Guitar Gear

…not matter what you do.

I’m spending this weekend up at Camp Hammer in the Santa Cruz Mountains to lead praise & worship for my church’s annual Youth Retreat. This is a great venue tucked in the middle of the woods, just south of Big Basin, sitting in a clearing carved out of a dense forest of Coast Redwoods, the tallest trees in the world. This is the second year that my church has used this facility for the annual retreat and I love it here.

Last year, what was incredibly impressive was the sound system in the worship space. They had two big, ceiling-mounted mains with big subs in a 75′ X 40′ space. Lots of power – perhaps more than needed – to get the band’s sound out. Plus they had two big monitor wedges at the front of the stage so hearing ourselves was not at all an issue.

This year though, they changed the sound system. Now they have two 15″ active speakers mounted above smaller subs. To put it in perspective, you’d see a setup like this for wedding reception. It’s not bad, but it certainly lacks the depth and richness from the big mains we worked with last year.

Which brings me to the crux of the article…

Like most gear nuts, I’m obsessive about my sound. I’ve got lots of gear because I’m obsessive and have wanted to catch that unicorn we call tone. And from my amp, my tone pleases me.

But going direct out of my Katana Artist into the PA? Well… Let’s just say that I don’t know if I can fix it. And no, it’s not the Katana. I’ve got it dialed in to provide a very rich signal, and at church and recording, it sounds very close to its projected tone. What is getting produced in the PA is a very tinny tone, that combined with the reverb of the room makes my guitar sound like a Tele with some slapback delay.

My FOH guy and I have been working since yesterday afternoon to get it dialed in and save the settings on the board. We’ve rolled off the highs and added some bottom-end and that helped a bit, and we backed off the mid-range, but it’s such a fine adjustment with the mid-range, that if we get below a certain threshold point, it’s like a blanket has been thrown over the mains.

We tweaked for well over an hour yesterday during warm-up and sound check and did some more tweaks early this morning before our sunrise Mass. But to no avail. Even our vocals are sounding a little harsh. I brought good mics to this venue: Heil and Sennheiser mics. Even they sound horrible.

But here’s the thing: Despite the fact that I’m disappointed in the sound, there’s not much I can do about it. Period. I’ll try a couple of more things when we do our next set before lunch, but I’m just going to put up with what the PA can give me. My amp tone is as expected: It’s full and rich.

Besides, as long as my sound quality – or lack thereof – doesn’t hinder my ability to get the teens rocking with me, it’s all good. After all, I’m here to serve them, not my obsession with sound.