Hello All, thought I'd share the results of a little weekend project I tackled last week (hope this is the right spot to be posting this, Mods feel free to shuffle it elsewhere 
)
I've been in the market for a personal monitor for a while. I play acoustic, electric and I sing, so finding one with 3 inputs that will still pass three outputs to the PA has been a challenge. Also a challenge is floor space. Most of the venues I play are bars without a proper stage. Floor space is always at a premium.
I spotted the SKB Footnote recently and thought something along those lines might fit the bill.
The design is pretty simple, but you'll notice the board at the rear sits below the rest of the pedalboard. That's to accommodate a couple of speakers. I chose a set of "Dual" indoor outdoor speakers which I knew nothing about other than their dirt-cheap price and ok-ish reviews on Amazon.
To power the speakers, I'm using a Lepai 20 watt amp. Trust me, I know this is not a high power setup and it's not going to compete in a big venue. But for bar gigs I think it might be ok. You'd really be surprised by how loud these little amps can get paired with decent speakers!
On the underside of the board, I've routed a channel to slot in a piece of 1/8" ply to cover the cable mess up (the rest of the board is pine). I've also had to brace each of the 3 pine rails where pedals will get mounted. Without a center support, they had too much flex for my comfort.
And here it is all stained and loaded up!
I'm using a little Behringer line mixer to run sound to the Lepai. The guitars each run to a DI, with XLRs out to the board and another 1/4" running to the mixer. The vocals run through a Voicetone pedal, which has two outs (one is a wet signal to the board, the second is a dry signal to the Behringer mixer). The master volume is adjusted on the Lepai and the guitars and vocals can be adjusted individually on the Behringer (all without affecting the signal to the board, it's a personal mix).
After tinkering with it for a few days, I'm decently happy with the results. The speakers distort when pushed too much (only on some frequencies, I'm thinking an EQ pedal in front of the Lepai might help me push them a little harder). Still, this rig gets surprisingly loud before it starts to break up!
I'm already devising a 2.0 for this project. I'm going to try for a cleaner design which reroutes the input and output cables and accommodates slightly bigger speakers without increasing the board's footprint.
I don't have a gig for a couple weeks, so I'll have to report back how well this worked in a live setting. Still, I was pretty excited about the concept and thought others might be as well :-D.
)I've been in the market for a personal monitor for a while. I play acoustic, electric and I sing, so finding one with 3 inputs that will still pass three outputs to the PA has been a challenge. Also a challenge is floor space. Most of the venues I play are bars without a proper stage. Floor space is always at a premium.
I spotted the SKB Footnote recently and thought something along those lines might fit the bill.
The design is pretty simple, but you'll notice the board at the rear sits below the rest of the pedalboard. That's to accommodate a couple of speakers. I chose a set of "Dual" indoor outdoor speakers which I knew nothing about other than their dirt-cheap price and ok-ish reviews on Amazon.
To power the speakers, I'm using a Lepai 20 watt amp. Trust me, I know this is not a high power setup and it's not going to compete in a big venue. But for bar gigs I think it might be ok. You'd really be surprised by how loud these little amps can get paired with decent speakers!
On the underside of the board, I've routed a channel to slot in a piece of 1/8" ply to cover the cable mess up (the rest of the board is pine). I've also had to brace each of the 3 pine rails where pedals will get mounted. Without a center support, they had too much flex for my comfort.
And here it is all stained and loaded up!
I'm using a little Behringer line mixer to run sound to the Lepai. The guitars each run to a DI, with XLRs out to the board and another 1/4" running to the mixer. The vocals run through a Voicetone pedal, which has two outs (one is a wet signal to the board, the second is a dry signal to the Behringer mixer). The master volume is adjusted on the Lepai and the guitars and vocals can be adjusted individually on the Behringer (all without affecting the signal to the board, it's a personal mix).
After tinkering with it for a few days, I'm decently happy with the results. The speakers distort when pushed too much (only on some frequencies, I'm thinking an EQ pedal in front of the Lepai might help me push them a little harder). Still, this rig gets surprisingly loud before it starts to break up!
I'm already devising a 2.0 for this project. I'm going to try for a cleaner design which reroutes the input and output cables and accommodates slightly bigger speakers without increasing the board's footprint.
I don't have a gig for a couple weeks, so I'll have to report back how well this worked in a live setting. Still, I was pretty excited about the concept and thought others might be as well :-D.
