I didn't have a piano pickup. I miked it with two mikes positioned over the soundboard inside the housing (it was a spinet). It's always worked great and it's how you would do it in the studio). But the pianist took the front cover off which completely exposes the soundboard to the player but all the sound flows out the big hole and misses the mics which now pickup everything outside--other instruments, monitors, everything. With a soundcheck, I could have showed them how it wasn't going to work and that I could turn up the piano in the monitors instead but those guys don't listen. They think the soundman is supposed accomodate them under any and all circumstances.

Now, I would like to say that MOST of the musicians in this society were cool and I enjoyed working with them. It was just a few that made trouble for me but they were by far the most influential. I wouldn't mind working with the other musicians outside the context of the society but I haven't seen any of them in years and some are, no doubt, dead. I hate it when you tell them that they're making it impossible to mic them properly and they say not to to worry about it like they understand your situation but they clearly don't as was evident by their complete dissatisfaction with the terrible sound they brought on themselves by not listening to the guy whose job it is to make them sound great. And instead of apologizing for not heeding him, blame the whole thing on him instead and get him canned.