Performance rig for the playing impaired

First posted summer'23, edits through summer'25. We're slow... 

[Edit] Ya so we've learned some things about the IEM (In Ear Monitor) side of the discussion below. 
The first was a comment by another musician that they'd just played a venue where IEMs were required. Apparently many venues don't 'do' on stage wedge monitors any more: IEM or die.  Since a good/great IEM setup can cost $1000/$3000 Per-Person-in-The-Band, this can be quite the impediment for small bands earning $200-$2000/year. Obviously. Now imagine you play in more than one group...
The second learning involves doing more reading and/or watching about how IEMs are used and mis-used.  Short version is that there's more to it than you might expect, especially how poorly using a single ear IEM, so you can still hear the band, actually works in the real world. It sounds (so to speak) like using a local mic as mentioned below, or providing the option for a line-in to blend in the house mix (which we've also, abet accidentally, allowed for) is a very good idea.  GO Us! Yay? [End Edit]

The first phase of the "performance rig" just got (partially) completed. Been trying to come up with a way to meet a lot of conflicting needs for live performance and group practi for awhile now. This is the first cut at that. Including some of the reasoning behind the various parts and the (as usual) low budget involved.

Yeah I know it looks like a lot (and a lot of $$) all at once but I've been collecting all the bits that make it up for 12-14 years. eBay, Craig's - etc.

The real reason for all of this is so I can self monitor both the playing and especially the singing. I don't do well unless I can hear myself really clearly and at a consistent (non-venue-dependent) level. Getting the balance just right between "Can't quite hear" and "Making the tinnitus worse" is actually pretty difficult.

This will also get used for practice. (my favorite 8 letter swearword) 

So, taking it from the top:

The AKG mic is pretty much another SM58 copy. Not special, not bad, certainly no more sensitive than that, which is useful in noisy (ie: stage) environments. Well, and you get three of them for the cost of one SM58. Their one real trick is the 'soft' on/off switch that doesn't 'pop.'

The tablet is one of those 'Amazon Fire' 10" units that's been de-amazoned with the 'Fire Toolkit' software so the normal Google Apps (Play store) are available.
This thing works surprisingly well for it's $80 and runs just about all the Android apps available.
Paired with an OnStage clamp-on tablet holder ($20), you can position it, at least in 'Landscape' mode to allow seeing the whole thing, at the right distance for bifocals, while still being in the right location/angle to sing into the mic -AND- be able to look down at your fretting hand.  "On account of you know that's gonna happen." The other trick to using this is the bluetooth page turner pedal and appropriate software, more on that below. 

The instrument holder, well, we'll see if the clamp holds up.   - but right now it's doing Fiddle + Bouzouki or Fiddle + Guitar (Bass fits too) without a problem. I worry about what happens after a dozen setup/takedown cycles. The clamp is poorly designed. There's even a little thingy for holding the fiddle bow.

It's just a generic boom-type tripod microphone stand. Nothing special. They're $25-30 at most of the big music retailers. They fold down to be really portable, but many people dislike them due to the long legs sticking out (trip hazard) and that if you put it so the two legs are toward you, you are less likely to trip over it, but when you pull the mic toward you it imbalances and falls on you. This brings up the design of the pedalboard:

Bits of wood scrap flying in formation.

This is my very first attempt at a pedalboard, having come to this type of electric instrument only recently, so hold off on cheers and applause to the end.
It's really just an 8' chunk of 4 1/2" trim wood ripped out of an old house and a
four foot chunk of 2x4, a dozen screws and some rubber feet.
There are however a couple things about this that make it somewhat different:
Cutouts in the back and under that front white board allow the tripod foot of the mic stand to project into/under the pedalboard, stabilized with some carpet scraps (for sound/vibration isolation) so you basically have to tip over the whole assembly before the mic stand gets very 'tippy.' We tried three different manufacturer's mic stands to make sure this would work.
That big chunk of 2x4 on the front is just the right height to act as a footrest, so you activate the stomp buttons on the pedals by rotating at your ankle, rather than kinda randomly stabbing at it like you would 'normally.'

There's room for the multi-tap 'isolating' power supply under the top board, so the whole thing gets powered with one AC cord and still provides good hum/noise isolation.

OK Great! Now what do we put on it?

No cabling shown. Normally a rat's nest...

The page turner (little black box, upper left in photo) was a success with the new music app MobileSheets (but not MuseScore Android, alas.) The MobileSheets app was $15 and works great with this tablet and the 'PT23 page turner' pedal, even when the tablet is in landscape position the button scrolls down in half page increments (minus a line so you don't lose your place)  ...and scrolls back when you double tap.
For anyone following along it was the 'second' mode on the pedal that worked. Wasn't at all sure how this $16.35 'from Alibaba in China' box was going to go, but this worked out.   
Will it be reliable? We'll see. Worst case is you tap the screen instead.
           and the holder puts the tablet in just the right place for my glasses
           and it's all very readable even when singing 'on the mic.'
Now granted Real Musicians(tm) memorize the words, but with as much as 400 tunes active across several bands that's not happening here. Ancient and decrepit are not just words. 
     Having the tablet 'sideways' makes things large enough so the $80 tablet can fill in for the $600+ iPadPro 12" which any self respecting musician 'should' be using ;-). Oops, who are we kidding, the big iPad Pro fetches $800 used. Hate to think the 'new' price.
MobileSheets imports PDFs directly from our shared Google Drive Music folder. Admittedly you do have to save the files there as PDF and have the margins/formatting close enough to 'right' for the app to deal with correctly. Hint: use larger text than you were expecting.

Top Row: Right to Left
There's a buffered, no clicks or pops, A-B input switch (blue box on the right) so if you're swapping acoustic instruments you don't have to swap cables. Could work for two electrics too, but I don't have a use for that (yet). If it's one of each, they just meet in the mixer, no switching required.

     Next up moving left the POG is an 'octave generator' and takes your instrument down an octave. Might swap this for a looper pedal if braveness sets in.

Next, the mic feeds a mic preamp/vocal-eq/de-esser/plosive filter (sideways red box) and then on to the mixer on the left there. There's a spot for an instrument mic (w/phantom) on the mixer there on the left, but I don't have the clamp/arm for it yet.

Bottom Row: Right to Left
I still have a long way to go on figuring out the multi-mode (black) guitar box/pedal/Volume/Wah [Zoom G2.1NU]. Trying to start with simple settings there. Looks to be usable with the bass too. As usual, we'll see.

Next: The one cool thing in the lower middle is a pedal that 'holds' the current note or chord so that you can play over it. Very keen to try this out. Found instructions on Youtube for how to add wet/dry outputs to it, so the 'held' note(s) can have a different effects chain (like maybe the POG octave pedal) and then come back together in the mixer. There's also info on how to add a jack so you can have a real 'sustain footpedal' like on an electric piano rather than that awful clicky button that comes on it. ...so it's torn apart at the moment. 'Surface Mount' soldering is a pain... 

As above I could fit a looper in there instead, but then I'd have to learn that too.

Probably a bad idea, at least for now.

The Fishman acoustic preamp (bottom left, silver) seems pretty cool. Hi/Low/Dual-midrange EQ's anti-feedback system (doesn't work with the mics though) has an ok tuner - etc.  This is useful for it's sound shaping capabilities, but probably the biggest thing it does is convert pick-up impedance, often 1 million ohms on unpowered acoustic instruments, into the mixer, which likes to 'see' a 600 ohm balanced input. You can of course plug the high impedance piezo pick-ups directly into a mixer or amp, but the sound comes out reedy and thin sounding. That does 'cut through' the mix of other instruments, but, Yuck.  

Back to the reason(s) for this whole setup existing:

Due to the (relatively simple) mixer being right there on the board the whole thing can provide a single output to the main sound board -or- separate vocal and instrument if the sound-guy prefers. Could in theory do two instrument outs if they want that. Still as above, the Main Reason for the mixer (at the back in the photo) is to provide self-monitor mix to the IEMs (In Ear Monitors.) 
The intent, untested in the real world as yet, is to have the IEMs run directly from a single side of the 'Phones' output so that the 'Pan' or 'Effect' knobs can provide a local mix for monitoring while still providing whatever the 'house' sound wants. Since that was The Whole Point of this entire exercise, it would be nice if that worked.

One trick that we haven't (obviously) tried yet is putting that second mic input on the mixer to use, as an 'ambient/stage sound' feed into the IEMs. That would allow monitoring what the rest of the band is up to without popping out one of the IEMs -or- getting a monitor mix from a main board. If that mic happened to be somewhat directional that feature could vary/improve the balance of stage sound from various areas. As stated this part is untested and we'll see how it goes.

Tried to find a wireless IEM option that actually works, but everything under $300 has bad reviews for reliability or adds 25-40 milliseconds of latency which messes with my head. There are wireless setups for guitar that work great for under $60, but for IEM's? $360. Bummer.

We may have to look and see if there's a way to use the cheaper solution for this even though it's not intended that way. We blew $38 on one such wireless setup for testing. More later.
It's now later: The LEKATO WS-70 wireless instrument system was actually closer to $50. It has worked well in a couple venues, even with acoustic pick-ups like on the fiddle. Doesn't sound as good as using good cable into the Fishman pre-amp, but not tripping on cords is worth something.

WIP. Work In Progress, as per usual...

As per spring 2025 this setup hasn't seen a public performance, although parts have been out to practices a couple times.

Future: Getting it all working, flying in formation - etc. Would love a Electro-Harmonix C9 pedal but learning curve, and about as expensive as the whole rig taken together. Maybe eBay will cough up something. Still trying to find wireless IEM (in-ear-monitors) that won't bankrupt a band (think $2500+ including the mixer) 'cause let's face it, while tripping over instrument cords is bad, tripping over the IEM cords is even less pleasant.