All Set Up
With the West End and festival circuits opening up, Adam Goldsmith prepares his setups for the various scenarios and sounds
Recently, I’ve had to put together three different setups for three separate gigs happening around the same time. First is a West End show over the next three months at the London Palladium, and presents the easy choice of a Kemper Profiler Stage loaded with slightly tweaked Michael Britt profiles – amps are generally no longer welcome in West End pits for the benefit of the sound department.
The other two situations are a general studio setup, where I can bring the proverbial kitchen sink and not have to worry about space, and the last is a ’board that I can leave on a Beverley Knight outdoor festival tour, which is sporadically occurring over July, August and September. This was fun and interesting for me as I didn’t need to cater for every sonic eventuality
“I’d recommend the Boss Super OverDrive. What a gem – it easily holds its own against any boutique overdrive I’ve owned”
that could occur in a film or album session, as is the case with studio ’boards. Beverley’s music is fairly straightforward in terms of guitar sounds, and offers an enjoyable chance to use a small selection of proper oldschool gear to its full extent. The styles range between 90s-style R&B, through Motown and rockier numbers such as Black Butta and Come As You Are.
With live gigs, I always enjoy the challenge of using one guitar for the entire gig, if possible. I’ve decided to use my refinished 1967 rosewood-’board Telecaster on this occasion. For those of you who are just dipping your toes into the world of vintage guitars (for playing as opposed to investment), refinished examples can be a much more financially accessible way in, rather than a mint-condition original example. I paid roughly £6,500 for mine around five years back, while a quick Google search reveals original-finish examples go for around the £10k mark. When they sound and play just as good, in my opinion, a bit of paint is a sacrifice well worth making.
For the pedalboard, I don’t need many effects for this gig, but mostly more varying degrees of gain. There’s one song that requires a touch of chorus and delay, so an old TC Flashback and a £35 eBay Boss Super Chorus do the job nicely. A bit more attention was required with the trem and wah. While comparing an original Cry Baby to the RMC wah I eventually bought, I found they did sound fairly similar when the pedal was engaged. However, there seemed to be a difference in the degradation of tone from the Cry Baby when it was in the ‘off’ position, and degradation of my core tone isn’t something I wanted to accept, so I felt it was worth the extra £200 or so for the RMC.
There are a couple of songs in the set that require tremolo, and for this my go-to pedal is the Strymon Flint. It’s the closest I’ve heard to a warm Fender-style amp trem and also has the bonus of a very nice reverb and secondary boost function. Again, my main two drive pedals on this setup are inexpensive. I’d recommend the Boss Super OverDrive to anyone who, like me, hasn’t used one in a few years. What a gem – it easily holds its own against any boutique overdrive I’ve owned. That combined with the Nobels ODR-1 gives you a flexible great-sounding overdrive setup for around £150. I’d recommend having a look at the cheaper end of the effects spectrum, especially for live use. You never know what surprises you might find, and you can spend the saved money on lessons – as I do, weekly – which will do much more for your playing than a slightly better-quality component or a trendy boutique logo on a pedal.