Walls of Marshalls - how

[scott]

apparently this was Angus’ rack, briefly... lots of Boogie with a dash of Marshall
https://images.app.goo.gl/iwrYJJvwEx8iBeNJ7

I think Wizard came a little later in the 90s

Well look at that. You wouldn't have known it from the sound.
I had some form from the concert for a long time and they thanked MESA for the cabinets. They didn't say anything about amplification but it specifically said cabinets.
Id be surprised if he actually used that rig for long.

 

[Mickey Shane]

Professionals use 200% redundancy for their live show equipment. Divide whatever you see by three and that's what's on.

 

[Blankspacefiller]

Yeah buddy!

 

[Brooks]

Seems we do this thread about once a year, ha. That's ok.

So again I will post this pic of 80s Pantera in the DFW clubs. They had a wall of Randalls (Darrell was endorsed from winning local guitar contests), 2 or 3 stacks on each side. It was impressive to see when you walked into a club, none of the other local bands had a uniform backline. One head on each side was real, 2 top 4x12s on Darrells side were real, and one bottom cab on Rex's side (1x18) was real, the rest fake. From what I remember, the backs came off the fake cabs and you could store stuff inside. Look close at the speaker cones on the upper and lower cabs, you can kinda tell;

 

[Henry Terry]

Cream in 68 is probably another story...

Cream in 1968 WAS another story. I saw Cream on their "Farewell Tour" in November, 1968. All of the heads and all of the cabinets on stage were in use.

 

[Dashface]

Yeah in the good old days of bad PA this was necessary. Now it's pretty much just show.

In my Floyd act I've trimmed down to using two Hiwatts, and even then they could obviously kill everyone in the theatre if I turned them up. If I want to be in the PA at all I have to keep the volumes down below 2 on the knob.

But I understand the look. We've played a couple of hometown shows at a theatre in town with a really wide stage where I've brought a few more Hiwatts out and even a third bass rig (we already have to have two on stage) just to fill the stage up... And our drummer has the Nick Mason approved double-kick setup even though the second is almost never used

I guess what I'm saying is rock and roll has always been about the visual show too. So why not?

 

[teemuk]

In 1968 state-of-the-art PA was a 100W amp and a bunch of column speakers.

On a stadium one could daisy chain 10 such amps and produce impressive power rating of 1000 watts. (Lesser venues naturally couldn't afford such thing). Speakers placed round the venue would have phase delays so it was better to place them only on the stage and pray that even tiny percentage of audience was covered by uniform sound beam. Those in front would hear loud ice-pick treble and those off axis the lowest frequencies.

Oh, and concept of "stage-monitoring" (so that artists could actually hear themselves on the stage despite their amps deafening the audience) was invented that year and no one had yet even discovered benefits of "front-of-the-house mixing". (That would happen in 1969).

A mixing deck?..... what's that? Perhaps someone will build one on custom basis and besides there are volume knobs in all four channels of the PA head. Master volume? Never heard of such feature. And so on...

 

[suparsonic]

I think generally they are daisy chained, though it wouldnt surprise me if some used splitters. yngwie still tours with something like 30 "marshalls" which is actually 5-6 stacks and a bunch of decoys, but that is still a lot of amps and really loud! Brian May's setup is similar with 30 AC-30s. if i remember right, brian may had a wet/dry/wet setup with 4 dry AC30s and 2 wet AC30s

BM runs 3, Left FX, centre dry and Right FX. Same as stage monitors, side fill left right and centre.

 

[MantraSky]

Some years ago I remember "Dio" with Doug Aldrich, on stage (Odeon Concert club) he had Three-Full Stacks of Marshall's but none of them were turned on, also no microphones on the cabs.
Back stage there was three half-stack of Marshall's, modified by Cameron & Suhr (later stated in PG, GP, GW) Dio loves the Marshall stack image (possibly onstage volume, though the mains were loud) Great show................

 

[Brooks]

In 1968 state-of-the-art PA was a 100W amp and a bunch of column speakers.

On a stadium one could daisy chain 10 such amps and produce impressive power rating of 1000 watts. (Lesser venues naturally couldn't afford such thing). Speakers placed round the venue would have phase delays so it was better to place them only on the stage and pray that even tiny percentage of audience was covered by uniform sound beam. Those in front would hear loud ice-pick treble and those off axis the lowest frequencies.

Oh, and concept of "stage-monitoring" (so that artists could actually hear themselves on the stage despite their amps deafening the audience) was invented that year and no one had yet even discovered benefits of "front-of-the-house mixing". (That would happen in 1969).

A mixing deck?..... what's that? Perhaps someone will build one on custom basis and besides there are volume knobs in all four channels of the PA head. Master volume? Never heard of such feature. And so on...

This is interesting, a history of the Who and their sound systems;

PA and Foldback Introduction | The Who Equipment | The Who’s PA & Foldback | Whotabs

www.thewho.net

 

[Sustainium]

That's even more stupid than I thought.

It’s all smoke and mirrors, first big lie you find out no santa downhill from there.

 

[Finger Blister]

 

[andrus108]

I can confirm that Green Day use (or at least that's how it was 3-4 years ago) stacks of empty cabs, both guitar and bass. For guitar there was a rack and a small cab behind the fake cab wall; don't know what the real bass setup was, but I clearly remember one of the fake cabs had a mic attached, and then the other end was just stuffed into a hole on the back.

 

[Hulakatt]

I played a gig with the band Jucifer. They tour in an RV, and they had cabs all the way across the stage from floor to ceiling. I recall a rack of power amps or something behind the wall. The other guitarist and I had one full stack each, but these guys were LOUD!

edit:
Here’s a pic of their backline

That drum kit! I just... I can't even! A friggin concert bass drum for the bass drum and a regular kit bd for a floor tom?! Is he using a marching snare for his snare?

 

[Echoplexi]

That drum kit! I just... I can't even! A friggin concert bass drum for the bass drum and a regular kit bd for a floor tom?! Is he using a marching snare for his snare?

I don’t remember what he was using for a snare, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a piccolo!

 

[Hulakatt]

I don’t remember what he was using for a snare, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a piccolo!

He looks like Booboo bear playing a regular drum kit. He just needs the bow tie.

 

[fenderjapan]

When I saw Yngwie a few years ago, the left side of his Marshall wall was largely empty chassis/cabs. Some pilot lights for show. On the far right, a couple stacks jumped together, running full bore, and mic'd.

 

[KiddBilly]

Hendrix is one of the few people who when you actually saw him playing through a wall of Marshalls, you knew ALL of them were on. He always used three stacks daisy chained together live

 

[RicOkc]

Blue Cheer

 

[twotone]

Those in front would hear loud ice-pick treble

...and suffer from hearing loss.