Plexiglass amp 'cages'.

[SpondonBassed]

On 03/05/2018 at 22:36, mrtcat said:

I used to make isolation boxes for amps when I was a cabinet maker. They were popular with touring bands but the major improvements in modelling kit like kemper and helix have taken over now. 

I also used to make mock Marshall cabs for show. My favourite build was when we completely remade a couple of Marshall 4x12 cabs for an endorsed guitarist. The Marshall cabs were so poor in both sound and construction (the vintage 30s in Marshall cabs are nowhere near the same as regular vintage 30s - they're like a poor imitation) that the guy had us essentially build a mesa cab in Marshall disguise. 

I'm thinking that some of those music videos and a few live performances where you see a wall of Marshall combos would be an example of your work.

If any of those combo amps in the wall were connected to anything, I'd be very surprised.  I'd even guess that the cabinets were empty.  I never believed the popular image of Marty McFly stood in front of the giant speaker poised to strike the power chord that sends him flying across the room.

It's such a powerful image though.

[discreet]

3 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

If any of those combo amps in the wall were connected to anything, I'd be very surprised.  I'd even guess that the cabinets were empty.

 

Edited May 5, 2018 by discreet

[Lozz196]

I`ve always thought that the wall of speakers is a great idea. Just cos there are loads of them doesn`t mean they have to be loud, amps do have volume controls remember, but on a (very) large stage, well at least you`d have a presence of the instrument no matter where you were. Rather than one 210 some 30 feet away, and two monitors in front of you trying to handle the whole band in them to rely on.  When we play festivals we never have the amps louder than the on-stage un-miced volume of the kit, but the fact that it`s invariably an 810 and two 412s stacked make hearing yourself a lot easier. On even bigger stages I`d like two 810s, and two 2x412 stacks for the guitar. I suppose I`m not that keen on relying on monitors, as long as I can hear all instruments on-stage volume fine then I`m happy, and having more speakers has - in my experience - helped that a lot.

[EBS_freak]

2 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I`ve always thought that the wall of speakers is a great idea. Just cos there are loads of them doesn`t mean they have to be loud, amps do have volume controls remember, but on a (very) large stage, well at least you`d have a presence of the instrument no matter where you were. Rather than one 210 some 30 feet away, and two monitors in front of you trying to handle the whole band in them to rely on.  When we play festivals we never have the amps louder than the on-stage un-miced volume of the kit, but the fact that it`s invariably an 810 and two 412s stacked make hearing yourself a lot easier. On even bigger stages I`d like two 810s, and two 2x412 stacks for the guitar. I suppose I`m not that keen on relying on monitors, as long as I can hear all instruments on-stage volume fine then I`m happy, and having more speakers has - in my experience - helped that a lot.

Or you could just run decent wedges along the front of the length of the stage without the hassle of all the backline spilling into the vocal mics.

i think wedges get a bad press because it’s the first area where cost savings are made. A prolevel wedge usually runs at a cost similar to most pub bands complete PA. They sound awesome.

Edited May 5, 2018 by EBS_freak

[scalpy]

4 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

Or you could just run decent wedges along the front of the length of the stage without the hassle of all the backline spilling into the vocal mics.

i think wedges get a bad press because it’s the first area where cost savings are made. A prolevel wedge usually runs at a cost similar to most pub bands complete PA. They sound awesome.

Good quality wedges do sound immense, but in my experience the monitor guy will be so intent on proving it you spend half of soundcheck going ‘that’s great, just turn it down, no further please, no more....’ One guy even stopped me during an interval and said I needed to turn down- my amp was set at less than we rehearse at, and didn’t realise the bass drowning out the pa was his rig. 

[EBS_freak]

That’s the fault of the monitor guy, not the wedges. If set up properly, the mix from them should make the backline insignificant.

[gjones]

I remember, when my band played a festival last year, the sound engineer put one of these in front of the guitarist's 10 watt valve amp.

Overkill or what?

 

 

[EBS_freak]

1 minute ago, gjones said:

I remember, when my band played a festival last year, the sound engineer put one of these in front of the guitarist's 10 watt valve amp.

Overkill or what?

 

 

Not really - they stop the sound getting in to the mic from elsewhere on the stage.

[NancyJohnson]

Dream Theater's John Petrucci has used these perspex boxes for years. 

On one of their DVD boxsets there was this gear rundown piece.  When asked about the perspex box, Petrucci made some off the cuff remark about drummer Mike Portnoy being nicknamed The Camel.  There then followed a short series of stills of Mr P gobbing out huge dockside oysters in the direction Petrucci' s gear.

So back then, he used them as phlegm protection.

[jacko]

On 5/5/2018 at 13:44, Lozz196 said:

I`ve always thought that the wall of speakers is a great idea. Just cos there are loads of them doesn`t mean they have to be loud, amps do have volume controls remember, but on a (very) large stage, well at least you`d have a presence of the instrument no matter where you were. Rather than one 210 some 30 feet away, and two monitors in front of you trying to handle the whole band in them to rely on.  When we play festivals we never have the amps louder than the on-stage un-miced volume of the kit, but the fact that it`s invariably an 810 and two 412s stacked make hearing yourself a lot easier. On even bigger stages I`d like two 810s, and two 2x412 stacks for the guitar. I suppose I`m not that keen on relying on monitors, as long as I can hear all instruments on-stage volume fine then I`m happy, and having more speakers has - in my experience - helped that a lot.

That always worked for the Quo.  Easily the best sound at a gig I've heard in years. Usually disappointed with the sound of 'hung' full range systems that lose all the instrument's definition   

[wateroftyne]

3 minutes ago, jacko said:

That always worked for the Quo.  Easily the best sound at a gig I've heard in years. Usually disappointed with the sound of 'hung' full range systems that lose all the instrument's definition   

From Francis Rossi's gear page on the SQ website:

Quote

Between the output of the amp and the speakers are Palmer speaker simulators. The output of these goes out-front and is mixed with the miked signal from the Marshall cabinets and a miked signal from a Vox AC30 which is one of the new ones made by Marshall using exactly the same components as were originally used when they were first made in the sixties. You won't see the AC30's on the stage because they are kept behind the Marshalls.

Francis and Rick love the sound of the original AC 30's. In the old days these were loud enough to be the main stage amps but now the miked signal is sent out front to give the sound that extra fatness.

I'm not sure how many speakers there are in that wall of cabs...?

[jacko]

is that suggesting they were using AC30's aswell as the marshalls?  I'm pretty sure at least half the marshalls across the backline were in use as you could hear them if you walked across the front of the stage. Rhino was using a pair of markbass 410s (painted white to match the marshalls) last time I saw them (xmas 2016) and his sound was pretty much focussed in one place.

The same went for Chris squire last time I saw him play with YES - the 'fly from here' tour. His rig was probably louder than the rest of th PA and made the Bass the standout part of the show - not so billy sherwood a couple of months ago who needed some serious compression.

[mrtcat]

6 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

From Francis Rossi's gear page on the SQ website:

I'm not sure how many speakers there are in that wall of cabs...?

1 12 inch driver in every 4x12 box I suspect much like many other bands did until modelling tech really upped its game.

[mrtcat]

On 05/05/2018 at 06:35, SpondonBassed said:

I'm thinking that some of those music videos and a few live performances where you see a wall of Marshall combos would be an example of your work.

I don't know if any ever made it to video shoots but it wouldn't surprise me. Most were made from particle board so were much lighter but tended to dent quite easily so were often stripped for parts at the end of a tour and replaced with new ones. Funniest thing was I drove past Marshall hq pretty much every day on the way to work.