Cameron Mizell

Warning: Today’s post is incredibly guitar-centric. Enjoy.

I’m not sure if it’s my distaste of digital multi-effects pedals or my lack of a gym membership, but I have come to terms with the fact that I will be dragging around a heavy pedalboard for the rest of my roadie-less career as an electric guitarist.  In the past I’ve given mobility higher priority than durability, yet as careful as I tried to be, the board took a beating and fell apart. So for the latest edition of my effects rig, I decided to go with something heavy duty and easily customized.

Here’s my old board–a cheap wooden self-powered pedalboard that came with a gigbag style carrying case. The board itself is actually still in perfect working order (if you don’t mind the smell of stale booze), but the AC adapter that went from the board to the wall crapped out long ago (partially due to said booze), and the zipper on the gigbag has been smashed and scuffed so often it can’t be opened all the way (this too might have something to do with the booze). Getting set up and broken down before and after a set was becoming a huge hassle. You’ll also notice this thing is packed. I wanted to bring my Turbo Rat back into my life, so I needed more room!

After shopping around, I decided to go with the Pedaltrain PT-2 board with a heavy duty case. I’m confident the case will open quickly and easily every time I get on stage. The metal frame is about the same weight as my old wooden board, but it’s got room for more pedals. The only strike against it so far is that the spacing of the cross bars adds some limitations to the way you layout your pedals, especially smaller pedals. However, the spaces do allow your wiring to pass underneath, and the included zip-ties keep everything neat.

The PT-2 does not have a power supply. However, it is designed to easily accomodate Voodoo Lab’s Pedal Power underneath with a couple included brackets.

To attach the power supply:

Line this up the power supply so the cables will fit through the access holes on the PT-2. I plugged the cable in through the holes to help hold it in place while I marked the bracket’s holes for drilling.

Next you’ll have to drill 1/8″ pilot holes to mount the brackets. Barring any velcro related accidents, this is the most dangerous part of assembly. As we learned in shop class: Measure twice, drill once.

Once I got the power supply in place I started to line up my pedals. There are three things to consider when placing pedals on the board:

1) Are the switches easy to hit with your feet? (Hint: Think about the shoes you wear when you gig.)

2) Is there enough room to plug your cables into the pedals? Input, output, and power supply.

3) In what order do you want the signal to pass from the guitar to the amp?

On a board like this, #3 is less of a concern because I can run wires underneath, easily zig-zagging the whole board. Instead, I try to put the pedals that I turn on and off during songs in the front, to accomodate #1.

My layout can also accomodate a few effects that I don’t use very often, but could easily loop in before the tuner, between the Rat and delay, between the EQ and AC Booster, or even after the volume pedal.

Once my layout was complete, I started putting velcro on the bottom of the the pedals, but not the board. Save that for the end.

One of the problems I’ve encountered in the past is the velcro’s adhesive not holding firm to the rubber bottoms of Boss pedals. As a remedy, I cut the velcro longer than was needed so about 1/4″ extra could wrap around either end. You’ll notice I had to cut the velcro around the power supply input.

Once all the pedals have velcro, it’s time to wire up. I’ve been using George L’s cables for a long time. These can be cut to exactly the sizes you need and do not require soldering. Instead, you just cut the cable to the desired length, insert it into the plug. When you bend it through the gap and screw the back on, it cuts the outer part of the cable and creates a connection.

Set the pedals on the board (remember, no velcro on the actual board yet) and start sizing up the distance from the first pedal in your signal chain to the second and so on. Remember, these don’t have to be sitting next to each other on the board. Cut your cables one at a time, and plug them in before you measure the next one. With George L’s, it’s better to measure too much and trim them down.

Test your patch cables along the way to make sure each one works before you go on!

Here is the signal chain for my board. See the final picture below and you’ll notice some zig-zagging happening under the board.

1. Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
2. Boss GE-7 Equalizer
3. Xotic AC Booster
4. Dunlop Crybaby 95-Q
5. ProCo Turbo Rat
6. Boss DD-20 Giga Delay (w/ FS-5U for tap tempo)
7. Boss TR-2 Tremolo
8. Boss BF-3 Flanger
9. Ernie Ball VP Jr. Volume Pedal

One advantage of custom patch cables: Unlike the pre-manufactured variety, you can point the right angle connectors in any direction you please. Take advantage of this to avoid unnecessary twisting of your cables.

If George L’s don’t suit your fancy, there are other brands (such as Lava) that will do a similar thing. Alternately, your local guitar store probably sells instrument cable by the foot and a variety of connectors. Whatever you do, don’t go cheap. Once you get everything tied down there is nothing worse than trying to find a bad patch cable.

