[Harp-L] acoustic set ups

[fjm <bad_hat@xxxxxxxx>]

I just did my annual acoustic gig.  Half hour set in a large festival. 
Acts all day up and playing in 5 minutes.  Virtually no sound check.  As 
usual I couldn't hear myself on stage and when I finally got them to 
turn the monitors up my mic was ringing the entire set, on the verge of 
feedback and I still could only barely hear myself.  The sound personnel 
were not unfriendly and I think they were trying hard to solve the 
problem.  So here's my question.  What the heck can I do to get 
reasonable sound in a situation like this?  Normally I'd bring an amp 
and just mic it.  Hand hold a 545 and play backed off of the mic.  I 
can't do this at this festival because it violates their rules.  I'm 
considering the big cheat of a Harp Commander with some sort of powered 
monitor.  I was playing in a 5 piece so there was a lot of sound on the 
stage.  4 vocal mics didn't help things.  I've really had it.  A half 
hour set isn't long enough to fix something like this while it's 
happening.  I need to arrive next year with the solution in hand.  It 
really changes what you play when the sound isn't happening.  All 
subtlety is drained from the performance.  I ended up just about 
swallowing the mic and playing way to loudly just to hear myself.  The 
other problem was how tinny the sound was.  It was EQ'd all wrong for 
harmonica.  Really tough to play a harmony part with a fiddle on a low 
Eb harmonica in a situation like this.  Grrrr   fjm