a sound delusion

gearing up & down for Acoustic Living Room Shows

The New England mini-amp pilot study ended sonically inconclusive — therefore, it’s safe to continue.

	At the beginning of the year, I began shuffling a set list & rearranging arrangements on a revolving lineup of acoustic guitars — Supertone, Kay & Kalamazoo steel strings & a Harmony nylon. The Kalamazoo won for scrappy reasons of buzz & growl.  

. . . I save the Supertone just for recording now — the Kay is a charming mess that’s lost its low-E brawn — the Harmony nylon seemed too reserved this time . . .

Then, there was the string issue — gauge & type. I flirted with Phosphor Bronze, but ended with a Nickel Bronze that’s more consistent when switching between strumming & fingerpicking — whether acoustic or amped. I’ve been vacillating between 12-54 & 11-52 gauges for a few years now. I settled on the 11’s — what I call my AARP gauge. The whole thing is tuned down a step to DGCFAD for occasional bottoming-out.

I have a few sound hole & putty pickups, collected over the years & used for various applications in recording or performances. The tortoise-shell-looking one in the Kalamazoo now is the current default, coincidentally matching the pickguard.

Other than the sonic tweaks, a few mechanical variations were made along the way concerning chord voicings: sliding a capo somewhere interesting to create new inflections of old progressions.

I’m still making adjustments, actually — even after the first four New England shows not long ago. Second-guessing ≈ my second nature.

	Mostly, I’ve been practicing with the AC1 Rhythm Vox mini-amp sitting on my dinner table.

In the past, I’ve also used the amp's menu of drum sounds called “rhythm patterns” for home recording, like below, small enough to be placed inside a street-salvaged tom with a conveniently torn head.

There’ll be no “rhythm patterns” deployed at upcoming shows.

I got the AC1 a dozen years ago at McCabe’s — a musical instrument store & performance venue in Santa Monica Calif. The sound there is stellar & they offer weak artists an enabling discount after the show.

Of course, I always succumb. They stock a diverse medley of anything with a tone.

. . . a kalimba with a putty pickup smudge — a bulbul tarang which I either bow, poke, or both while playing through some putty pickup’d effects pedal — &, sadly, a gourd marimba which has yet to find its way into a final mix, putty or not . . .

The AC1 goes with my small stable of battery-powered minis.

. . . I got the cig pack amp in NYC about the time I tried my first cig (& possibly the one used to record pedal steel on the song Goner W/ Souvenir from the 1998 album Since) — the fake Marshall was from a thrift store &, I think, may’ve originally been part of a Barbie-type rock character — the cardboard amp (with a tiny Jensen behind the lace, no less) was hewn at home by a very local maker . . .

	I’m bringing the AC1 for these upcoming dates. I’m not sure if it makes an actual sonic difference in the unmic’d air, but it’s coming along anyway. 

The world is complex. We choose our delusions.  

The study must continue!