Category : Uncategorized

The Rig from Hell, Part II: The ADA Preamplifier, and why it’s so freaking awesome…

One of the key components in my “rig from hell” is the ADA MB1 preamplifier. It’s well over 10 years old, and the company that made it no longer exists (as I understand it, their factory burned to the ground and they just cut their losses and closed up shop rather than rebuild) – but I love what it does for me; I even own a backup that lives in my studio rack.

It’s an electronically controlled unit that allows you to create 256 recall-able preset tones (it also comes with some of its own factory presets). Lots of EQ control is a given, with multi-band and parametrics galore; but one of its nicest features is that it’s actually a “dual” preamp – your signal passes through (at your option) 1 or 2 onboard circuits: a solid-state preamp as well as a tube-based preamp. So you can combine those two characters to create a very unique blend. And the tube preamp also has overdrive, so that adds to the sonic stew.

Also quite useful (essential, in my case): dual effects loops, which are switchable within your presets. It also has a built-in chorus effect and built-in compressor, both useful tools for bassists.

It also features Bi-Ampable outputs (alongside a standard full-range output) which I used when running the full rig with both cabinets. When I’d play smaller rooms, I’d bring just the 2×10 and run full-range through that.

The ultimate key, though, was that the preamp is MIDI-controllable. That means that I could use a MIDI floor pedal to choose between presets on the MB1, either between songs or mid-song, to change the sound that I was playing. ADA even made a simple pedal that worked well, but my Ground Control pedal was much more advanced (read about that in a future post.) So whether I needed a straight-ahead bass sound, a distorted grinding tone, a chorus-laden tubey sound, or one of many others, I had to but step on my pedal. And different presets used various effects, too – some used the effects loops, some bypassed them. So already I have lots of tonal flexibility, and I haven’t even delved into the many other pieces of gear in the rack.

Next issue: Various Bass Effects Units in the Rig From Hell

Share :

Wordless Wednesday

Share :

The Rig from Hell (Part I)

I’ve made several mentions of my “insane bass rig” and I guess it’s probably time to clarify that description. Lots of bassists have put together bass rigs that are excessively complex and chock full of features and tones (most of which they’ll never use.) There are also plenty of bass toys out there that do some amazing things; the Line6 gear offers tons of tonal flexibility by modeling a huge collection of amps and effects, the Roland V-Bass does it as well (but uses a special pickup to accomplish it). There are certainly plenty of analog effects pedals and units out there too.

Before I go into the technical details, I’ll first examine the “why”… as in, “Why did Mark bother to brainstorm, purchase, assemble and carry around this giant tangle of cables and rack-mounted insanity?”

Heh.

Good question. Actually, quite a while back, when my good friend Scott and I were starting to put together the band that would eventually become Second Story, we both decided that we needed the ultimate in flexibility for our sounds. While we always intended to have a keyboard player in the band, we also wanted Scott (on guitar) and me (on bass) to be able to create new sonic flavors to add to our musical stew. That is, besides the “normal” guitar and bass tones that are common in popular music. And we needed them to be switchable “on the fly” so that we could change them between songs – even mid-song – so that we could really be free to create new textures. So we set out to figure out how to do that.

So now that you understand the why (maybe) here’s the gear list.

The image to the right shows the rig behind me; it is an earlier shot, prior to the addition of the MB76 Patch Mixer.

Rack 1
• Furman Power Conditioner
• dbx Subharmonic Synthesizer
• ADA MB-1 Preamp
• Peavey Spectrum Analog Filter
• Akai MB76 Patch Mixer
• Yamaha G50 Pitch-to-Midi Translator
• Alesis NanoBass Synth Module
• Furman Pluglock

Rack 2

• ADA B500B Power Amplifier

Speaker Cabinets

• SWR Goliath Jr. 2×10″
• SWR Big Ben 1×18″ Subwoofer

Miscellaneous

• Digital Music Corp. Ground Control MIDI Pedal
• Ernie Ball Volume Pedal (used as CV pedal for MIDI)
• Axon AIX-103 Hexaphonic MIDI Bass Pickup

