limited utility since the bottom of the case is quite shallow. It goes together like a mixer case. Two of you are recommending a cart rather than intergrated wheels...interesting...I used a cart for a while but it was such a pain I started bungy-ing my bench and stand to my GK-88 and pulling that, while carrying a powered speaker. That was for a weekly rehearsal with a 150' walk from parking to playing. Glad I don't play there anymore...
  13. It's time for some new cases. Or at least one. My two main gigging DPs are the RD800 and the CP4. Different boards for different gigs. Currently using Gator GK-88 and GK-88-SLIM (or maybe GK-76? I forget). Anyhow. The RD800 weighs a ton (48 lbs) and it's hard to move...especially since the zipper doesn't open all the way and the wheels have broken off...that case is about 8 years old. I've also had some van-damage to the RD800's volume knob and "oh no I dropped it wrong in -25C" damage to the CP4. What can I say, I'm hard on stuff. I play bar gigs and occasionally provide keyboard backline. So I'm thinking of something more durable, but I'm a little leery of increasing the weight. Shopping for the RD800 first, as it's the most pressing need. The GK-88 (current case) comes in at 28 lbs. The G-Tour road case is 54lbs, I can't handle that. (I have a similar case for my X32 and it's a real problem). Gator recommends a moulded TSA case, GTSA-KEY88SLXL, 31 lbs. SKB has a moulded TSA case - 1SKB-5820W - 35 lbs. What happens if wheels fail or a handle breaks on moulded cases? Case is finished? Here's something I didn't expect to find -- Thon Case Roland RD-800 from Thomann.de, this is a 34 lbs road case made with 1/4" plywood. 1/4" ply isn't what I consider tour-grade road case, but it should be a real upgrade from a semi-rigid case. This looks pretty good from the load-out POV, I could maybe leave the piano in the case and only have to worry about stowing the lid at the venue. I could also replace the wheels and latches if they fail. The big question in my mind with that case is: will I miss having a suitcase-style handle? Thoughts?
  14. Thanks for the feedback, all. Very helpful! jpgxk3, Craig and I had been wondering if the overdrive was in series or layered on -- you helped answer this. The tube OD is layered on. Quick update - due to user error, I wasn't able to play the Burn on the gig and I borrowed an original vent at the last minute. I have the exact same gig again on Aug 13, and am looking forward to being able to compare the leslie-less gigging experience with both sims. I also multitracked the first show, so I'll be able to listen back more critically. From my perspective, what matters most is how I feel when I'm playing, and that I can get things to response the way I want them to. Particularly in that band - a classic rock bar band - there is sort of a point of diminishing return on tone and what really matters is that I feel completely at home with whatever rig I'm playing that day. The vent totally got me there. It felt like just playing a loud show where I couldn't hear the Leslie except through the wedges anyhow. My big complaint was that my tone was harsh as shit, but I'm 99% sure that the was the terrible stage monitor (YX10P). Bandmates thought it sounded fine, sound guy loved it, cellphone video sounded fine. At this point, I'm thinking that either is fine, with the burn having the edge for private practice, thanks to the reverb and the headphone jack. I really don't like the Burn's audio thump, but I don't know if the Vent is any better. As for the Burn's tube overdrive....not a fan...but there seems to be a nice grind available with the 122 simulator. Or maybe that was the AO-28? If I was incorporating a sim as part of my permanent rig, I'd be seriously looking at the Burn thanks to the patch memory. And if you're wondering why I'm playing with no Leslie...check out the postage stamp we were on:
  15. Thanks, guys. Interesting feedback. I think we can definitely conclude that, acoustically, neither is head and shoulders above the other. jpgxk3, when your OD stopped working, how did the sound change? Just like there was no overdrive, or did it stop entirely? Dave - that's quite the concerning symptom!!! Especially as the unit thumps audibly on power up. I also noticed the thing with some jacks being tighter than others. I was wondering if that was a unit-to-unit variance. Now I'm thinking that they must be using Cliff-style jacks; some switching, some not.
  16. I don't know much about pianos, but I've played a lot of century-old Heintzmans (they're everywhere around here) and this isn't one of those. In the organ world, French Provincial furniture was a 60s thing. I bet the same was true of the piano world.
  17. I have a GSi Burn on loan from Craig MacDonald right now....I am really impressed. Out of the box, preset #19 "Clean 122" sounds really really good. I understand some folks don't like how these sound, but I am running mine from an A100 and looking for tone that is more Gregg Rolie / Booker T than Jon Lord / Goldie McJohn. Anyhow, this could be just the ticket for those bar gigs where I can't get a Leslie on stage. Any reliability issues etc with these guys? I'm hoping to run it head to head against a Vent. Going by memory, I think the Burn has the tonal edge here for me.
  18. I have been going back to basics and playing scales and arpeggios this week. The bottom half octave of my RD800 sounds a good 60 cents sharp, and I keep thinking I missed my landing because of this. Am I insane, or is there some psychoacoustic thing going on down there? I know it's not *actually* the piano and rather my perception of it, but this is wacky. And it's not stretch tuning, stretch tuning would have that flat, not sharp.
  19. From the photo they look like 11-pin, i.e. same interface as 122XB. Either way, 6H or XB, Booker Lab will have something to put in between one of these and your clonewheel.
  20. Spiffy. This must have been a lot of work.
  21. If you were local, I"d buy it. As long as it sounds better than my electro 5D. Chorus is unusable on it.
  22. I, too, have a single set of arms that are pretty high up. What Nord do you have? Mine has enough room that I would probably thinking about mounting something like a Reface YC to it with velcro. If you mount it below the Nord, you'll probably need to make a shelf. Whatever you do, keep your main board at an ergonomic height.
  23. I have a couple of EON 612s. I rather like them. They sound good at moderate volume and are light as hell. The Bluetooth app is a bit finicky, but I wouldn't want to use it at a show...only at home to define my preferred EQ profile. (I just use the flat setting anyhow). They DO have some obnoxious cabinet resonance at specific frequencies, but that is par for the course with lightweight ABS boxes.
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