NEWS

Celebrating Our Anniversary with Harmoni Kelley and Robert Scovill

By: Dino Monoxelos

Bassists, how many times have you shown up to a gig, lugging all your cool Ampeg gear, a couple of great basses, and a pedalboard into the venue, only to have the FOH person hand you a $20 DI and say, “Here you go”? Then, when it’s finally time for your line check (if you’re lucky), after sitting through a forty-minute drum sound check, you play three notes on your bass and the FOH “engineer” says, “All set, got you”?

At the very least, this should inspire us to carry our own high-quality DI—one we know sounds good—and maybe even encourage the ‘sound person’ to spend more than three notes on our sound check. If that’s not an option, try convincing them to take the DI out of the back of the amp. Let’s face it, we’ve all been there, and I have to say, that’s a hill I’m willing to die on every time.

Fast forward to “the big time”!!! Picture this, if you will… You’re Harmoni Kelley, a world-class, badass bassist, playing bass for Kenny Chesney on one of the summer’s biggest stadium tours there is and doing it every summer!!! Now, add to this that Kenny hires Robert Scovill, one of the most in-demand sound engineers out there, who’s engineered FOH for everyone from Tom Petty to Def Leppard and in between.

Imagine the conversation during pre-production rehearsals when Robert asks Harmoni if she trusts him with her sound…. Say goodbye to the $20 DI box and hello to the “War Wagon”—a multi-DI/mic/isolation rig built by Robert specifically for Harmoni’s FOH/IEM bass mix. This rig features a Portaflex PF-20T head and PF-115HE cabinet, all housed in an isolation box with multiple mics and some highly sought-after, long-discontinued Ampeg tube DIs. It’s a touring bassist’s dream, and having Robert mix it all back to you is a dream you never want to wake from.

I had the distinct privilege of witnessing all of this firsthand while sitting at the FOH position when they were in town this summer. I will say this… I’ve never seen a FOH engineer so dedicated to making sure you can hear every instrument crystal clear, like it was a recording. But also, so dedicated to making sure the bass is heard, felt AND articulated in both FOH and IEMs. Add to all of this having to do this in an outdoor football stadium, it just makes it even more dumbfounding. It of course also helps when your test subject is just a badass player like Harmoni too. Like I said, I had the joy of hanging out with both Harmoni and Robert when they were in town this past summer. Luckily our friend Mr. Daniel Liston Keller from “Get It In Writing” was able to capture the chemistry between these two even earlier in the summer when they were in his neck of the woods in LA. We hope you enjoy their exchange here talking about the 75th Anniversary of the Ampeg brand and for an even lengthier conversation about the war wagon, be sure to check out this episode of SVT Time:

Dino has spent over 25 years in the Ampeg world conducting seminars and clinics all over the globe. He’s also the author of four instructional bass books by Mel Bay and his own publishing company, MonoTunes Music.  His favorite bass to play is his MTD 534-24.