Here is a nice picture of my keyboard rig that I use for live shows with Big Fake Heart Attack. Let me take you through what you're seeing here.
The stand for the rig is the bottom of an old drafting table. It's wood and rusted iron frame is not only strong and sturdy enough to hold the massive weight of my behemoth of a keyboard rig, it also looks really freaking cool and industrial-ish. It makes us look like we've got some sort of angsty edge to us, which we don't. We are about as far removed from angst as you can get in a punk band of middle aged folk.
The organ is a Viscount home console organ from, I believe, 1974. I bought it at a Goodwill thrift shop for $30. It is huge and very heavy. The first thing I did was chop the bottom off the organ. The amp and powersupply were pretty much shot anyways so the bottom of the console only added a lot of unneccessary weight and bulk to the beastie. I wired up a new power supply for it and gave it an line out. Everything is now contained in the manual section of the keyboard (althought the power supply is external). It weighs a freaking tonne so I bolted two brass handles, one on either side, to make it easier for two people to carry it to and from the van. It has a very cheesy sound which is enhanced by the cheap-assed flanger and analogue delay pedals (both Image) that I run it through.
The Viscount's sound is manipulated through a very simple series of draw bars. Three harmonics for the top register and two for the bottom. Not a lot of complication to this beastie.
On top of the organ is my Hohner Pianet Model T electric piano. The Hohner Pianet came in two models. There was the Pianet-N which had a natural wood finish (hence the "N") and an internal pre-amp. The model N used specially treated leather pads to pluck the thines. The pads dried out and cracked over time making them useless. The pre-amp was noisey and fragile and required an internal 9 volt battery. The other (and superior) Pianet was the Pianet-T which had a durable tolex finish (hence the "T"). The N was designed to sit in people's houses as furnature and the T was designed to be taken on the road. With the top closed and locked it looks like a bass guitar hard case only it weighs a hell of a lot more but is still easily carried by one person unlike the Fender/Rhodes electric piano.
On it's own the Pianet-T has a sharp, biting sound not too unlike a Werlitzer electic piano and not the mellow, bell-like sound of the Fender/Rhodes. Like the Werlitzer the Pianets used accordion reeds for thines. The Pianet-T is all passive electronics. It puts out a mic/guitar level signal and is pretty good and hot all things considered. I've sponge painted mine with red paint to liven up it's drab black appearance. I run my Pianet-T through a Digitech RP-100 digital guitar effects processor not only to give it some really funky electric piano sounds but to give it screaming distorted electric guitar-like lead sounds. With only one guitar in the band it falls on me and my Hohner to give a little extra guitar goodness to the mix. I used to run the Hohner through an Ibanez Fat Cat distortion pedal and a vintage Memphis Rotophase pedal (the Rotophase is visable in the picture. It's the blue box on top of the keyboards acting as a paper weight). The Rotophase is a really nice little effects pedal but it's lack of a power port means it has to rely on batteries for juice and it eats them at a rather nasty rate. I keep meaning to hack a power supply jack into the Memphis Rotophase but never seem to get around to it. I wouldn't mind using the Rotophase on the Viscount now that it's no longer pulling duty on the Hohner.
The nice thing about this set up is it is sturdy and has a big enough flat space on top to hold beer while I play. Beer is the fuel that powers the music industry.
The signals from the Hohner and the Viscount are then run to a Tascam PortaStudio One. This was my main recording deck for many years and worked on a lot of projects. It's a 4-track analogue cassette recorder and along with MIDI was one of the biggest revolutions of the 80s for independent musicians. 4-track cassette recorders are still quite popular with the indie crowd. There were 8 track cassette recorders too but the 4-tracks had better sound quality. Now it just acts like a sub mixer for my keyboards and I would not be too surprised to discover the tape transport no longer functions on this beastie as it was very fussy during the last days of it's working life. Work wise I had replaced the Tascam PortaStudio with a computer years ago and the computer was eventually replaced with the Tascam 788 which I have taken on occaision to Monica's basement to record our rehearsals to share our music with all of you in the MP3 of the Month section of my website.
And with this we conclude our farewell look at Monica's basment.
