WONKY TROLLEY BLUES
Some among you may have never had the fortune (or misfortune depending on how you look at it) of finding yourself on one of many and varied small stages in any number of filthy rock pubs around the country. Those who have know how music, being the ego-baiting beast that it is, has a habit of drawing out of the woodwork players with a penchant for constantly trotting out the biggest and boldest pieces of rig they own, even if the venue demands a modicum of spatial economy. Coupled with the fact that onstage real estate is already at a premium, having lanky and cumbersome boom stands, the live music equivalent of a wonky trolley, chewing it all up has been the bane of the Soundy’s existence for far too long. Enter The Wishbone Workshop with their solution to that all too familiar quandary, The Amp Hook.
USABILITY
Sure, there are small stature mic stands and brackets that balance precariously atop combos and any number of other pseudo solutions already on the market. The Amp Hook’s design, however, takes aspects of any and all of these products, adds a pinch of cleverness and fills in a few glaring oversights. With its heavy-duty, yet lightweight construction and unobtrusive matte black finish, The Amp Hook is ready, willing and able to handle even the roughest rock-piggery. The foam cushioning around the arm secures it either under the strap of your combo or between your head and cab accounting for wild vibrations and flailing limbs knocking the mic out of phase. The boom arm adjusts length as well as distance away from and along the face of the speaker plate meaning that finding and maintaining that sweet spot is as simple as it has ever been.
THE SIMPLE IDEAS ARE THE BEST
On first glance The Amp Hook seems like one of those ‘good in theory but do we really need it?’ kind of ideas. I certainly assumed as much, but its usability and vast improvement of any number of other products on the market do well to secure its place in the pantheon of steps in the right direction. There are literally hundreds of live music venues and recording studios across the country that don’t even know how much easier their jobs are about to become thanks to the clever people at The Wishbone Workshop and I, for one, can’t wait for them to find out.