Drive-By Truckers Rig Rundown

I've always been curious to know about that Tele-mutant that Cooley plays. Thanks for posting.
 
..and that red amp he always seems to play through.

LOL @ the Gibson Corvus. I have one of its cousins...the mighty Sonex.
 
Pretty basic stuff.
I like DBTs records but was very disappointed live.
Could barely hear Cooley. Bass and drums were buried in the mix.
Vocals were a muddy mess, couldnt even understand Hood talking between songs.
It was an ear piercing mess of Hoods guitar and keyboard surrounded buy massive washes of muddy reverb.
I had to leave half way thru, couldn't stand it.
You'd think with such basic rigs and as much as they've toured they'd know how to do sound, but no.
I think they must be deaf, or at least their soundman.
It wasn't the venue. The opening act had perfect sound.
I saw Hood and Cooley in an all acoustic show w Isbell and the sound was fine. Of course sound was provided by a 3rd party in the Shoals, not DBT.
Isbell & 400 Unit always sound great BTW.
 
Pine Apple Slim said:
Pretty basic stuff.
I like DBTs records but was very disappointed live.
Could barely hear Cooley. Bass and drums were buried in the mix.
Vocals were a muddy mess, couldnt even understand Hood talking between songs.
It was an ear piercing mess of Hoods guitar and keyboard surrounded buy massive washes of muddy reverb.
I had to leave half way thru, couldn't stand it.
You'd think with such basic rigs and as much as they've toured they'd know how to do sound, but no.
I think they must be deaf, or at least their soundman.
It wasn't the venue. The opening act had perfect sound.
I saw Hood and Cooley in an all acoustic show w Isbell and the sound was fine. Of course sound was provided by a 3rd party in the Shoals, not DBT.
Isbell & 400 Unit always sound great BTW.
Click to expand...

Must have been a bad venue or night. I have seen them twice and both times the sound was really good. Extremely loud, but very good.
 
Pine Apple Slim said:
Pretty basic stuff.
I like DBTs records but was very disappointed live.
Could barely hear Cooley. Bass and drums were buried in the mix.
Vocals were a muddy mess, couldnt even understand Hood talking between songs.
It was an ear piercing mess of Hoods guitar and keyboard surrounded buy massive washes of muddy reverb.
Click to expand...

I've seen them a couple of times and the mix has been fine.
 
As I said, it wasn't the venue. The opening act had excellent sound. Atlanta's Tabernacle is an excellent place for music. Note to idiot soundman: This was a church, it has natural reverb, you dont need to quadruple it!
Bad night, I dunno. Couldn't hear well enough to tell. All I could hear was reverb and mud and ear piercing Hood and organ. And I moved several times, all around the venue, even right down front.
Yes it was extremely loud. I can take that if the mix is acceptable and you can hear everything clearly. But I can't take a 120 dbl muddy mess overlayed with an organ and one guitar at 160 dbl. Like I said, it was so bad you couldn't even understand Hoods raps between songs, not a single intelligble word all night.
Do soundmen have bad nights? Shouldn't have. They've played this venue many times.
I think its just thats how they like it, or how Hood likes it.
I'll just listen to the records from now on thank you.
 
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Pine Apple Slim said:
Pretty basic stuff.
I like DBTs records but was very disappointed live.
Could barely hear Cooley. Bass and drums were buried in the mix.
Vocals were a muddy mess, couldnt even understand Hood talking between songs.
It was an ear piercing mess of Hoods guitar and keyboard surrounded buy massive washes of muddy reverb.
I had to leave half way thru, couldn't stand it.
You'd think with such basic rigs and as much as they've toured they'd know how to do sound, but no.
I think they must be deaf, or at least their soundman.
It wasn't the venue. The opening act had perfect sound.
I saw Hood and Cooley in an all acoustic show w Isbell and the sound was fine. Of course sound was provided by a 3rd party in the Shoals, not DBT.
Isbell & 400 Unit always sound great BTW.
Click to expand...

I had a similar experience. I went to a show, mainly to see the opener, The Whigs, perform. They sounded great. I was looking forward to DBT. I wasn't big into their albums, but heard they were one of those bands that I "had to see live". I couldn't even hear WTF was going on. It was a all a big muddled mess. I think a lot of it stemmed from over-the-top stage volumes, but the FOH engineer wasn't helping matters, either. After giving them what I felt was an ample chance to get their shit in check, I just left.
 
speakerjones said:
I had a similar experience. I went to a show, mainly to see the opener, The Whigs, perform. They sounded great. I was looking forward to DBT. I wasn't big into their albums, but heard they were one of those bands that I "had to see live". I couldn't even hear WTF was going on. It was a all a big muddled mess. I think a lot of it stemmed from over-the-top stage volumes, but the FOH engineer wasn't helping matters, either. After giving them what I felt was an ample chance to get their shit in check, I just left.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Altho I was even more disappointed because I was into the records. I understand they like it loud, the punk ethos and all that, but I expect a lot more from seasoned professionals. You can be loud and not suck.
Seriously, I've heard 16 year olds without a clue in an empty garage sound better.
I won't be attending another DBT concert.
 
Isbell plays the same Sommatone as Cooley. It sounds great, but they both wrangle two really different tones from it. What was really surprising was that how normal Hood's instruments and pedalboard was. They keep things basic and stripped back for sure, with plenty of easily available gear.

When I saw DBT it was a great show, but they were definitely loud. One of the few shows I've ever gone to where I escaped to the upstairs balcony for ear relief. SLAYER loud.
 
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