First gig with the III - amazing ! :-)

Todde3000

Member
I played my first gig with my III on the weekend at a sold out show in a small hall with about 400 people in the audience. It was an anniversary show of the blues band I used to play in and a lot of former band members were also invited. There were a lot of tube amps on stage, all miked up for the PA - and me ... :) I put my 4U rack on top of the bass players huge high end stack. That meant that it was shoulder high, so it was easy to access if any changes had to be made. I have a custom made 1U panel that routes all the ins and outs and other connections I require to the front. Fortunately no changes needed !! I used the "So many roads" preset (116) without any tweaking except for adding a rotary effect and some classic vibe. I went from low gain to "all in" with the volume on my 73 hard tail Strat, fitted with a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge position. I had a slot at the opening after the break and was in charge of the ZZ Top and Hendrix stuff, on the guitar and vocals.

All the tube amp players in the band said that the sound was fantastic on the PA and I thought my (house)monitor sound was absolutely brilliant. Feedback ? Yep, no problem at all !! Just hold a note and let it roll infinitely :).

I used my FC-6 on the floor in front of the monitor together with an EV-1 pedal. I just added some classic vibe and some rotary when required. And naturally a lot of cry baby wah wah on the veeeeery long Red House solo :cool:

Absolutely brilliant. That was a real "plug and play" situation that went extremely well. I plugged the out1 left into the stage box, cranked it up to 75% on the output knob and told the sound guy to have at it however he wants ... quick and easy and little to schlepp ...

A few things to consider:

1. Put the unit where you can easily access it without having to bend over all the time with a guitar hanging on you. That makes things easy in case you have to make adjustments.

2. Make sure you can really see the unit. The controls are not backlit and you can easily end up adjusting something you do not want to. My custom 1U panel has a USB out, so I can plug in a flexible light or even top off the wireless dongles when needed.

3. Make sure you have proper monitoring if you don't bring your own monitor. I knew the sound guy and the monitors he provides, so no problem. If I don't know the sound guy, I bring my DXR10 with me and use out2 as a separate monitor channel. Safety first ...

4. Be careful with reverb if you're playing a bigger hall. The place will normally give you plenty of natural reverb and too much additional reverb from the amp can clog up your sound. I told one of the tube guys to turn down on his spring reverb - he had it set to a level that was good for rehearsal in a small room but was way too much on the PA when did his sound check.

4. Be absolutely aware of the Fletcher Munson effect. The preset I used sounded totally dark and muffled while playing at home at low levels. For safety I put the treble and presence controls of both amps in that preset on the performance page. At gig volume that preset came to life like nothing else ! The frequencies were all just where they were supposed to be for my liking and I had a blast playing that preset live. No need to adjust anything.

Conclusion:

I have no further need for tube amps anymore ! It was a great experience playing the unit live and it was easy as pie - select preset, plug into stage box, then play ...
For me there was not one issue and the unit worked "out of the box". That's the way I like it :)

The first pic is just before soundcheck, the second one is the stage ready to roll.

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Cheers, Todde
 
That's what I like to hear. I plan on using my incoming FM3 just like you described. Walk in hook up and roll.
 
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