Between Rick's Boss EQ gizmo and Alexander's search for the back porch party rig, we've had a very interesting discussion about gear for the accordions.

Everybody's got a different situation: playing the little cafe with a three-piece acoustic ensemble, playing a rowdy club against drummers and electric bass in you zydeco band, and maybe fooling around with recording some stuff in the home studio.

And then there's me with my new loop pedal trying to figure out how to use PA equipment I already own to work towards a one man band scenario since I can't find any fiddlers or guitar players who want to play Cajun :-(

If you're trying to play directly out of some rig on the stage and get your sound where you want it before some sound guy (of which I am one) can mangle it, or because you are playing without anybody at a front-of-house mixing board, I think looking at some equipment designed for PA might give some better results than trying to adapt stuff that was meant for guitars.

Although I agree that, if an amp is to be used, a keyboard amp is designed to give a balanced response across the full range of the accordion and is better than a guitar amp. And some of them have pretty decent EQ and input options.

If you want an overdriven, fried-tube juke joint sound, that's a whole 'nother thing and more power to your Fender Twin!

Disadvantage of PA stuff over amp: more stuff to move around and hook up. Can't change setting just by stomping on a pedal.

Advantages of PA stuff: more input options (like line and XLR inputs on each channel); speakers designed for full-range response; often better EQ right on the board (love that sweepable mid); ability to add outboard equipment as your needs grow.

The more EQ flexibility you have on the individual channel the better. The overall left and right outputs of a sound board should be used to compensate for room acoustics and speaker characteristics: not to fix the sound of one instrument or voice channel!

The simplest PA-like setup is to buy a decent small board (Carvin 844 or maybe a Yamaha), and a good powered speaker. Some day you can add another speaker for the audience and a monitor for yourself.

I got a 2-channel 15-band EQ for my little summer gazebo PA jobs, and for my non-future as an accordion/guitar/'tit fer looper I'm inverting the order of things: putting the EQ ahead of the mixing board. With just two inputs (instrument and voice mic), each line will go separately into a Behringer tube pre-amp, then to the 15-band EQ, then into the mixer with the loop pedal inserted on the instrument channel, and then out the amps and speakers. I can basically tweak each channel to my liking. I know you didn't need to know all that

Steve Blais

Yeah Steve, those were some extremely useful threads with solid info. It's great to hear everyone's approach regarding the amplification of the Opelousas air-compressor.

This forum is the only resource on the web that has provided me with *any* real reference on the subject.

BTW, I used the EQ-20 for the first time at a gig last Saturday. It worked like a flippin' charm...

Talk about good,

R!CK