Testimonial – John “J3” Allen III

John “J3” Allen III

FOH Engineer for The Struts
Former Lead Guitar + Vocals for Tommy Lee + Methods Of Mayhem
Former Lead Guitar for Sevendust
Founder, writer, guitar and Vocals for Sect.8
Co-Founder- Fine Shammy Records
Owner- 3 Studios

Third Rail Testimonials:
I have had the pleasure of working with Mike VansEvers for about 4 years now, after being introduced to him by the legendary Andy Meyer. Over time, my home studio, guitar rig and touring FOH mixing rig have utilized of Mike’s amazing inventions, as well as having had the opportunity to beta-test and review many of his new developments. The Bass Cable (now Beast), 1/4 inch and XLR add-ons, Edison and IEC add-ons, guitar cable and patch cable, speaker cables, and console insert cables, many tunable. It is from this perspective and with great respect for Third Rail Electric’s vision that I write these testimonials.

XLR Add-On Kick Cable used on The Struts Kick Drum

I was excited when Mike mentioned he had some Kick drum-specific tunable XLR cables that he wanted me to try. How many times have you had a less-than-stellar bass drum to record or mix live, that you wish had more oomph, better drum heads, different size or length shell, or god forbid, a better foot on the pedal? 🙂 I took the XLR Add-On Kick Cable with me out on The Struts’ North American 2023 tour, with the intention of trying it on my “Kick In” channel, which currently has a PZM-type mic mounted inside the bass drum. I normally combine and time-align Kick In and Out mics. “In” for attack and punch, “Out” for oomph and front-head vintage flavor, as well as more developed low-end. After my experience with how the Edison Beast Cable completely reshaped and defined my studio subwoofer, I was curious to see if the Kick Kable would do some reshaping, as well as lowering the bottom-end of the inside mic position a bit for more depth. I normally only send my Kick In channel to the PA Subs, as it is tighter, cleaner sounding, and has less potential bleed. My monitor guy Dave and I didn’t get a chance to slap it on for rehearsal, but by the 1st show soundcheck, we had attached it to the drum loom where it stayed for the entire tour. Where I was normally used to the attack-y “click” of the PZM inside the kick, now it had blossomed, still having punch and attack, but more tangible size and shape, and with a depth I could move around by tuning the cable. It was great, so we kept it there!!! And that channel can also stand on its own now. 2 bass drum mics are a luxury to many. Man, they sound killer together now!!

Bari-Bass Cable was used on The Struts Piano Vocal

While I had intended to take the Snap Kick cable to also try on bass drum or other instruments on The Struts 2023 tour, in a rush packing, I inadvertently took my Bari-Bass Cable instead. On this run, Luke Spiller’s FOH lead vocal chain was 3 Rupert Neve 500 Series modules in a row. Monitor Man Dave’s RN-511 mic pre-amp (which we both shared on the lead vocal), and then once it hits my Lead Vocal group, a RN 535 Bridge Diode Comp and RN 545 Primary Source Enhancer round out the inserts in my Digico SD12-96. I have 3 sE Electronics Chrome V7 microphones feeding this group, Luke’s Main, Luke’s Spare and Luke’s Piano Vocal. Since the Lead Vocal mic had the RN 511 preamp, it was out-classing the Piano Vocal channel pretty well. I said to Dave, let’s throw this Bari-Bass Cable on the input to the stage box and see what happens! I had great success using this cable to record vocals and guitars in my studio before. And lo and behold, it stood right up to the RN511 channel! It was punchy, clear, and had more girth than without it. And it was more tonally complex than the raw channel into the Digico preamp. I like to refer to sounds a lot by their “sizes”. This was definitely bigger and better. Helped really balance the sound of the 2 inputs of 2 vocals that are both of paramount importance to my FOH mix.

Snap Kick Cable on Aco Guitar and Vocals Studio recording into Vintech

My first time trying the Snap Kick Cable was songwriting and recording demos at my home studio for an artist I have produced for years. As I wasn’t going to be recording a live kick drum for quite some time, I decided to try it on the inputs to my Vintech 473 preamp for other instruments. Lead and backing vocals, and a lot of acoustic guitar tracks. The chains sE 4400>Vintech>1176 comp or sE 2200>Vintech>1176 comp always sounded good. The Kick cable took them to great! I could move the slider around if I wanted a different tonal center. In general, the recorded tracks sounded bigger, more detailed, and focused. This becomes readily apparent when doing mixes or even roughs. Things come together quickly, and everything is sounding great. Especially the lead vocal tracks. They went down with no EQ, just a hi-pass on the mic itself. Big guy with a powerful high voice that can overload padded mic capsules. Sounded fat, full, and fantastic!

Thank You Third Rail Electric!!!