Gig report. Adding an S1 for a monitor?

[Boy_Narf]

We've decided to quiet it down for the next little while and had a dual acoustic and vocals rehearsal last night. I plugged my A6 into a Pro Jr, but the other fellow plugged his Rainsong and vocals into the S1. I understand now. It did a great job! Nice clear guitar/vocal separation and the built in reverb was fantastic to add a touch of air to everything. We spent a bit of time discussing logistics and decided for smaller/coffeeshop gigs we could get away with just the S1 and my Pro Jr. instead of hauling the L1. There was only one time when his guitar overloaded the S1 but he was goofing around playing way too hard. I also realised after the jam that I forgot to set the tone match to guitar so I imagine things to be even more balanced next time we jam.

I think I finally understand this little thing. I bought it for something it wasn't really designed for. Right too for the right job. I think a set of these would be killer for our acoustic stuff. Might have to look into picking up a second one down the road if this concept pans out. 

One question...

When plugging a guitar in via 1/4 into the S1, should I be using a regular guitar cable? Or is a balanced TRS cable still recommended?

Thanks,

[ChetDude]

Since regular electric guitars only have female TS (2 conductor) 1/4" unbalanced output, use a regular guitar cable (or wireless).

Another thing to remember is that because the signal is unbalanced, the guitar cable should be no more than 18' long since you run the risk of external electromagnetic fields disturbing the signal with longer cable runs.

[CityFolk]

Chet is spot on as usual ??.

Only thing I’d add is keeping a TS cable length at or under 18’ can be awkward if you want to place the S1 (or mixer) at a further distance or up on a speaker pole.

Therefore, what I do is have my pedal board with tuner, chorus, delay, blah blah and a preamp that has a built in direct box. So I run a short 10’ 1/4” TS cable to my pedal board and an XLR cable from the pedal board to the S1 or mixer if we use our L1M2.

So the bottom line recommendation is to plug your TS cable into a DI box near you on stage and then run whatever length XLR/mic cable to wherever you have your mixer or S1. I also have a snake with 8 XLR inputs I can use when we have a bigger band. Then I go from the DIs into the 30’ snake.

DI boxes are pretty cheap too. I find the overall signal is noticeably better when I do this vs just using a TS cable directly in. It’s one more connection, but worth it for the better signal and setup flexibility.

[ChetDude]

As usual, our friend CityFolk has contributed some more very important information to the discussion.

Indeed, I normally use 3' TS "guitar" cables from the two pickup systems in my guitar to my pedal board (a 2 channel mixer first - then Tuner, Chorus, Delay and Looper) at my feet then use a 12' Monster TS guitar cable or sometimes xVive wireless to get the guitar signal to the board (or Bose S1).

For bigger gigs when I'm not sure how far I will be from the board, I'll bring another 3' TS cord to go from the looper to a DI that I bring and then the sound guys only have to supply an XLR cable to my guitar rig (and another for my vocal mic).

Other times (like the next 2 days) I carry my AER Tommy Emmanuel amp (with crystal clean amazing reverb) and place it next to me on stage -- I plug my Vocal Mic (phantom powered Neumann) into one channel of the AER and the short 3' cord from looper to the guitar channel on AER.  The amp has an XLR DI output that mixes the guitar and vocal post effects, so I carry an XLR to XLR cable to go directly to the board and mix my vocal/guitar balance on the AER.

[CityFolk]

Nice setups Chet! At the risk of derailing the thread, what looper do you use?

[ChetDude]

For quick and dirty lay down a rhythm and play lead, the one that's on the pedalboard is a TC Ditto X2 with 2 switches -- record/overdub and on/off.

For playing back the backing tracks I've recorded, a Digitech Stereo Jam Man...

[ChetDude]

PS: One does have to use an affirmative Foot press to make sure the Ditto works right.  The Digitech is less "sensitive" - more reliable.  I actually have both the single pedal version (Solo XT) and the double pedal version - JamMan Stereo.  They use the same cards

I also have a Trio -- but that's a different breed of cat.  Not a simple looper, more of a rhythm loop, drums and bass generator that listens to the guitar track recorded -- and it has fewer channels to store tracks in.

[Boy_Narf]

Well we finally had a loud jam and the S1 just isn't going to cut it. I turned off the mains and just had the S1 going out of aux for a few moments and it was not audible until the guitar stopped. Yes it's set to the proper gain just under clipping. It just doesn't have enough headroom to use as a monitor for our singer. We ended up putting it on a table just a few feet behind his head which proved to be about the same. At least he could hear it though. He kept asking to turn it up and I said "sorry man it's maxed". I was hoping this would make the cut, oh well.

After our acoustic rehearsal last week I understand it's uses (small gigs that don't require ear plugs. In our case anyway, it will work fantastic for these venues and our upcoming unplugged showcases). It is a solid bluetooth speaker as long as it's not bass heavy music (I'm still hoping for a "with sub/hpf" option in the software one day heh). Do I have buyers remorse? Slightly haha. In hindsight for barely any more money I should have gone with an F1, I also think there was a $100 gift card offer with it. Ah well, will have to wait until next February to hit the promo again.

Thanks again for all the help/guidance! 

[ChetDude]

Wow, you guys must play LOUD!  😉

[Boy_Narf]

Not really my friend. I learned a while back that I don't have to hit the drums at 110% were just a two piece with a 15 watt fender and 200 watt bass amp. We are not having a volume war that's for sure. 

We always play with ear plugs regardless and I think this is the trouble. You don't realize how loud things get with plugs in until you run out of headroom haha.