Well, I really am looking forward to this weekends show in Akely.  Normally, I am not fond of outdoor shows, to unpredictable, but this one sounds fun.  I bought us a couple of new mics we are pretty excited to try out.  I picked up a new Sure SM87 Beta for my lead vocals, and a new, (well, new to us) Sure SM57 Beta for Roy's guitar.  I have used the Sure SM58 for my voice for nearly 20 years and I have always wanted to upgrade, though I think the 58 is a great mic.  I am hoping the 87 will give me more warmth, truer tone, and more feedback suppression.  The 57 Beta for Roy's guitar is born more out of need.  He has istalled an in instrument pickup, but it's not working properly so we always live mic him on stage.  The plus side is that the live mic alwasy gives him the truest and best sound.  The downside is that is also gives us the most feedback.  I bought a Peavy Feedback Ferret and I am impressed, it helped tremendously, but often it has to cut so many bands that our sound suffers on stage, though not through the house.  The new 57 Beta ought to solve much of that.  It has a much higher capacity for sound pressure than what I have been using on him (PG58, I know, lousy mic for the job.)  So I am anxious to see how the full upgrade to the correct mic for the job goes.  I also picked up a couple of windscreens because last time we did an outdoor show, the wind tended to sound like thunder in the distance most of the time.

Joe