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Buskers Anyone?

Anyone else here busk? What's your set up?

I use a Pignose Hog 20, suitcase bass drum, and, a tin can microphone. The Pignose actually has two inputs on it but they seem to "split" the signal. I am planning on adding an ABY pedal for my mic.

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Permalink Reply by Brendan deVallance on March 5, 2014 at 4:34am

I want to see a picture of your set up.

—B

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Permalink Reply by PKB on March 5, 2014 at 4:04pm

Here's the bracket that I made for my Pelican Case Bass. I am a medic and that Pelican case was actually my Controlled Substance storage during my deployments to Iraq / Afghanistan. Because I carried and kept morphine around on patrols I needed a secure lock box for my medication for myself and my squad.

I used to have a piece of wood screwed to the bottom that I clamped my bass pedal to but sometimes it would creep forward when I played it. My old solution was to gather bricks or rocks where I was and stick them inside the Pelican Case. As you would expect that rattled all over the place. So I whipped up this little bracket for the kick. It fits inside the Pelican Case nicely as well.

To be honest I am not terribly good at keeping rhythm and playing at the same time yet. I am thinking on building a foot operated 'tambourine' out of wood and bottle caps to add to that setup.

In addition to the CBG builds I also made the guitars you see in the background on the right and left. The black one in the middle is my Gibson Studio.

Most of my guitar stuff is packed because I am moving next week.

Here's a close up of my mic. I took this pic a few weeks ago when I had all my stuff out. I like having a mic because a tin can mic naturally adds a little dirt, just a little distortion to the vocals and often I am singing fairly low and need a little amplification to get above the kick and guitar. The Shure SM57 is my clean mic and I don't use it terribly often.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on March 5, 2014 at 8:32am

Microcube, kicksnare, no microphone....decent sound balance. If you are too loud you'll push people too far away to want to give you money, so I rarely bother with a mic. On this occasion, mid tour with Mike Snowden, one hour's pre-gig work at lunchtime = seafood dinner for two and 4 pints of expensive Czech lager...probably around $60

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Permalink Reply by PKB on March 5, 2014 at 4:10pm

Do you have a standard bass beater for the snare? I would imagine that snare to be pretty durned loud compared to a suitcase bass, at least when it comes to perceived volume.

I'm going to have to steal that milk crate stand idea, that's excellent.

Sweet set up and 60$? That's a nice haul!

I love playing "Chicken Stomp" so I guess I might owe Mike a little skrilla.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on March 7, 2014 at 7:09pm

It's a standard kick pedal - the crate has a piece of 1/4" ply screwed to the bottom to give a lip for the pedal to mount onto. Yes it's pretty loud. How about this for tiny drum set-up..Lewis Floyd Henry. He uses a home made amp and carries the whole rig in a baby buggy, sometimes travelling by bicycle or Honda Cub. Check out his version of "Protect ya Neck"..top flight one man band. Have a look on YouTube for more of his stuff... the Hendrix vibe is amazing sometimes....