California Guitar Trio, a unique genre-bending group featuring three guitar virtuosos, has been performing internationally since 1991. “We have played over two thousand concerts in the past 32 years,” noted CGT member Paul Richards. “Each of us comes from a different musical background, including classical, surf, jazz, metal, classic rock, and blues – all of those influences have meshed into our performances. The Trio performs with a mix of original compositions and unique cover songs from bands like Queen, Pink Floyd, and the Beach Boys.
The group had been touring with their own mixing console for a while, but realized that they needed something better suited to their needs. “A house engineer at a recent gig told us that all our gear was top-of-the line, except our mixer,” explained Richards. “It was hurting both the sound of our live performances and our concert recordings.”
After some research, the band came across Allen & Heath and their new CQ series – which offered the processing, sound quality, and recording capabilities that they needed. “Allen & Heath stood out for a number of reasons, but the main draw was upgraded sound quality,” explained Richards. “Right when we first set it up, everything fell into place and we knew we made the right decision.”
The California Guitar Trio now tours with an Allen & Heath CQ-12T, which offers 12 channels of input processing and 8 outputs with an intuitive touchscreen interface. “The difference in ease of use and overall sound quality was clear right away,” said Richards. “The improved clarity was very much noticeable and everything worked flawlessly.”
Each guitarist in the trio has their own pedal board with a DI that interfaces directly with the mixer. During soundcheck, Richards now takes advantage of CQ’s Gain Assistant to speed up the process of setting the preamps. “We plug in and I have each of the guys play a little bit, and it just automatically sets the levels. We are then very quickly able to set up the mix. It’s so fast!”
The band records every performance directly to a USB drive on the mixer, which they then duplicate and distribute with other merchandise after the show. “With the CQ, the live recordings now sound like studio recordings,” remarked Richards. “We had people buy our USB drives and listen in their car, then return just to tell us how great it sounded. The quality is so far beyond what we had done previously.”
Richards set up one of the user-defined SoftKeys on his CQ to start and stop USB recording, so he has quick and easy control. “When I walk out on stage, I just hit that SoftKey and it turns red to indicate that the show is recording. It makes our lives much easier.”
California Guitar Trio is currently on tour, with upcoming dates in the United States in January 2024.
