Recently Gearwire spoke with singer-songwriter Danielle Howle about her guitars, live shows and recordings. In that conversation she noted that her most important piece of "gear was not actually a thing but a human being--Travis Banks. Banks is Howle's road manager and does her front of house. He told us a little about how he gets Howle's sound together live. First how he deals with her acoustic guitar.

"I run the acoustic guitar through a PreSonus Acousti-Q tube preamp/DI. The 12AX7 tube really adds a lot of body to piezo pickups," says Banks. "The notch filter is also handy for eliminating those trouble frequencies, without killing the tone of the guitar. At the console I insert a DBX 266XL compressor to keep the dynamics under control."

You can get one of these for in the neighborhood of $300.

He also has some tricks for dealing with getting a good vocal sound when playing in small room after small room (eventually you will hit a room with sound so bad it defies description).

"The live vocal mic I use is a Shure Beta 87a. It's got a great high end response with out being overly harsh," he says "The 87 runs through a ART ProChannel before it gets to the soundboard. The ProChannel allows me to get a great vocal sound; even if the venue has a cheap soundboard."

A Shure Beta 87A is a better mic than what you are going to find in most clubs who use Shure 58s (which are decent). You will pay a bit more for the 87A but if you are a bargain hunter, again, you can find one within reason (say $260).

Banks uses a Lexicon MPX200 for reverb. This is as much a matter of economics as sound. You can find one of these, without too much effort, for around $120.

"It's a decent sounding verb that doesn't break the bank." he says.