I seem to have neglected my website in recent months but have been very active posting blogs on the Wishbone Ash site (www.wishboneash.com/blog.asp).
Today was a day off. I haven't left the hotel. Instead I spent all day in front of my laptop updating my website. I've added the "Ask Joe" page to answer any questions you might have. There's no navigation link at the moment but you can get there via the link on the main page.
Touring has been full on for a few months now. I had about 10 days off between finishing the UK tour and starting the US tour. In those 10 days I had to get a US visa and do a Pendragon gig in Portugal.
The few days I had at home I spent testing out the new Sonor Force 3007 kit I'll be using on the next European tour. It's a white sparkle kit with 22" kick, 10" & 12" toms and 14" and 16" floor toms. It sounds great with the heads it came with.
I'm taking a full monitoring set up on the road. I'll be using the Audix D7 mic set (www.audixusa.com). I compared the Audix D6 kick mic with the Shure Beta 52 and Beta 91 and Sennheiser E602 and E901. The Audix was my favourite. The D7 set comes with tom mics and a snare mic. The snare mic was indistinguishable in sound from the SM57 and the tom mics sounded great too. One of my favourite things about the Audix mics is actually the clips. They're spring loaded and very sturdy once they're mounted. You can position the mics wherever you want (the clips for Sennheiser mics are well known for being painful to position)
I'm running all the mics (drums and the rest of the band) through a custom splitter box into my Yamaha O1V desk. From there I'm taking the ADAT output and running it into a Hear Back system ( www.heartechnologies.com). This is used to feed personal 8 channel mixers for the rest of the guys in the band. It's a very compact and effective set up which gives everyone the control they need.
I have my T2 headphones (from www.hearingprotection.co.uk) wired to the desk. The sound of these things is great. The odd gig where I've had to use wedges I've missed them like crazy.
I used a new set of Zildjians on the US dates. In the UK I usually use K rides and A Custom crashes. I decided to go the other way in America and used a 22" A custom ride (which I love) and 18" and 19" K dark crashes. I sometimes wish I had a roadie and bigger stages so I could use all the cymbals Bozzio style!
The US tour is coming to an end. The hotels have been great, the gigs pretty good, and the drives long. It's a first for me having to sit in a van for 8 or 9 hours a day. I managed to catch up on season 3 of Prison Break and watched lots of TED lectures ( www.ted.com). I'm looking forward to 3 weeks off over christmas to catch up with family, then it's off to Europe in January.
That's all for now,
Joe
