Loading tweets...I’ve been getting a lot of private messages on various musician forums asking what kind of gear I actually use in a pit setting. And, while my floor plans are a very good general idea, they’re just that. General. Good for about 80-90% of the time. So with that, I figured that I’d put a little write up with a specific floor plan and maybe go into a little more detail as to what I’m using and why.
So, for this first installment, I provide the floor plan for my run of “Chicago” at Mason Street Warehouse:
It’s a little more in-depth than the traditional musicals floor plan that I have. In this is the addition of the Virtual Volume pedal, from Visual Sound. Having played “Chicago” before, I can tell you that having a volume pedal to mute yourself is quite handy. The LEDs on this initially look flashy and unnecessary… until you actually step on this pedal and use it. Best volume pedal on the market, period.
Having a tuner out is a great bonus. I can tune while the volume is off, which if I need to, will allow me to do it while onstage in the show (yep, we’re onstage for this one). The tuner I’ll be using is the StroboFlip from Peterson. Mainly, it’s because this one comes with a clamp to attach it to a music stand, so it can always be at easy reach. For someone that doesn’t always carry a pedalboard, having this tuner is great. If I don’t want to use that, I can always just use the StroboSoft app on the iPhone to tune it too.
The NS Design CR-5M is really going to get a workout. The bass book for “Chicago” is written for bass and tuba, so there are a LOT of passages that most upright players will have to take up an octave. With the five string, it will not be an issue. Especially with some Thomastik Spirocores on the bass now, the bass sounds even more like a “real” upright bass than it did previously.
So, that’s the setup that I’m using for the next three weeks. I’ll have to see what the score for “Five Guys Named Moe” calls for, because I may just utilize this same setup for that entire run too.
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Jon Moody, freelance bassist and ukulele player, staff writer for Bass Musician Magazine » Floor Plans: All Shook Up
September 26, 2011 at 8:07 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
[...] this is a pretty easy setup to use, and if you looked at the Floor Plan from “Chicago” this summer, you’ll know that I’ve done this before. It stills bears mentioning though, [...]