Grateful Dead Music Forum

Well, maybe a 5watt class A amp. I have a 12 Watt Tweed Deluxe/Princeton amp I built with a D120 and powered by a pair of 6V6's. I can fill a bar with that amp. I would never ever aim that amp at my head, ever. But my little 5-watt Champ with a small speaker, I guess that little one is less brutal, but it's still amazing how powerful and "coherent" (see laser and coherence) the beam is, even from a little amp and speaker. While far less injurious, I still never aim the beam at my head. And not only for the health factor, but listening to any speaker from directly in the beam is a very unbalanced perspective of what the speaker really sounds like. In the studio or on stage, an engineer will rarely mic from in the beam, but usually just off to the side of the beam. Even Healy, from what I could tell, would keep the mic's capsule just outside of the beam, maybe looking toward the center, but not actually IN the center. It's very interesting to move a mic around a speaker while listening thru headphones. You can hear as the mic passes thru the beam (of any speaker) that suddenly the proportion of treble to the rest of the sound becomes orders of magnitude higher than even just 5 degrees off center. I think what happens when aiming the beam at the head is that our ear still wants to hear the warmth and body of the tone, so we'll still crank until we get enough of that. If you're in the beam, then you've got SO much beam by the time you also have enough tone fullness. The ear will tune out the treble and basically numb to it within minutes. Then we play a whole show like that and wonder why we can't hear shit after the show and why it's hard to hear what people are saying and have to learn to lip read when in a crowd.

Then, of course, there's earplugs.


Brad

SarnoMusicSolutions wrote:I don't think any guitar speaker cone should ever, ever point at a human's head. Brad

I totally agree and retract that part of my suggestion. I was thinking like a bass player. I sure as hell don't stand directly on axis to Mike's speakers, ever!

Thank you! I'll never do it again. Although the drummer said it was at my shoulders/neck that's still too close for comfort.

FretWilkes wrote:

playingdead wrote:If it's not miked, there isn't much you can do to improve hearing yourself, especially if you are using JBL E120s, because they just project everything right past you like a death ray. Even if you crank it up, you still can't hear it that well, although you will deafen yourself and everyone else.

LOL. How true. Back in 1979-1980 I had a JG style cabinet with 2 E120s powered by a Crown DC150 strapped mono, IVP Preamp and Furman Reverb. We were playing in a pretty good size joint and my cab was aimed diagonally across the room and right at a guy at the corner of the bar. The sound level was just about right for me on the stage, but I remember hitting a high note and see his eyes turn to "X"s like in the cartoons! He came up to me on the break and said something to the effect of "My God man you play loud". LASER BEAM/DEATH RAY indeed. After about 10-15 feet that unit REALLY opened up.

Its true for all speakers, but I think the JBLS really take it to the nth degree, You are absolutely right about them opening up about 15 feet from source. Just this past weekend with playing with another band who played the same material, (and some rigs were shared) I got to see first hand how different 2 e120's sounded 40 feet from the stage dead center than they did when I was about 10 feet diagonally on the side of them. On stage, off center they almost seemed muffled and buried, but right in line with them 40 feet out front they were clear and over the top of everything.

Also, Brad is right about the possible hearing damage. It is very scary and seldom thought about. I have been physically knocked off balance by the beam of an E120 aimed at my head and piercing my ear drum. So much behind it, it messed my equilibrium.

strumminsix wrote:Even at lower volumes, Brad? I know most of the guys in this thread are pushing 2 JBL E120s with 200W amps.
My example was 1 10" speaker being pushed by a 15W amp with lots of clean headroom left on the dial.

I now largely use a Blues Junior (15W) with a Cannabis Rex. At my regular gig I put a plexiglas shield in front of it to stop the beam from nailing patrons. The stage is elevated in this room and it's a concert environment, so everyone is sitting. The cone would be right in someones face. I put it on a box like stand about 10 inches high and while standing I hear it just fine coming over the plexi, but for the audience the entire front of the amp is blocked. It's also miked through the PA.

You can see in this pic. It's not on the box here, but rather kicked back a tad on a 2x4. You can't see the shield (cool), but it's directly in front of the amp.

Here's one approach:


http://www.webervst.com/blocker.html


Although, I never wanted to use one because it seems that you'd mess with the sound by deflecting, diffusing, and reshaping the speaker's response with that thing. And it would totally kill the cool look of a JBL! I'm more interested in absorbing the the beam or maybe with plexiglass at an angle, reflecting it to the ceiling or something. I mostly aim the speaker at my back so my body is what absorbs it and protects the audience from the beam.



Brad

FretWilkes wrote:

strumminsix wrote:Even at lower volumes, Brad? I know most of the guys in this thread are pushing 2 JBL E120s with 200W amps.
My example was 1 10" speaker being pushed by a 15W amp with lots of clean headroom left on the dial.

