Bass Guitar Fix

So Dave of Inward Eye's bass stopped working a few days ago. After having a broken off volume knob, and a no longer working, rusted out, tone knob, as well as a crackly input jack, it was time to open it up and do a little "road-surgury". We were talking to Flogging Molly's Stage Manager "Badger" and he recommended just removing the tone knob all together. So we did. We also bought and installed a new volume pot which turned out being the wrong size, but 15 minutes before the show it went in anyways. The next step that Badger recommended was removing the volume knob too. Dave is game, and so am I.

I was really impressed at how much better the bass tone was after we removed the tone knob. It makes sense though. You are removing a component that causes resistance in the circuitry of the instrument. The signal has a shorter more direct path to travel resulting in better current and voltage, which means a cleaner, fuller tone. Amazing.

-Matt

Another Entertaining Night

So we were packing up the gear after a show and out of nowhere this drunk guy appeared and started throwing punches at the security guards. He tripped and fell into our drums and the security dudes eventually helped him out of the club.

Dont Drink Near The Board!!!

I experienced my worst nightmare in Winnipeg a couple nights ago. I was mixing Inward Eye as happy as can be when all of a sudden the entire sound system turned off. It turns out there was a drunk guy sitting in front of the sound board and pulled out the power cord to the processor for the sound system. I was lucky enough that it occurred during the last 30 seconds of the set. It is the best part of the show though...

Killing Time...

Is This Real?!

I found this set list taped on the wall in Amigo's in Saskatoon. If anybody knows what band this is, or if they even exist, please tell me!

Pilot Speed

I just recently finished a tour with Pilot Speed from Toronto, Ontario. We had a great time on the tour through western Canada. It was a one and a half week, 6 show tour going from Calgary AB to Victoria BC, and back to Saskatoon MB. It was interesting going from mixing a 3 piece power trio to a 4 piece band with keyboards, acoustics, and fancy microphones. The lead Singer Todd Clark used a Shure 520DX "Bullet Mic" in a few songs. It was originally designed for harmonica playing, designed to be held in a cupped hand while playing. On its own it had a top end and midrange-ish "AM radio' kind of sound. It sounded great in the songs he used it in. He modified the mic by screwing a rubber mic clip on it which came in handy in the encore of one of the shows when he decided to mount it on his mic stand. He used it through most of the song "Wooden Bones" which is also the name of their latest album. Check it out on iTunes. Do it. Right now.

Here's some pics...

Appearance on Breakfast Television in Edmonton, AB

Waiting for the ferry to Victoria BC

A hilarious doodle that Ruby made.

Thanks for reading!

Matt

Modified SM57

So I barely had my SM57's for an hour and I had already cut one to pieces...

Here's a rundown of what I did. I melted the hot glue that holds in the transformer by sitting on top of a steaming kettle. I pulled it out, cleaned the glue up, and cut the two end pieces of the aluminum body off with a rotary tool. It took a while due to the XLR side being so thick. I resoldered the XLR connector directly to the + and - on the mic then taped the freshly cut pieces together. If I like the modded mic I will JB weld the two pieces together to make it look nicer. Ugly electrical tape will have to suffice for now though.




I made it smaller so it could fit on a snare drum clamp and not look too huge. Also the smaller the mic is the less chance there is that its going to get hit with a drumstick. It sits a little higher than I would like so I am going to go on the hunt for a different clamp.

Without the transformer, the mic is supposed to be 10dB quieter and have more lows and mids. We'll see when I use it tomorrow!