Jack White, JBL, GCCH Team For American Legion Benefit Gig

Nashville, TN (September 19, 2024)—Jack White is known for his real-world solutions; you don’t have to go any further than his quietly show-stopping moment in the documentary It Might Get Loud, where he builds a makeshift electric guitar out of scrap metal and driftwood for the camera. The launch of his latest album, No Name, saw the rock star similarly create an achievable solution, as he wanted to play an under-the-radar launch show, but the venue in question had a lousy audio system; his answer to the problem benefitted everyone involved.

Nashville’s 250-capacity American Legion Post 82 regularly holds music events ranging from open mic nights and songwriter workshops to performances of all kinds. Lalo Medina, White’s longtime tour manager, picks up the story: “Somebody told us they didn’t have the greatest PA in that room, so Jack said, ‘Why don’t we do a fundraiser for them to get a new system and get JBL’s help with it?’ It really wasn’t about putting in a sound system so he could play on it; it was more just putting in a better system for people that go to that place to enjoy, because it is a really cool venue.”

Mick Beisel, CEO of Vision2 Marketing, facilitated a partnership between JBL Professional and Guitar Center Custom House (GCCH, a Nashville-based collaboration between Guitar Center Professional and Guitar Center’s Audio Visual Design Group, known as AVDG) that resulted in Post 82 acquiring a new sound system consisting of equipment from several Harman Professional companies.

The timing, however, was tight, reports Greg Glaser, GCCH’s Vice President of Artist Relations. “We literally got involved a week before the show was to take place,” says Glaser. “JBL freighted the equipment directly to the venue and we showed up the next day to install it,” Glaser explains.

A local JBL support staffer had viewed the small venue and specified a system based on four JBL SRX910LA two-way active line array cabinets (two for each side of the stage), bolstered by two SRX928S dual 18-inch subwoofers. Audio flows from five AKG D5 supercardioid dynamic microphones on the stage (plus any direct sources) through a Soundcraft Mini Stagebox 32i to a Soundcraft Si Performer 3 digital mixing console. Patrons in the bar area, located in a separate area of the building, get sound from a pair of PRX912 powered two-way loudspeakers.

Jack White Gets Bats with Harman

With time being so short, Glaser called on Ken Ferrel of AVDG to lead the lightning-fast installation. “I’ve been working with Greg on projects for years. Anytime he has an ‘I got to get this done and I need it to happen tomorrow,’ thing, it’s usually me he’s reaching out to,” Ferrel says, laughing. “Custom House is kind of the special forces of the Guitar Center organization. We can make stuff happen that people think is impossible. We’re that kind of group where nothing’s too crazy.”

The main system was ground stacked, with two 910LA cabinets on each side. Once the system was physically in place, configuration was easy, even though tuning the system was about as last minute as it could be, taking place the morning of White’s performance. Even on short notice, the show sold out the moment it was announced. Showtime came and White debuted six songs from the new album for the small but ecstatic crowd.  “It was plenty loud,” Glaser affirms, “and the system sounded phenomenal. We were backstage and Jack was to-the-moon happy. Tons of people said it was the best the room ever sounded.”

His work there is done, claims White. “We’re on a mission for purity, we build spaces where nothing is translated, nothing impersonating something that it’s not,” he says. “Live music venues are like churches, they’re sacred spaces that need to give people what they want, something real. JBL gets that and it’s why they are obsessed with translating sound in such a pure way”