Gear/gig questions to Ricardo

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Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

Gear/gig questions to Ricardo

Didn't want to spoil the colourful photos thead with these tedious equipment questions..

Re. your rumberos band pic - just wondering how you find playing standing up? Feels awkward to me, we (my rumba duo) play seated. Think I'd feel very self conscious standing too, know what I mean?

Bose speaker column? Thats your PA in the corner?? weird! Tell me about it - certainly more discrete than a couple of big speakers on poles.

Is your guitar pick up piezo-only or do you have a little mic in there?

Thanks.

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Spanish Guitarist in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 18 2006 10:05:17

ToddK

Posts: 2961
Joined: Dec. 6 2004

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Richard played quite a bit of electric guitar, so that could
be why he looks so comfy standing up.

The guy has a dizzying array of THE coolest rumba strums. Love that sh!t!

Rock on R!
TK

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 18 2006 10:11:37

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to ToddK)

quote:

ORIGINAL: ToddK
The guy has a dizzying array of THE coolest rumba strums. Love that sh!t!

He certainly has, I wish Flamenco Teacher would change its insane pricing structure as Ricardo's rumba lesson looks great.

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Spanish Guitarist in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 18 2006 10:20:11

Ricardo

Posts: 14892
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Jon Boyes)

quote:

just wondering how you find playing standing up?

Feels great, like you are in control. I feel relaxed, and can move around, no strain or stiffness caused by sitting down in a set position. No mic that you have to keep centered on the sound hole etc. One day I will have the guts to implement the new flamenco accomp. position, standing with strap! Much better for dance accomp IMO.

And for stomping on the drum sequence pedal, it is essential. I do have the guitar up high comparing to a rocker.

Speakers: Bose tower, new high tech stuff. The other guys own it. They take the sound stuff really serious. Those towers pump sound in almost 360 degrees, so you can put them in front or behind, no directionality problems or need for monitors. Everyone hears the sound, and the musicians hear the SAME sound as the audience (except it is louder of course). The columns sit in a base that is like 2 feet wide, and that is the power. There are separate sub woofers on the floor behind me for the low freq. The mixer is right behind me, and the drum sequencer to the right. The guitar I play has fishman problend (pickup and mic), but loud I only use pickup.

Ricardo

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 18 2006 10:46:49

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Ricardo)

Thanks for that, interesting. 360 degrees sound would be great as we have people sitting behind us at some gigs.

One more - assuming you share soloing with other guitarists in the band, how do you manage volume changes rhythm vs solo? When I started doing the duo thing I started off by having two patches on my zoom, one for lead and one for rhythm like you would ina rock band.

I quickly discovered this was a silly idea (trying to uncross my legs and stomp on a switch at the same time means you drop your guitar

) then I went for tweaking the volume on my guitars onboard preamp. This is not ideal either if you want a quick change so now I'm going with just learning to play the rumba rhythms softer.

What are your thoughts on this one?

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Spanish Guitarist in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 18 2006 10:58:56

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Jon,
how much easier can it get than a pedal! Come on! :)

I tried one of those Bose things....I didn't like sitting close to it. Maybe with ear plugs it would be good to use.

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Arizona Wedding Music Guitar

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 18 2006 15:31:00

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Miguel de Maria
Jon,
how much easier can it get than a pedal! Come on! :)

Standing up, pedal stomping is oK as you can shift your weight between your feet easily, but sitting crosslegged with everything supported on the one leg, its difficult to move that legaround nimbly and change patches especially if you are concentrating on what you are doing guitar wise at the same time. Well I found it too tricky anyway.

Is this how you handle volume chnges when playing with other guitarists, Mike?

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Spanish Guitarist in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 19 2006 8:02:48

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Jon,
yes, I use a pedal, but I just use two patches, and I put them right next to each other. Another would be to use an a/b switch. Some people use a mic and just lean back or forth for leads, but I hate that.

I can't say my switch technique is that precise, for reasons you mentioned, but I don't have too much need of split-second switching.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 19 2006 13:47:30

Ricardo

Posts: 14892
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Used to use an EQ pedal, but the volume nob thing works fine nowadays. 100% is lead level, 50% or less for rhythm. For rumba, you need hard strumming for the sound, so the guitar has to be lower volume. I can switch in one beat.