The next to last step is putting velcro on the board, attaching the pedals, and hooking up the power supply. Once again, I do this one pedal at a time and hook each one up along the way. This way it’s all nice and tight. And be sure to look at the instructions for your power supply, because certain pedals will need to be plugged into specific outputs.

With everything wired up and plugged in, test the board before tying down the cables. This is your last chance to catch any bad patch cables before the zip ties are in place!

Finally, use zip-ties to secure the loose wires and cables.  Keep the cables neat and as close to the board as possible, but don’t kink any of them or they’ll break down sooner.  If you do this well, the cables can add a little extra support in keeping the pedals in place.

Now we have a pedalboard ready for the road! Here’s the final result (click the image for a closer view):

In the spirit of sharing ideas, here are some of the plugins and tools I used to create this website. If you’re a musician looking to build your own website, I hope this will help!

• Gigpress – Every musician needs a calendar for their gigs, and I thought this one fit into my site best. Check it out on my Tour page, and also in the left sidebar. Notice how it turns the venue addresses into a link for Google Maps?
• Audio Player – As simple as the name suggests, this slick audio player fits neatly on the page, encodes the location of your mp3 files, and can stream playlists. I use it all over this site, such as on the Discography page.
• Bandcamp – I’ve also begun using Bandcamp’s embedded widget in a few places on my site. This is not really a plugin, but it integrates beautifully with WordPress and collects metrics about the plays.
• Contact Form 7 – This email form is pretty simple, there are probably more powerful options available, but for what I need this does the trick. As you might expect, you can see it in action on my Contact page.
• Multi-Level Navigation – I wanted to keep my menu straight forward, but I have a number of sub pages that ought to be easily accessible. A slick drop down menu like this gets the job done.
• Flexi Quote Rotator – If you have press quotes to display, this is a tidy way to get them on every page.
• Video Playlists – This actually isn’t a plugin, but by creating playlists on YouTube I could then simply embed them onto my Video page.
• ShareThis – Web 2.0 is nothing without social network bookmarking and easy sharing options, and I thought this was a nice, clutter-free option to add to my posts. It shows up automatically on every page, and every post. Click on it below to see how it works.
• FanBridge – I manage my mailing list with FanBridge, and have been very happy with their service. They offer a very easy solution mailing list management, and the basic plan is free.

Over the holidays I had a conversation with some friends about the deterioration of school kids’ handwriting. It seems that kids these days (did I really just write that?) spend more time typing on a computer than they do with a pencil in their hand. It’s hard to blame them. If your end goal is turning in a typed paper, why would you write it out by hand?

Then I remembered what it took to write a three page paper by hand. Such effort! First you had to come up with an outline on a separate sheet of paper. You had to organize your thoughts in several stages before you even wrote your first draft. As you revised draft after draft, you’d have to write the entire paper again, even the parts you didn’t need to change. By today’s standards it was a tedious process, but you were really thinking about what you were doing from start to finish.

Writing with a word processor is different because you can build upon your outline in one document. This is how I write most of my blog posts or articles now. If I need to add a paragraph in the middle, I just start typing and everything shifts down! It’s so easy to be happy with one section that I never revisit it until it’s time to proofread, and then I have to force myself to slow down and actually read every word.

Music is no different. In my college arranging class, we used to gripe about writing out an entire big band chart by hand because Finale could produce nicer results in half the time. With recording software, we can now fix out of tune vocals or instruments, or make the drums hit exactly on the metronomic beat. It’s not just convenient, it’s a shortcut.

It’s so easy to get a rough idea into a computer and make it look or sound slick and presentable that really thinking about the content takes far more time and effort. But when you’re forced to slow down and get your noteheads between the lines, hit that guitar chord at exactly the right time, the effort of documenting is equal to that of the idea. In other words, if you have to write out every note by hand, do yourself a favor and make sure they’re the best notes. If you’re going to record a song, make sure you can play the hell out of it before you start rolling.

When I’m browsing the internet, I find images like the one above every day. Handwriting viewed as art. The years of effort and subsequent repetition that develops our handwriting makes it unique and personal, inconsistent and flawed. Identity and emotion are present in handwriting. There’s beauty in that concept which people innately respond to.

This is how I feel about music. I admire the musicians who take the long road.

The new year tends to be time for new beginnings and resolutions–both things I try to avoid. Not because I think those things are bad, but they tend to be temporary. At least, that’s been the case for me. Instead, I try to use the new calendar as a chance to reflect on the last year. What were my goals a year ago? Am I still headed in the direction I want to be headed? It’s difficult to measure long term success when you’re in the middle of mixing an album or trying to find a place to crash while you’re on the road in New Hampshire. But once a year it’s good to stop for a moment and decide what worked, and what didn’t.