So you can see that there are a lot of components; all of the ones in the “Rack 1” list are crammed into a 6-space SKB rack. That rack also has one of my favorite gigging inventions, the “RakTrap.” It is an addition to the SKB which adds two separate door-access compartments into the back lid – normally wasted space – where I can carry spare cables, a flashlight, a soldering iron, picks (for when Scott would invariably forget his), my eBow, spare strings, NuSkin liquid bandage in case of emergency, and much more. It’s a shame that they aren’t available anymore…

Next Issue: The ADA Preamplifier, and why it’s so freaking awesome…

Share :

Saturday Morning Cartoon

One of my longtime favorites…

Share :

Saturday Morning Cartoon

Share :

On being a human jukebox

So, I’ve never really been in a cover band. Sure, I’ve learned a few tunes here and there for fun, and as a kid just starting out on bass, I’d plunk along with the radio or with records (yes, vinyl records). But I’ve never actually been a member of a band that played covers exclusively. And that whole “practicing” thing never appealed to me either, so I haven’t really just jammed on tunes for the sake of moving my hands, either.

Once, back when I was just out of high school, a couple of my friends and I got together a couple times to work out some covers, with the intent to “play out” (back when that was a big deal). I remember that one of the tunes was “Pour Some Sugar On Me” (hey, it was a current song at the time!) Another was “Rock and Roll All Night (and Party Every Day).” Yeah… I hated that. Aside from not being all that good at bass at the time, I really didn’t know the KISS tune (never been into KISS, myself) and it was somewhat humbling and rather annoying. I had trouble picking up the tunes, got frustrated, and certainly frustrated my friends. So it didn’t last long, and back I went to concentrating on songwriting and just having to be able to play the stuff we wrote.

In later days, I thought a cover tune or two might punch up our live show, so those of us in Ransomed Soul learned the first bit of “Carry On Wayward Son.” Realizing that with a power trio we wouldn’t be able to cover the organ parts, we ended up just doing the beginning section of the song – and then transitioning into one of our songs that happened to be in the same key. It was sorta fun, and it perked up the audience, but we really didn’t spend much time on it.

That same Kansas song showed up again in Second Story – and having a keyboard player this time around, we actually “learned” the whole song. Well, okay, we got really close – a lot of the details were played in “shorthand” rather than learning it note-by-note. But the audiences dug it and felt that it did the original song justice. I don’t know why, but we just figured it out one night at rehearsal when we didn’t feel like running our originals. Oh yeah, early on, before the band had enough material to fill a show, we also did “I Don’t Wanna Wait” by Paula Cole pretty well.

And of course, Second Story recorded a Queensrÿche song for a tribute album (which, unfortunately, was never released due to gross mismanagement at the “label” putting it out – a diversion for another day). But that track was not a dead-on cover; the band agreed that the essence of a good “tribute” track was to put our own stamp on their song rather than re-performing it like a jukebox. So again, we really spent more time re-arranging to our taste rather than playing a note-for-note cover. (The track totally kicks ass, by the way.)

I guess I’m only thinking about all of this because coming up at the end of the month is “Beardstock,” a musical/food/festivities weekend for the fans of the band Spock’s Beard. And I’ve (foolishly?) offered to play bass and sing on a fair number of tunes for a couple of impromptu “bands.” And it’s a pretty new experience for me – this time I have no choice but to figure out what so-and-so played, trying to remember the changes in prog songs I’ve never heard before… It’s certainly going to be an experience. But it’s an experience that most players have very early in their playing career – here I am, 20 years deep into playing, and I’m practically a cover song virgin! And the type of music fans at this party are going to know if I don’t play Geddy’s parts note-perfect. I guess the hardest part is going to be not worrying about that – and just enjoying the jams. And at least nowadays (unlike when I was a beginner) I’ve got the chops.

Share :