Hello Troubadourians! This column will cover a lot of individual topics, but they all relate to each other and to being prepared for “things to happen….” I’ll start at the beginning: I’ve written in many columns that I always have a backup plan in case something goes wrong or a piece of gear fails. Whether it’s my stuff failing or someone else’s, I have a backup for it. Either a direct replacement or a plan to adapt to a different method to achieve the desired result. With that result being putting on a good performance.
I rarely have to use any of the backup gear. In fact, I can only remember having to lend someone a cord because they had forgotten theirs. Maybe a battery here and there, a string, a DI box, but nothing wholesale or critical. Once a couple of years ago, I didn’t bring a backup guitar because we were playing a gig with another guitar player who I knew always brought two guitars and we didn’t have room in the Rav4 for another guitar. When Mark’s guitar failed on that gig, we just borrowed one from Paul (thanks, Paul Cruz!). But last Saturday would prove to be much different…
The Outliers played a gig where we were the supporting act and went on second. There really isn’t a formal sound check at this gig. If something isn’t functioning you find out in real-time during the crossover between sets. The electrical wiring in the venue isn’t all that great and there are lights with dimmers and also refrigerators and other food service devices that introduce “noise” onto the electrical circuits. Such a noisy environment can be problematic for guitars and sound systems, which is what I encountered this time.
I’ll start the story with a brief technical lesson. Many, if not most, acoustic guitars that have built-in pickup systems, have under-saddle piezo pickups. Piezos are interesting devices. They are crystals that function bi-directionally. Normally inert, when excited by an electrical current, they will emit a corresponding audible frequency. The inverse is also true where if physically distorted—such as when they are under the bridge saddle of an acoustic guitar—they will emit an electrical current that can be amplified. The Piezo (pronounced PIE-zo or PEE-A-zo) pickups, as found in an acoustic guitar, consist of six piezo crystals that transform the physical vibrations that the guitar strings make into electrical signals that are then amplified through the PA system or an individual amplifier. These crystals are very small and interconnected by very small—and fragile—wires that connect to the output jack of the instrument with or without a preamp. These pickups are surrounded by a grounding shield that protects the pickups from damage and from electronic noise of the type described above. When that ground becomes compromised, bad things happen. While piezo-based pickup systems have improved over time since their introduction in the ’70’s, there is still a delicate balance between ruggedness and producing accurate acoustic tone. Factory-installed pickup systems are often physically tuned to the guitar they are installed into while aftermarket installations can have inaccuracies, even when professionally installed. Still, the fragility of these types of pickups and the stressful environment in which they exist can cause them to eventually fail. Which brings me to the rest of my story…
As I was packing for the gig and running down my usual list of what to bring, I remembered that I no longer have a backup acoustic guitar. We had been using a borrowed Martin D-41 as a backup for both Mark and myself. However, I recently sold that guitar to a student, so it was no longer available. The closest guitar that I have is my Collings I-30, which is a hollow-body electric guitar. I figured it was better than nothing, so I packed it in what turned out to be a gig-saving decision.
The pickup in my Collings D2 is an aftermarket installation performed by an expert luthier. It has served me very well. However, it is also 25 years old and has definitely older technology. I had a problem with the grounding a few years ago, which seemed to be caused by a slight displacement of the bridge saddle. This likely happened while changing strings where the pressure on the saddle shifted when the strings were removed. Resetting the saddle corrected the issue then. Of course, I changed the strings on my D2 before the gig, but I didn’t check the electronics afterward. Mistake. When I plugged everything in at the gig, the D2 presented with a nasty ground buzz that resisted elimination through the normal methods—ground lift at the DI box, flipping the AC cord, changing patch cords, etc. This rapid troubleshooting took maybe five minutes, which seems like an eternity when you are standing on stage and trying to get ready to play your set. It was clear to me that the problem was the guitar itself, so I made the call to go to the backup.
I wasn’t expecting the switch to my I-30 to be as disorienting as it turned out to be. It is after all, my own guitar, and I am very comfortable playing it… just not in the context of playing it as a replacement for an acoustic guitar. For reference, the I-30 is similar to a Gibson ES-330. Both are double cutaway, hollow-body electric guitars. My I-30 is set up to be a complementary guitar to my acoustic guitar when I have to play both on the same gig. It has heavier strings than I use on my regular electric guitars but still lighter that my normal acoustic string gauge. I never intended it to be a replacement for an acoustic guitar. Well, now it would have to be.
My normal gig bags contain the pedal board for the intended usage, in this case my acoustic guitar, but I carry a second bag with extra cables and this bag includes a FlyRig5, which supports an electric guitar. For a second, I considered using the FlyRig5 with the I-30, but I hadn’t rehearsed with that setup and I knew it would be easier to try to get the electric guitar to behave as an acoustic guitar than it would be to get it to fit in as an electric guitar, so I went with my acoustic pedal board and played the gig as though I was using an acoustic guitar.
Overall, I think everything went as well as, or better, than might be expected under the circumstances. I did “acoustic” things when I needed to, but I was able to explore more “electric” textures where they seemed appropriate. I often emulate electric guitar parts on my acoustic guitar anyway so in this case they just sounded a bit more authentically electric. The challenge was to maintain the acoustic sounds where they were required, and I think that worked for the most part. The toughest thing was relating my vocals to the different tonality. I pull my vocal parts out of my guitar parts so even though the difference was subtle, it was still more disorienting than I expected. I’ll need to work on that…
My next task is to fix the pickup in my D2. I’m hoping that I can repair the ground shield, but it might require a new pickup… and I also have a feeling that I’ll soon be asked to add the electric guitar to the Outliers’ sound. I think I can do that. We’ll have to rehearse it first. I don’t want to have it be under emergency conditions again. One last thing… I have names for all of my guitars and now my I-30 has a new one: 911.
Need to know? Just ask… Charlie (ask.charlie@hotmail.com)