Baby's First Rig |
Post Reply | Page 123 6> |
Author | |
Rog
New Member Rogers Archive Posts Joined: 23 March 2010 Status: Offline Points: 2166 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Posted: 16 October 2006 at 8:02am |
Hi,
When I was in the UK around PLASA time I went to my sisters house and got some old slides. These are the first systems I build and designed
The bass is 2 x 12" reflex. The port is a shelf port at the bottom of the box. Can't remember what the woofers are but they were 30 watts and had a whizzer cone. The 2 bass cabs were driven of a Selmer 100 watt valve amp. The amp had a 5 band graphic eq and I put all the mid and top sliders all the way down and the lowest fader all the way up. The driver in the tea chest is a 12" Celestion guitar speaker. Above that is by first attempt at a HF horn. The cab sides are made from 12 mm pine and the top and bottom are made from 3 mm hardboard. The horn was made from really thin sheet metal that I cut with tin snips. Driver was a Celestion comp driver, not sure which one. I put a cap inline as the crossover. The cab above that is a 10" speaker that used to be used in schools. Not sure about the power, but could not have been more than 15 watts. The tea chest and school speaker were driven from the amp that was used in the school to power the 10" cabs. It was valve and had 70v line out and also a 8 and 4 ohm tap. Must have been around 40 to 50 watts. It had bass and treble, so I cut all the bass and turn the treble flat out. The comp drivers were driven from a pye amp. Again it was valve and looked a lot like what old taxi company radio transmitters looked like. Again tuned the bass down and treble right up.
I don't have an exact date for this system, but its mid to late 1970's. Maybe 76 or 77. I thought it sounded great, but then we all do at that age. I used it for discos around the village halls near to where I lived, which was close to Glastonbury at that time.
This is my first system I built for the first company I had. The company was called Sound Faclities. Bass was 18" Fane classic 275 watt woofers in really massive reflex cabs. They look like horns but the horn was so short it did nothing, but I thought it made it look good so went with it. These were driven from a Studiomaster 800 B or C, can't remember and its not in this pic. Upper bass were w bins loaded with powercell 250's. What a driven that was for its day. The W's were powered by a MM Electonics AP360. The cabs above which look like philles were 2 x 10" on a short horn. Bit like a phille but all wood and no fibreglass. These were driven from a 250 watt per channel amp that I built from modules and put in a case. Can't remember the make But it wasn't maplin or the MXF ones as neither of those compaines were trading then I don't think. The HF horns were built from wood and were a bit like Altec mantaray horns. The compression driver was the same one from the system before, which was a Celestion. HF amp was another module kit type thing and was 100 watts per side. The crossover was an RSD (early studiomaster) 3 way and you had variable crossover points. Can't remeber the crossover points but the 2 x 10" and HF horns were driven from the same outputs. I made a simple active crossver circuit that went before the HF amp to filter the mid from the comp driver. Mixer was a 12 channel Soundtracs. Like an early CM 4400 but smaller. Still love Soundtracs consoles to this day. I had some outboard, I think there was a analogue delay line and a spring reverb.
I used this setup for discos and bands. Again hard to say when I first put it together but I think it was around 1984/1985, maybe earlier.
I wanted to get the pics I took when I used to mix stage 2 (1986/7) at Glastonbury festival for you Ian as we used loads of Martin 215 mk 2's and philles, but had to leave my sisters house before I could find them. I will get her to scan them for me as I think she knows where they are.
Hope you've all had a laugh at these systems, I know I have.
Best whises,
Rog. Edited by Rog Mogale - 16 October 2006 at 8:09am |
|
al_x
Young Croc Joined: 12 February 2006 Status: Offline Points: 834 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
no carpet?
i thought it was compulsary for disco's to have it.
|
|
gingerbiscuit69
Registered User Joined: 23 September 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 2540 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
that first one is a classic, but we all have to start somewhere!! remember mine was some dual 12" ported chipboard cabs, loaded with Fane Hiwatt guitar drivers and 2x celestion Ht50 horns per side driven with a carlbro 500 amp on the 12's fullrange, and an acoustic amp thing from argos on the tops, with bass right down and treble right up. sounded aweful!!
|
|
MarjanM
Old Croc Joined: 10 February 2005 Location: Macedonia Status: Offline Points: 7810 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
My first "sub" was looking just like a washing machine.
It was in a white box of exact wash mashine size with a 15 inch driver taken out of the bas guitar amp placed in the middle of the baffle. Sweet isn it? |
|
gingerbiscuit69
Registered User Joined: 23 September 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 2540 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
amprack...
the speakers on top (that was my bedroom setup when i was 12!!) |
|
jbl_man
Moderator Group Joined: 12 January 2005 Location: London. Status: Offline Points: 11154 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Wow,good man for finding the photos Rog,your first Sound facilities rig is virtually identical to my first proper 1978 rig...even down to the MM ap 360s!
Here is a photo (hope u can see this Rog!) of one of the early stacks...home made plywood W-bin with 15"JBL K140 driver, Altec 816c cab with Altec 421-8h driver,HH radial horns (the mk11 variety)..12" mid flared cab with JBL K120 guitar speaker,and topped with a pair of peizos.....the Sound City 4x12s were used for a spot of"in fill"....worth noting that all the drivers (apart from the peizos) were alnico magnet,and the system had a lovely punch to it,albeit with nothing going on below 60hz!.....bear in mind this was 1978,and most peoples home hi-fi was about 25 watts,so 1kw of proper speakers certainly got some favourable comments...this system,although basic by todays standards,was better than a lot of club installs back then,and would still sound nice today..far better than Peavy Hi-sys!..not bad for almost 30 years old!
love to see the photos of your later Martin system.
Edited by jbl_man - 16 October 2006 at 1:43pm |
|
Be seeing you.
|
|
Strange Daze
Old Croc Joined: 14 July 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 2861 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
(goes to dig out old photies.....)
|
|
Lasse Lukkari
Young Croc Joined: 09 March 2004 Location: Finland Status: Offline Points: 615 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
You guys have been doing this before I was even born (1983)... |
|
Static Age
Old Croc Joined: 14 November 2005 Location: Oxfordshire Status: Offline Points: 1652 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
indeed, when JBLman had that rig back in 1978 i was only one year old
|
|
|
|
gingerbiscuit69
Registered User Joined: 23 September 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 2540 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
surely that just makes a couple of these members feel old!?
|
|
james folkes
Old Croc Joined: 08 January 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 3064 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
mardy hippy.
|
|
SmokeyJoe
Young Croc Joined: 22 August 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 534 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
@ GingerBiscuit69:
If you were 12 when u had that rig, how old are you know?? You gotta be very young coz i can see a modern collection of Harry Potter books on your top shelf... - SmokeyJoe |
|
Post Reply | Page 123 6> |
Tweet |
Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |