On the road with the axe fx II (2)

Larry Mitchell

Power User
On the road with the axe fx two.

Hi guys.

If anyone is in California this week and next. I'm doing a nice run of guitar player themed shows and EV (Electro voice) clinics with my trio, we are opening the shows and the clinics for the Travis Larson band (serially great band in the Steve Morse kind of vibe)*

We started last night in Santa Clara (guitar center San Jose) tonight is the GC in Sacramento. I'll put the schedule at the end of this post.

I started out July 31st and will be traveling until maybe January. So i will try to keep up but I'm already a bit sleepy. :0)
Any way, some memorable fractal moments. The first show I did on the california side was august 19th. I drove out to Carlsbad ca to play with a percussionist Monette Marino Keita. 9 piece band Afro cuban Latin jazz funk rock band.(I think I'm the funk rock part) anyway I walk on stage. Nice sized festival (Carlsbad jazz Fest) and the monitor guy has two mic's ready for me. I say "great thank you. Can I just use these XLR cables? I go direct" he says "you don't have an amp"? "nope I go direct". This goes on back and forth for like 5 minutes. He's ask one of his guys to go get an amp out of the truck. I'm like no you don't understand I go direct. I try to do this with smile but they really don't want me to go direct. The monitor *guy even mumbled that the FOH guy wasn't going to be into that. Ah.... Hello.... That's not his decision! :0) I rarely get this kind of thing happening to me but this time..... Then the FOH guy chimes in from the board and we go back and forth. Finally the give me two direct boxes which I unplug and use just the Xlr's. I'm not sure why but I don't like using di's. Bam. We get sound. After a little bit, one by one every member of the sound crew walks by and looks to see what I'm playing through. Nods and smile happen but nobody says anything.. Even after the show I get a "nice playing, nice show" but not a word about the amp vs direct thing anymore. :0)

It was also 98 degrees during the two sound check. I hide the axe fx under the shade of a monitor and some guitar cases so it wouldn't *over heat or melt. I'm not sure it would have but it was too hot for m out there. I can't imagine how a computer in a black case was doing.

This past week end was interesting as well. I did a couple of workshops at montgomery college in Maryland and the first one I played through a fender passport PA. Hmmmmm not working for me I have to EQ the PA. A Bit, this one wasn't *very flat I'd say but I made it through it and I was playing solo. But that night I had to play a concert with the artist dawn Avery (mohawk cellist) with no monitors at first. Going direct was not an issue with this FOH but having monitors, *that was an issue. :0) we finally after strongly asking got two JBL's they worked nicely. One person in the audience came up to me and said he owned an ultra and was thinking about getting an axe fx II. Hey man if you are on this forum and read this, I'm sorry I can not remember your name. But please chime in here. Thanks.

The rest of Dawn's five day tour was the same. The next day we played the smithsonian national museum of the american indian. Great building lots of gear but where we played, I *had to press the issue to get to run stereo. (in the last 22 years I rarely run into problems with going stereo) not sure what's going on now that most places I play are stereo but this past run has been strange with lazy sound guys) :0) anyway only two monitors for 4 people and the only put vocals through them and it was one mix. They wheeled out a line 6 flex tone amp for me to monitor myself. I finally get them to run me stereo and i asked for my left side to be put in the monitors so the rest of the band can hear me and I can hear what's going on with all of my lush pad like patches (mostly altered stock and Matman patches) :0) no go! *Finally about the second song into the sound check ...... I can hear lushness. I hear stereo. The FOH guy started liking what he was hearing and started too actually listen to me and gives me some of what I want. :0) imagine that.....

Most of the shows I've been doing over the years no matter if *it's been Big stages for 10,000 people. Little bars and clubs. I have at least 90% of the time gone stereo and had two monitors. My shows no problems. As a side man most of the time no problems. These past few months have been like meeting some of the worst laziest sound guys every. :0) strange. The next day was a folk Festival in Tacoma park. One of the nicest sunny days they've had in a long time, no rain, so very few people showed up at 11am for our show and the sound guy was grumpy from the get go! I didn't even ask this guy for two monitors! But I did ask him to pan the guitar so that there was no phasing? He seem reluctant at first but did. I caught him smiling and nodding a bit then too but he pretty much was in a bad mood the whole time. (why take a stereo signal from some one and then pan both channels straight up the middle? Is there no thought about a sense of space in a mix? How about separating instruments a frequencies? Or am I just being a guitar player..... Oh wait...... I'm also an engineer..... Oh I *mix records for a living and have done some live sound...... But what do I know? *But how come when I chime in and get what I ask for the sound guys start to smile and seem to like it? Wait. What? :0) why have a bad attitude from the start? There are so many other things one can do work wise and make more money than any job in music, so if your not happy working in music you probably should be doing something else. Oh well.. :0)

Finally I'm here on the Travis Larson EV tour and wow, nice happy people. Great sounds and smiling faces. Travis's playing is ridiculously great. I'm in stereo (monitors too) and the monitors sound great too me with no EQ tweaks. I'm getting a pair of ZXA1's I think thats the model number. Small 8inch speakers just for when I play with singer songwriter so I don't have to deal with strange sound guys.
This is good and bad. Good to have, costly for the artist that I'll play with cause they will have to pay the extra baggage fees to fly them around.

Pretty much I've been getting the same reaction as I have always gotten with my ultra and now II after we star playing. Wow! "What is that thing"? It sounds great"! But these last few months have been a struggle to just get to that point. :0) oh well I was on a nice run of people just giving me what I ask for and everything just running super smooth.

I hear mercury was in retrograde for awhile. I think it seemed like MJ Rey was just straight missing! :0)

That's all for now. I'm going to ask Travis to make a few patches for my axe II and I will upload them here.

