Weddings are a thriving industry in the U.S., and the expectations for wedding ceremony and reception entertainment are understandably high. That’s why Moses Lin, winner of the 2019 WeddingWire Couple’s Choice award, which recognized him out of hundreds of musicians as the top wedding guitarist in Orange County, relies on his Bose Professional L1 Compact and L1 Model 1S (with B2 bass module and T4S ToneMatch mixer) portable sound systems for a variety of wedding gigs.
Lin is truly a one-man musical ensemble, finger-picking his unique interpretations and arrangements of the songs couples want to hear for their big day while adding robust percussion effects on the top of his Taylor 612 acoustic guitar. “The L1 is a great sound system for my percussive approach to playing. The Taylor has a condenser microphone inside the body of the guitar, and together it’s all a great match,” he explains. “The Bose T4S mixer has a notch filter that lets me pull back exactly the frequencies that sometimes stick out or feed back with my playing style.”
But the L1 system’s great sound and advanced technology are just starters for Lin, who says playing at the top of the wedding game is serious business. “At weddings, you’re often going to be off to the side, or wherever they can put you, so you have to be able to adapt your setup for that, to sound good wherever you find yourself,” he says. “Most PA systems have a pair of speakers on stands, and it’s incredibly difficult to set them up so they sound good, especially if you have to work around walls and tables. But the L1 works as one unit, which makes it easy to find the right spot to set up. You’re less concerned about checking out the acoustics of a room before you get there because the L1 can handle it, with its 180-degree spread.”
That same configuration also means that logistics are much easier, which is especially important when you’re working solo. “I can fit the entire system onto one cart, which makes moving to and from the gig much easier,” says Lin. And while the aesthetics of system design might be overly esoteric for most musicians, it’s a critical area for a wedding performer. “The L1 is very slim, so you can barely notice it in a wedding chapel or a reception hall,” he notes. “I’ve had photographers compliment the system because, they tell me, the L1 just disappears into the picture. It’s not visually distracting at all. We know how important the wedding pictures are, so the visual quality of the L1 is as important as its great sound. That’s why I’m seeing the L1 system pop up at more and more weddings and wedding venues — it’s the perfect PA for getting married.”