2009 was a year of recording. I finished four albums and have a fifth in the works. The last album is my trio album, which I’m currently titling Tributary (subject to change), and should be done in a couple months. I have a few recording projects this year, but fewer that put me behind the controls. While I love the creative process of producing an album, the editing and mixing process can be awfully laborious, and I plan on spending some of that energy elsewhere. It’s also difficult to say whether recorded music can be a steady source of income for independent musicians. I used to do fairly well selling my music on iTunes, but I’m not sure that revenue stream will be as lucrative in 2010. We’ll see.

Towards the end of ‘09 I began taking singing lessons. For most of my life, I was convinced I couldn’t sing. When I was young a music teacher told me to not sing, so I figured I just couldn’t do it. But this year some of my friends started hanging out and singing songs by Bruce Springsteen, ELO, The Beatles, and they told me to chime in. They didn’t care how bad I was because nobody in the room was really a singer. Finally, I realized my voice was just another instrument and it took focused practice, not unlike the guitar or harmonica. With the help of my friend, bandmate, and now voice teacher Erika Lloyd, I’ve got a better idea of how to practice.

To make the process more fun, I decided to learn a new song every week. Someday I might create a list here, but right now the list is pretty small. This week I’m working on Colin Hay’s “Beautiful World” from his album Going Somewhere. I don’t intend on subjecting anybody to this process, but once I’ve made enough progress and start sounding like a singer, you may catch me singing harmonies on a gig here or there.

Last year was also my first complete year as a full time musician. Naturally, one of my goals for this year is to get a raise. 2010 is full of potential success on several fronts. I feel like the work I’ve been doing with Lauren Zettler is really going to pay off. We’ve been working hard to bring our music to the next level both in performance and songwriting. Really, all this comes down to is making the song sound as good as possible with just two people. Once you accomplish that, everything else is easier. I also believe MusicianWages.com is beginning to hit it’s stride. I mean, it was used as a reference on the Wikipedia entry for “sideman.” Somebody is paying attention!

There will be a lot to share this year, and I’m excited to get to work. I expect to play many more shows this year, and in more places. Hopefully I’ll be coming to your town and will have a chance to meet you. Thanks for helping make ‘09 such a great year. On to 2010!

- Cam

This post is part of a group blog event organized by MusicianWages. We decided that, as the decade came to a close, in lieu of a “best of” list, we’d ask a single question for other musician bloggers to answer. Here was our question:

“If you could go back to 1999 and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?”

Dear 1999 Cameron:

By this point you’ve finished your first semester of college at the University of North Texas. Five months ago you thought you were pretty good at guitar. Remember that? Life is different on the college level, and everybody is good. Really, really good. When you leave school and move to New York City, people will assume you know how to play. There are a few things that set people apart: Creativity, professional behavior, and simply being friendly. Luckily, these are things that come naturally to you. So instead, I’ve got a piece of advice for you that will otherwise take you years to discover. Nobody is going to tell you this flat out, and certainly not in music school.

Spend less money.

To be more specific, keep your cost of living as low as possible. Unless you’re lucky (and sorry to burst your bubble, but you won’t be), it’s going to take a few years to generate a living wage as a working musician. Meanwhile you’ll have to find other kinds of work to make ends meet. The more expensive your bills, the more dependent you’ll be on non-music related work right after school.

When you do start working as a musician, a lower cost of living will allow greater creative freedom. There are a variety of musician jobs with steady pay, but they aren’t always the most musically satisfying. Your strength is in writing and arranging original music, and you’ll develop good management skills while leading your own bands during college. Initially, developing your own material requires a huge time commitment with little financial return. But if you can turn down a few one off “hired gun” gigs every once in a while and instead focus on your own material, you’ll be much happier.

Perhaps the most important lesson about money I’ve learned in the last ten years is that it’s easier to start out in a habit of spending less than it is to retrench. Once you’ve gotten used to making a certain amount of money, it’s difficult to cut your costs and adjust to a smaller income, especially as you get older.

You’ll do pretty well in the next ten years. You’ll find opportunities to learn about the business side of the music industry and apply it to your career as an independent musician. Learn to be resourceful, and don’t hesitate to try something new. Your only limitations are those that you create for yourself!

Speaking of self impose limitations: Start singing. You think you can’t sing because you were kicked out of that choir when you were a kid, but they never gave you a chance. Singing doesn’t come as easily as guitar, but your voice is just another instrument that requires some focused practice, which is something you’re very good at. Singing is a skill that will double your value as a musician. Trust me on this one. Get in the practice room and shed your vocal chops.

A Balder You (you knew that was coming),
Cameron
December 30, 2009

For an index of all the answers, please visit MusicianWages.