Here are the tour dates. Please come out and say hello.

September:
14th
Guitar Center San Jose
3677 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Santa Clara, California 95051
6PM
*
15th
Guitar Center Sacramento
2120 Alta Arden Expressway
Sacramento, California 95825
6PM
*
16th
*Hertlein Guitars 6841 Dublin Blvd.
Dublin, CA 94568
7PM
*
17th
Guitar Player Live Festival
Bankhead Theater
Livermore, CA (times TBA)
*
18th
Music Max
9472 Cedro Lane #10
Palo Cedro, CA 96073
7PM
*
19th
Bananas at Large
1504 4th Street
San Rafael, CA 94901
6:30
*
20th
Frog & Peach
728 Higuera St
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
9PM
*
21st
Pour House
1331 Vendels Circle
Paso Robles, CA 93446 **
7PM
*
22nd
Guitar Center Cerritos
11155 183rd Street
Cerritos, California 90703
6PM
*
23rd
Porters pub
UCSD campus*
*
24th
Adam's Ave Street Festival (Lestat's Stage)
3343 Adams Ave
San Diego, CA 92116
7PM

Thanks for reading
Larry
 
If any of you are in the general area, it's well worth a drive to hear Larry Mitchell in pretty much any setting. He's a phenomenal player and gets lots of great sounds out of that Axe II!

Larry, I got my II a few weeks ago but I've been swamped with acoustic gigs and it is killing me not to have more time with it. Any plans to head further north in the near future?
 
Cool stuff Larry. Get some shuteye. Looking forward to the patches!

Let me know if you make it back to SF for the Holidays. I should be there for New Years (yes, I'll force Terry and Aline to have another party...)

-Ron
 
wow, really is amazing to see someone as experienced as larry having sound-man issues......really goes to show you that MOST sound-guys are the same the world over :/

When i read that part about the argument of direct vs amp thing it made me laugh....I had the same issues with an idiot sound company here and they insisted that I play thru an amp....and didn't let up till I plugged into some fender amp on the stage.....and kept telling me how going direct would sound like crap and that i should trust them cuz they've been doing it for years now and I'm just a guitarist (i also smiled cuz I'm more into production and recording myself) and I should leave that kind of thing up to them. Time was of the essence, so I plugged in an fx-send to the amp, and started the gig, and they FINALLY let me plug in direct. The vids close to the stage where you could hear the amp showed how crappy the sound was, and the vids that were far from the stage revealed a sexy guitar sound. I struggled with that amp for the whole gig.....it sounded TERRIBLE, and I just could not get a good sound from it :/ Controlling the volume level was also a nightmare...I just couldn't prevent it from sounding either too loud or too quiet :/ All the while, the people in the back are enjoying the sound, cuz they're hearing the direct sound.

No smiles from the sound men after either.....they still insisted that they had it right and I had it all wrong. Too bad they didn't take in the sound from the back of the audience :/
 
I live in San Jose, so I just missed the event. Bummer.

I'll look into the Livermore event.
yeah, i live right by that taco bell across the street. i drove by last night coming home from work and was wondering why there were so many cars outside the gc on a wed night. too bad, i would've poked my head in there to get a glimpse of larry in the flesh (and hear the axe ii, of course).

@larry, gl on your tour man!
 
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Larry, you need to make it back to the east coast. I saw you at a clinic back in the early 90's in the Philadelphia area and was blown away (I believe it was at George's Music). I still crank your self-titled cd frequently.
 
Thanks for sharing your stories Larry! Would love to come see you play if you ever tour through western Canada.
 
Great stuff Larry ! I had the same problems at a festival... they wanted me to play through the back line... and were confused when I asked for just 2 XLR's, but were happy when it came to show time... on one of the shows, the monitor guy couldn't get signal for the first song ( although it was in the mains... ) "ummm, dude... you see that button that says "Mic / Line"... kind of an important button"... LOL...
 
Welcome to the Bay Area Larry! I bet you're enjoying the great weather out here, huh? Sorry I missed your session in S.J. but I think I'll swing by Friday at the Hertlein Guitars event. Would love to get a chance to see you tear it up on the fret board in person, and hear the II as well. The show on the 19th @ Bananas is a place that sells a lot of Neal Schon's stuff. Maybe his son Miles will be there to check you and the II out. Then he can report to pops and tell him to upgrade. LOL!
 
Thanks for sharing Larry - goes to show you, no matter what level you play at... there are always problem people. Arrrg!

You ever come to SE Michigan... and the beer is on me (or tea or coffee or whatever you prefer). :D
 
Saw Larry play last night @Hertlein Guitars in Dublin, and as Larry will attest, I was smiling from ear to ear watching him play. Very expressive soulful player that can also shred with the best of 'em. The Axe II was well represented, Larry's tone was steller, especially through the EV sound system! If my memory serves me, Larry and his Bass player were playing through the EV Tour X speakers/sub for mains and the ELX112's on the floor. It sounded great! No flub or highend distortion. I think I might go this route for a PA/FRFR in my near future.

So if you guys in Cali can get a chance to see Larry play while he's in the area, DO IT!!

Thanks again, Larry!
 
I always try to get to see Larry when he is in town. Have always been great shows. Last time i saw him one of the first things he asked me.... got your II yet? Didn't at the time but that has changed since. :) See you next Saturday Larry, looking forward to hearing how those EV's sound.

Mark
 
Saw Larry play tonight. Great sound, direct into the house. Great playing and show. He was very friendly and took time to take pictures with me and his Axe Fx and explain to me a little about his sound. You can tell he loves what he does. I shot some video of a ripping jam at the end and I'll post it when I have time. Thanks again Larry, it was great meeting you.
 
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