a soundman's take on old marshalls and others

[Chuckracer]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

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I had all that stuff on stage too, but never ran more than the two outside bottom cabs. It was all show...and it was impressive.
When someone pays their $5 at the door, then walks in and glances at the stage and see's all those Marshall cabs, Ampeg cabs and a monster drum kit sandwiched in between, they realize this ain't amature hour, and they are gonna get their money's worth! You've already won most of them over and haven't played a note yet! That was the point.

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Yup, and alot of bands used Dummy cabs (empty cabs) Some groups today are still doing that, i know Black Label does, I went and saw avril (no harrasment free show and went because i would love to nail her) and her guitarists had 3 halfstack dummy cabs and heads on stage and ran his real rig under the stage.

Did i get in avril's pants, yeah like i had a chance, but i have to admit she is a good entertainer and looks great in person too.

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Well...OK, I confess, the other four cabs were empty. I ain't carrying around four more heavy ass Marshall cabs if I don't need to!
We found out the hard way the the black grill cloth was very transparent when the lights hit them, so we had a guy make us "dummy speakers" to put in the cabs. Just 12" plywood circles painted to look like a speaker cone mounted in the cabs...workd great, and we had a crap load of spare speakers! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[StarRider]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

Yup Back in the day it was all about Gear [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]
No Dummy Cabs on our stage, ever
Our Rodies hated us [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
3piece band will more equipment then most of the major acts
Like Chuck stated: walking in a club and seeing
Marshall’s and Ampeg’s as far as the eye can see
And in our case 2 or 3 milk carton high Drum riser
Our Drummer had A clear Ludwig Double Bass kit, Gong and All!
26' Bass Drums, it was loud too!!!
When we did the big shows we brought out the pyro stuff too
Mortar like Flash Pods that would smoke out the biggest Clubs
CO2 Fire Extinguishers, Smoke Machines, the works, total insanity
[img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/band.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[StarRider]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

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As far as I can tell the hearing hasn't sufered too much [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Also I hope we all know I'm talking bout back in the day
not today. The clubs back in the day had some really loud and big PAs
The biggest PA we ever played thru was at a show we did
The Company who supplied the PA was called Rock Systems if I'm corrrect
A place called L'Mours in Queens Long Island
It was a July 4th Show in 85' if I remember
Bands included:
Loudness
Savatage
Keel
And a few other local bands during the day
We where the 1st band to go on at night
Right before Savatage
We used4 Full Stacks!!!!! at this show
Had to keep up with the Jones, so to speak [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
I think I still have some photos of us from this show somwhere too

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L'amours Queens and Brooklyn... played them both. GREAT gigs. The biggest gig I ever did was an outdoor festival at Pelham Bay Park, NY. We opened for Steeplechase who opened for Zebra. 5000 people. It was the week when the infamour WAPP Apple radio station switched format from metal to disco. Many of the rock clubs were also switching over to dance clubs. We played this place in New Rochelle called Take Five which had metal on Thursday's and dance on Friday and Saturday. At the outdoor gig I ripped the shit out of WAPP and called them NY's apple gone rotten. My comments made the newspaper.

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LOL man I remember that time frame WAPP
We did some wacky stuff too
I think we almost got arested one night
We brought our own bottle of Jack to most shows we did
One night we decided to do shots with the audience
And started passing the bottle around right from the stage!!!
The club owner didn't like that trick and called the cops on us
It was all part of our wacky rock and roll daze

[jgcable]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

We had a 3'tall drum riser with lightning bolts cut out of the front of it with strobes and 2 Roscoe Smoke Machines in it. It was totally cool. It took 1 van just to carry the drum riser. We were a 3pc too. It took 3 vans filled front to back. Most of the time we would rent a Ryder or Uhaul truck and split the cost with another band and do mini tours around NJ and NY. The losers would sleep in the truck and the lucky ones would shack up with a groupie. Most of the time the truck would be empty at night!

[Firebird V]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

I used to run 4 cabs. I would power them with a 200 watt stereo power amp. ADA MP1 in there as a pre-amp. It was loud as hell. I would run each side on 6 or 7. It was way too much for small clubs. I would still cart all the cabs there but would only run one side of the power amp. It sucked carrying it around but none of us seemed to mind. It looked cool as hell back in the day. Now I just as happy to carry in only a 2 x 12. lol. I have the stack at home too though.

[Final Sacrifice]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

I was told that a lot of the "stage cabs" these days aren't even unloaded, but heavy-duty cardboard fakes. Any truth to this? And reading this thread makes me realize again how I was born in the wrong decade.

[Rupe]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

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I was told that a lot of the "stage cabs" these days aren't even unloaded, but heavy-duty cardboard fakes. Any truth to this?

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Absolutely. A friend of mine was endorsed by Randall in the late 80's and had a huge backline of their 4x12 cabs. All but two of them had cardboard "speakers" where the real thing would go. It looked like they were the real thing when the lights hit them though.
Ron Kayfield, formerly of Waysted (with Pete Way from UFO), had two white Marshall JCM800 stacks. Cabs and heads were dummies. Cabs didn't even have holes in the baffle boards and the heads just had a little bulb to light up the power switch.

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

Cardboard stacks... It's all good till you bump into them and they all fall over like a bunch carboard boxes...

Almost Milli Vanilli-ish.. heehee...

[Rupe]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

I misunderstood the cardboard comment. The cabs I was talking about were real but the speakers were cardboard cutouts. I've never seen an entire cardboard cab although Ashley Simpson's band is probably using those tomorrow on SNL

[axeman81]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

damn, sounds like you guys had a lot of fun in the 80's... Hope I can be part of something like that some day!! [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[charvelguy]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

yeah, all you need is a life size standup of Ed

[rocksoldier]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

Reading this thread really makes me wish i was born earlier, sounds like some really good times [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[StarRider]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

Guy is was a blast...........Sex Drugs and Rock & Roll
Heck sure an't no lie [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]
The 80s did ROCK BIG TIME!!!!
Cool Clubs, Great Bands.......and well you get what I mean

[charvelguy]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

hmm, let us not forget fishnets, heels and short skirts...and the dog collars. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Firebird V]

Re: a soundman\'s take on old marshalls and others

yes... lets not forget that!