pedal boards (ben harper)

Ben Harper is one of those concerts that still stands out in my mind as one of the best that I've been to in my short life. The stage presence of the Innocent Criminals (his band) is amazing. This post isn't going to so much look at his board, but Ben's gear and setup. Ben's acoustic guitars are a totally clean signal fed directly into the sound board, so not much excitement there. The reason I LOVE ben harper is his lap slide. Lap slide (or lap steel) guitars are 6-stringed instruments which are smaller than a normal guitar and are played on one's lap while sitting down, using a metal bar or 'slide' to fret the strings which stand farther off the neck than traditional acoustic guitars. Ben uses Weissenborn acoustic lap steel guitars, which are hollow bodied, hawaiian, and hollow-necked. (sidenote: Ben NEVER uses a pick on ANY of his guitars except for the extremely rare thumbpick for lap slide.)
Here's where it gets interesting.
Ben has two wires on stage. One feeds directly to the house (aka soundboard) and is used for his clean acoustic sound. The other feeds through his pedals (an Ernie Ball Volume pedal, AutoWah, Ibanez TubeScreamer and Delay, and Wah) into a huge Marshall amp. Okay, now follow this: Ben uses the clean signal for acoustic guitars, the pedal and amps for his electrics, AND (get this), uses both for his lap slide. No, not back and forth, he actually has two input jacks installed on his lap slide weissenborns, giving both a clean acoustic signal blended with the distortion and effects signal. Also, he can cut from a single signal to the other on the fly (ie: Forgiven) using a foot switch. Ben is also known for his quilt-covered chair which is just as much a part of his stage setup as any of his guitars or amps. Favorite lap slide tracks: When It's Good; Forgiven; Ground On Down; and Faded.