The Tale of the Smiling Man - Short Version

I have been a guitar player in clubs, sessions, and touring bands for more years than I want to admit to here. (See picture of Smilin’ Man.)

This story begins in ‘97 or ‘98 --I can’t remember when exactly… But you know how the story goes. You get to the club and go set up your amp. Everything is working fine. You go to the bar to get a little go juice. You come back to the stage, and…
GREAT GOOGLEY MOOGLEY!!! An octopus with something that looks like a microphone has attacked your amp!!

No offense to you sound guys with a tight budget (and a tight club owner), but usually guitar players end up with the last mic in the bag. You know, the one that looks like it got slammed in the trailer door the night before. PLUS you get a mic stand with 3-foot long legs that you keep tripping over all night. OR you get a mic cable tied through the handle of your amp with a plastic mic hanging sideways in front of your speakers.

Not good. A real groove killer.

So, when I finally heard about this filtered DI called the PDI-09 "The Junction" made by Palmer especially for guitar amps, I knew I'd have to try it.

I borrowed a Palmer PDI-09, took it to the club that I was working, and talked the soundman into using it in place of a microphone. After the first set, the engineer was really happy with the way it sounded. The Palmer sounded nice and full, and he was happy since he didn’t have to worry about another mic on stage causing feedback and bleed-over from the drums. But, just because the soundman was happy, didn’t mean I was happy. Even though the amp sounded great on stage, I wasn’t convinced it sounded good out front.

So then, on a break, a couple of my guitar buddies came up and said, “Man, your tone sounds GREAT out front! What are you mic-ing your amp with? “ That’s when I told them it was a PDI-09 filtered DI by Palmer. Now I’m happy because I know it sounds really good out front and does what it says it would do with   NO  MESS!    NO  STRESS!

Well, so I went ahead and bought my own Palmer PDI-09 and started using it everywhere I could talk the engineers into trying it. When they tried it, they loved it--the PDI-09 made THEIR life easier. I carried it around in my guitar bag for 3 or 4 months and realized I was using it, pretty much, all the time. That’s when I got really smart. I Velcro-ed it into the back of my amp, patched the speakers through, installed a panel mount XLR, and hard-wired the PDI-09 XLR output to the panel mount XLR.

That way it’s always there and all you have to do is plug the mic line into the back of your cabinet--and let it rock!      EVERYBODY’S HAPPY!      There you go.