At the moment I’m getting ready to start rehearsing with the Oxford Operatic Society for their upcoming production of The Sound Of Music. I’m currently running through the pad and making sure there isn’t anything too unexpected in there, and all seems to be plain sailing at the moment.
I’m using a Line6 Variax Acoustic guitar for this show since there are a few mandolin cues that I’ll be covering with the Mandola voice on the guitar. I’ll be playing everything up an octave too, so that should give me a reasonable interpretation of the mandolin sounds the MD is looking for. I’ll be using the Martin OOO voice for the rest of the show which is a nice and focused sound which cuts through nicely.
The Variax is a great instrument and is a real asset in these settings. This will be the first time I’ve used it on a show like this, but I’m already feeling the benefit of not having lug extra kit around, plus the tangling of cables with multiple instruments is always something to contend with. Thankfully I won’t have to worry about that, or any rapid changes to and from instruments. Just a turn of a dial for me!
The show runs at the New Theatre in Oxford from the 28th of May to the 1st of June, with a matinee on the Saturday. I’m looking forward to the show since this will be the first time I playing at the New Theatre, and it wasn’t so long ago I saw Ray LaMontagne and Zappa Plays Zappa there, so it’ll be nice to grace the some venue as those guys!