I now largely use a Blues Junior (15W) with a Cannabis Rex. At my regular gig I put a plexiglas shield in front of it to stop the beam from nailing patrons. The stage is elevated in this room and it's a concert environment, so everyone is sitting. The cone would be right in someones face. I put it on a box like stand about 10 inches high and while standing I hear it just fine coming over the plexi, but for the audience the entire front of the amp is blocked. It's also miked through the PA.

You can see in this pic. It's not on the box here, but rather kicked back a tad on a 2x4. You can't see the shield (cool), but it's directly in front of the amp.

What kind of Tele is that?

strumminsix wrote:What kind of Tele is that?

Ah..you noticed! lol

That was actually a VERY nice 50th Anniversary American Deluxe Strat that I set up for a buddy. He asked me to play it at a gig so he could hear it. I honestly didn't expect much, but I fell in love with it IMMEDIATELY! Nice, nice guitar. It was back in his hands that night though and I'm back to my 52RI...as it should be.

I did however just aquire a natural Strat, RW board, tortoise guard, 57/62s. You've got to have a Strat around for "those tunes".

Thats a cool pic Fred Dude

FretWilkes wrote:

strumminsix wrote:What kind of Tele is that?

Ah..you noticed! lol

That was actually a VERY nice 50th Anniversary American Deluxe Strat that I set up for a buddy. He asked me to play it at a gig so he could hear it. I honestly didn't expect much, but I fell in love with it IMMEDIATELY! Nice, nice guitar. It was back in his hands that night though and I'm back to my 52RI...as it should be.

I did however just aquire a natural Strat, RW board, tortoise guard, 57/62s. You've got to have a Strat around for "those tunes".

It's a very pretty guitar. How hard was it to hand back?

Somewhere I turned into a Tele Man. It was very odd to realize it is my 100% goto guitar as of recently.

Here is a pic from last Saturday (my birthday):


To note: 09 Am Std Tele (cupless and Grolsh strap locks) + 93 Pro Jr (USA) + Eleven Rack w/digi feed to FOH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROCK STAR
Nice balloon ! The Tele looks good too......
Happy B-day Strum .....

strumminsix wrote:It's a very pretty guitar. How hard was it to hand back?

Somewhere I turned into a Tele Man. It was very odd to realize it is my 100% goto guitar as of recently.

Here is a pic from last Saturday (my birthday):


To note: 09 Am Std Tele (cupless and Grolsh strap locks) + 93 Pro Jr (USA) + Eleven Rack w/digi feed to FOH

VERY hard to give back. Let's just say I was pining for it for sometime....it was haunting me. I just scratched the itch with this new Strat and that pic was taken in April of last year.

The Grolsh strap lock! A Tim Armstrong favorite (TDPRI-mod). I had an AMSTD that looked just like yours. I ended up putting a 52RI black guard on it and ooh it looked so nice. I had to sell it in a pinch and it is now in a long list of "I wish I didn't have to sell that" guitars.

I just LOVE my 52RI Tele.

Happy Birthday to you...I just turned 53 this past Saturday. You look in much better condition than me

FretWilkes wrote:

strumminsix wrote:It's a very pretty guitar. How hard was it to hand back?

Somewhere I turned into a Tele Man. It was very odd to realize it is my 100% goto guitar as of recently.

Here is a pic from last Saturday (my birthday):


To note: 09 Am Std Tele (cupless and Grolsh strap locks) + 93 Pro Jr (USA) + Eleven Rack w/digi feed to FOH

VERY hard to give back. Let's just say I was pining for it for sometime....it was haunting me. I just scratched the itch with this new Strat and that pic was taken in April of last year.

The Grolsh strat lock! A Tim Armstrong favorite (TDPRI-mod). I had an AMSTD that looked just like yours. I ended up putting a 52RI black guard on it and ooh it looked so nice. I had to sell it in a pinch and it is now in a long list of "I wish I didn't have to sell that" guitars.

I just LOVE my 52RI Tele.

Happy Birthday to you...I just turned 53 this past Saturday. You look in much better condition than me

Mighta been Tim - I got the idea on TDPRI! What a sweet deal that was! 4 great beers later and I earn a pair of strap locks that work great!

I'm getting ready to get onto a massive selling spree so I have cash on hand for other gear that has caught my eye and some room in my tiny basement.

And happy birthday back to you! I'm just a mirror image of you, dude, 35 as of Last Saturday!!!

strumminsix wrote:I'm just a mirror image of you, dude, 35 as of Last Saturday!!!

No kidding! We have the same birthday ... I'm 53 your 35...cool.

You don't want to look into the mirror and see me staring back at you ... believe me. I feel like this everytime I have to deal with a mirror:


Seriously...all the best to and may you gig for many, many years to come!

Ask your drummer or drummers not to hit so hard, and also ask the keyboardist not to use all ten fingers at once on the keyboard...that should leave some room for your guitar...
oh and good luck.