guitarists I played with in college — able to shred through lighting fast ii-V-I jazz changes with aplomb but stumped when you put even moderately complicated written guitar parts on their music stand .
Yes , the ‘ old man yells at cloud ’ meme may be appropriate here . Or ‘ kids these days !’ But to be clear , the advice that I am offering up here applies to my own technical knowledge as well . I pledge to dig in and learn ( and in some cases review ) a few of the more ‘ old school ’ audio technician skills of yore , too .
Some suggestions ( for us all !)
Grab a few crackly old XLR cables and figure out how to chop down damaged sections and / or replace connectors to get them back into tip-top shape .
Take apart one of the worship guitarist ’ s pedals or guitars to get a feel for how 1 / 4 ” connectors work and how to solder / re-solder faulty connections . Helpful hint : ask them permission before you take the gear apart . I can clearly recall at least a dozen gigs where a faulty volume pedal ( I ’ m looking at you , Dunlop and Ernie Ball !) put a serious damper on an otherwise awesome audio experience . How cool would it be if we could grab the troublesome pedal or guitar plug during the sermon and have it back in shape before the closing worship set ?
Find an old SM58 or basic mic and check out how the internal wiring works . This sort of mic has two common fault points — from the capsule to the base and at the XLR connector at the base . Again , something that I ’ d argue we should be able to repair relatively quickly and easily as an aspiring volunteer audio technician .
While there are online reference YouTube videos and how-to guides galore , I ’ d suggest that each of the fixes above are also ( reasonably ) safe * and easy enough to tackle sans internet to build up some problem-solving acumen . We won ’ t always have the perfect YouTube video handy and may not even have internet or cell in some situations — imagine the horror ! Being able to learn how the old guard tackled these sorts of audio issues can teach a lot and is hopefully a worthwhile exercise for members
of your team who are looking to expand their skillset and utility . * Oh , and don ’ t try this approach with your power supplies or anything that is plugged into the wall . My lawyer would insist I add that last part . Have fun out there !
Jeff Hawley A 20 + year music industry veteran — equally at ease behind the console , playing bass guitar , leading marketing teams or designing award-winning audio products . He currently heads up the marketing for Allen & Heath in the US .
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