Over the years I've been trying to spruce up the rats nest of wiring that runs to and from each device. Some of this has been accomplished by making a custom wiring harness that contains all the cables from everything. Unfortunately, if a cable goes bad, which can ocassionally happen, you must disassemble the entire harness to make the repairs.

Despite the neat harness, the backs of two keyboards with all those wires and names sticking out really looks nasty. Therefore, the problem was solved by going to the nearest fabric store and purchasing a yard-and-a-half of 60-inch wide, wine-colored velvet, hemming the edges, and using 4-inch high bright gold letters, plastered the band name on the middle. Velcro fasteners were sewn to the top edge and the mating fasteners were attached to the top rung of my Ultimate Keyboard stand. The end result looks quite professional, covers the back of the keyboards completely, and hides all those nasty looking wires.

While performing, the keyboard stand is positioned at a 45 degree angle so I can face the audience and they can see that I'm really playing the keyboards. When I get a spare minute or two, I'll shoot a digital photo and post it on my website.

The other great thing about the velvet cover is that it can double as a cover for the keyboards when they're not in use. I know that some of you leave your keyboards at the job when you're not playing, which is great when you're playing five nights a week and have a couple days off. You can merely turn the cover around and drape it over both keyboards to keep the dust and dirt off the machines, then when it's show time, just turn it around and you're ready to play.

Cheers,

Gary