PLAY IT LOUD
Ray Charles may never have had any problems, but the majority of rock piano, players have found that trying to maintain a full, undistorted level of piano sound while the rest of the group are pumping up their amps is a difficult task. A variety of solutions have been tried.
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PLAY IT LOUD
by Guitar Arnie
Burton Cummings' Amazing Pickup
Ray Charles may never have had any problems, but the majority of rock piano, players have found that trying to maintain a full, undistorted level of piano sound while the rest of the group are pumping up their amps is a difficult task. A variety of solutions have been tried. Upright and grand pianos have been replaced by electric pianos which rely on electrically keying. A number of pickups and electric reed systems have been introduced, but, until recently the problems of getting a piano sound out of an electric piano or getting enough amplification of a regular piano have caused many rock keyboard men to switch over to organ or settle for not being heard at all during loud passages, ing loud passages.
Burton Cummings, piano man for the Guess Who, has another solution. “Amplification for keyboard instruments has gotten a lot better during the past few years,” says Burton. “I’m using a pickup now that is just amazing. 1 never felt like part of the band when I had to play an electric piano. But now I play a real one with a pick-up made by Carl Countryman Associates in San Francisco and I can get as loud as the two lead guitar players.”
Burton started by playing a little Honer electric piano and then tried a series of different amplification methods with regular pianos including microphones, contact mikes and magnetic pick-ups. “They were all the shits,” he says. “Then we were in New Orleans and* we had a night off and our roadies went to see Joe Cocker and Chris Stainton had one of these things and the piano was just as loud as anything onstage. They came back all ecstatic and I said I don’t care what it is or what it cdsts or( where you have to go • • • just get me one. They did and now I feel like I’m playing in the band again.”
Burton is running the piano pick-up direct through the p.a. system; he has a small amp onstage for monitoring as well. The pick-up takes about two hours to install and about an hour to take-off, a fact which doesn’t amuse the roadies. The pick-up is actually a bar that goes all the way across the piano strings with small aluminum blades extending out over each string, apparently sensing the vibrations of the strings as the keys are struck and translating those vibrations into electrical impulses which are then amplified through the p.a. system.
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One of the breed of electronic musical equipment manufacturers that grew up during the last half of the Sixties, Univox is presently turning out a lot of interesting equipment, not the least of which is their “LEM” p.a. system which features an easy to use board that combines some interesting functions into one unit. Most musicians demand more than just a set of volume controls in a p.a. head; the Univox pretty much fills the bill with what you’ll need. There are six channels, with in-puts for each located on the bottom of the front panel. Each channel has an individual bass, treble, volume, and echo control. In addition there is a master volume control. Using tape rather than mechanical echo (which gets messy at high volumes) this Univox amp has a tape echo, unit built right into the top of the cabinet with controls for tape speed and echo rate easily reached, and used. In addition there is a level control situated next to the echo unit, so you. can keep track of what your levels are and keep on the right side of distortion. The price is reasonable . . . check with your local dealer, for actual cost.
Guitar Notes: Bass player Carol: Kaye, who wrote the book on how to play Fender bass, is carrying bass play? ing to the extreme. She recently did some recording with, a 76 piece symphony orchestra and, you guessed U, her bass was the featured solo instrument . . . David Bowie's Spiders use a set of Marshall amps on stage, one top and one bottom for each player, while David himself is using Simon-Watts gear ... If you Want to put together your own guitar or get a deal on am amp, write to Carvin Co., 1112 Industrial, Escondido, California, 92025 and ask them for their new catalog. Don't forget to tell 'em Guitar Arnie sent ya ... Kustom has introduced four new amps in their Kasino line. All have drive control which allows you to push the pre-amp from normal levels right through to full distortion.