Ricardo

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 20 2006 4:27:23

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Ricardo)

Richard,
you use any mic on that, or just pickup?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 20 2006 4:28:53

Ricardo

Posts: 14892
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Jon Boyes)

If we are loud, and we usually are with the Rumba band, than just pick up. When I do flamenco shows, I use flamenco guitar with mic. I have another guitar for LOUD flamenco shows that has the blender, but I use mostly mic for that also (90 mic -10 pickup).

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 20 2006 4:44:32

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Jon Boyes)

I just got my Cordoba back from getting a little setup tweaking today. Tomorrow I have a gig, and I'll be ready to ROCK! :)

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 20 2006 17:52:13

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

let us know how you find the guitar Mike. is it piezo-only or does it have a mic combo pick up?

Whats it sound like acoustically ie not plugged in?

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Spanish Guitarist in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 21 2006 10:10:53

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Jon,
I played my first gig with the Cordoba today.

To me, the neck is very important. I think most people, that don't own guitars that cost $3000 or more, would think that this is a very good neck. It is almost completely straight. I have the action at 7/64ths on the high e string, but unfortunately this neck can't handle it. I'm going to have to raise it a little bit, which will make this a bit uncomfortable for me. It buzzes a little all along the top string and on the 2nd and 3rd string around the 12th fret. It's too bad. I think the gig guitar should be as comfortable or easier to play than the home guitar, and this one just isn't, compared to the Tezanos Perez at my house.

The sound of the guitar is surprisingly loud for how small it is, just about 2" in depth. It's a cutaway and is quite light. The size of the body is actually something you have to get used to. I played a 4 hour gig today and stood up about 1/3 of the songs. Standing up is fun! I got inspired by Richard's picture so I decided to do it myself. You can strum and improvise fine standing up, but complicated solo pieces might not work. Right now my R shoulder is jelly. I think it's because the body size doesn't give quite the same angle.

The acoustic sound is very mid-rangey. There is little bass resonance, because of the small body. Although the trebles have good volume, they lack a bit in sparkle or character. That's okay. If you plug it in and have eq, you can get it to sound good. I walked out in the auditorium while my partner played it and it sounded very good.

It has a pickup and a mic. Today I used 100% pickup, as we were playing a natural, outdoor auditorium, and it was very loud on stage (I used earplugs).

I also used my Zoom A2 acoustic effects pedal today for the first time. This is the sequel to the Zoom 504, that Jon turned me on to. It is basically the same thing except it has more features and is much more flexible. It has a guitar modeling feature, also a mic modeling feature. It has a 6 band eq, which is nice to have. It also has a small drum machine in it! Unfortunately the rhythms are preset and cant be modified, and they aren't suitable for rumbas.

Something that I never realized is that electronics with red light displays are horrible outside. I could not read my pedal unless I took it back into the hallway behind the stage. Even if I covered it up with my hand, I couldn't read it with my tuner or to see whether I was on my lead or rhythm channel. Annoying....

It was kind of cold out this morning, in the 40's, but by 11, when we went on, the sun was shining bright. This was nice, except for the problem that our strings continually went out of tune. Oh well.

People seemed to like us, and we sold 8 CDs.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 21 2006 23:27:15

Ricardo

Posts: 14892
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

Before you do any more modification, you might try some different gauge strings for the trebles, or even just different brand can make a difference and stop that buzzing without touching the bone or neck. My guitar has a sort of high action, no buzzing.

2 things, 1) use the notch to cancel the low A frequency when using the mic. 2) experiment with the phase shift to cancel bass feedback when using the piezo really loud with other instruments.

It took me along time to get used to playing on the skinny fingerboard with the strings closer together than most concert guitars. But picking on it is still pretty fun. Acoustically, you can close mic it (near the hole) and get tons of bass response. I used it in the studio a few times and it is surprisingly good tonewise. Keep poundin' rumbas on it, and in a year or so it will lose some of that midrangyness.

Ricardo

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 22 2006 6:01:00

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: Gear/gig questions to Ricardo (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Miguel de Maria
I also used my Zoom A2 acoustic effects pedal today for the first time. This is the sequel to the Zoom 504, that Jon turned me on to. It is basically the same thing except it has more features and is much more flexible. It has a guitar modeling feature, also a mic modeling feature. It has a 6 band eq, which is nice to have.

Would you believe it, I've just bought an EQ pedal - if I had known about this I would have sold the zoom and upgraded. Much better to have it all in one box, plus you can store the eq settings in different patches, right? Damn, I am going to have to get one.
Sturdier construction too. Thanks for that.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 23 2006 8:35:08