John Brinkman and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

John Brinkman (Strymon’s Code Communicator/Master of Bass) is currently playing bass for the show Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the Experimental Theatre in the Valley Performing Arts Center, in Northridge, CA.

When he showed me a picture of his pedal board I asked him if he would write something about it to share.

Here it is 😀

Bass in the Pit
“Musical Theater is fun and we’re listening to show tunes.”

There’s never enough room it seems, so I keep a mostly compact pedal board setup just for the theater gigs. Here’s a picture of the pedal board I’ve been using. Besides my Rickenbacker 4001, and after the AB switch, the first thing in the signal chain is the OB1 compressor. From there it’s into the Orbit! The Orbit is cool because it’s a great flanger (and I’m a Chris Squire fan boy). But it also makes a killer choral tone, and that saves space. From there, it’s on to the volume pedal and amp. The volume pedal has an “always on” tuner output; very useful. Because I normally suffer for room, I like to keep the tuner available at all times. It’s not uncommon that I bang my headstock into a music stand and have to quickly retune before a cue.


This next image shows the cozy vantage from the bass chair. It’s ideal really, as I’m right next to the drummer, Hi-Hat side and I can monitor guitar straight from his amp. The only other essential bit of gear not shown is the Mackie SRM150 (An active speaker with a 3 channel mixer). Depending on the venue, the band can usually get a vocal mix from the house, but if that’s it, then the flexibility of the SRM150 is very useful. For this show in particular, I was unable to hear the music director’s piano. The house probably could have solved the problem, but they had million other things to deal with, so it’s great to solve the issue locally in the pit.

View from the very compact bass chair.

If you’re in L.A. and want to see a rocking show about president Andrew Jackson, come on out. The cast is great and the show is a lot of fun!

Show Info:
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the Experimental Theatre in the Valley Performing Arts Center. Sept 26, 27, 28, 29, 2013 Thu-Sat 7:30pm, Sundays 2pm.

Interpreted performance on Fri. Sep 27.

CSUN/Venu Site:
http://www.csun.edu/mike-curb-arts-media-communication/theatre/bloody-bloody-andrew-jackson

Clips from the Broadway production:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRSlBjNhqjY