Members Flogger59 Posted March 2, 2009 Members Share Posted March 2, 2009 That's exactly my point.Tho I'm pretty sure i read that Marshall was cheaper than the other amps (Fender and Vox etc) at the time. I may be mistaken, they might just have been cheap for the stars as an endorsement deal. Marshalls were (and are) cheaper than Fenders IN BRITAIN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alex_SF Posted March 2, 2009 Members Share Posted March 2, 2009 As stated before, dummy cabs have been a part of rock-and-roll showbiz presentation for a long, long time now. Check out Rick Nielsen's "Checkerboard Wall" of Gibson Goldtone heads & 2x12 cabs -- they all are packed inside a huge wheeled road case. Look closely: only the center cab has speakers in it, and the other cabs have had white lights installed in place of their speakers. The lights are turned on for a "wall of light" effect during parts of the show. Showbiz, baby, showbiz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stevie j Posted March 2, 2009 Members Share Posted March 2, 2009 Marshalls were (and are) cheaper than Fenders IN BRITAIN. That's where I got it. I'm from Northern Ireland, so I'm not too sure about US prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zeromus-X Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 I think one of my favorite backlines was Norma Jean on Ozz-Fest in 2006: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 A lot of bands use different amps in the studio than live. Yup. Jimmy Page as far as I know never recorded with his Marshall's; in fact for years he rarely if ever recorded with his Les Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lonotes Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 Yup. Jimmy Page as far as I know never recorded with his Marshall's; in fact for years he rarely if ever recorded with his Les Paul. The first time that I went to the R&R Hall of Fame, they had a display kiosk that contained, among other things (Steven Tyler's mic stand and Duane Allman's Les Paul, and some smaller stuff that I can't recall), the Supro combo 1x12 amp that Page used to record the first two Zep albums. The next kiosk over had two HiWatt stacks used by the Who on one of their US tours. There was also a little placard in the kiosk that stated that each stack was one quarter of the rig that Townsend and Entwhistle used. The difference was quite impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Scafeets Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 I think he did it for the advertising consideration from Dr Z amps. I seriously doubt that any more than two or three of them are even functional. That many tube amps in a roadshow would be a maintenance nightmare. Not to mention the unnecessary weight from all of those iron transformers involved. One of the guitar mags recently did a story on Paisley's setup. Not only is the Wall of Dr. Zs a prop, he actually uses a Trainwreck as his main rig with a couple of modified Dr. Z heads as backup. This is nothing new.... Back in the 70s, my band was sponsored by an amp mfr. and we sported a row of refrigerator-sized cabs across the back line. We used some of the sponsored speakers as bass cabs and some as PA fill, but hidden behind the stack, I used a mic'd Super Reverb set to about 8. The bass player had a factory-modded Ampeg V4 hidden back there, hooked up to two 4X10 cabs in the stack row, then mic'd. The row of sponsored amp heads powered the PA monitors and stage fills. Plenty of players back in the Wall of Stacks era used hidden combos. Those stacks were often used to compensate for the crappy PA setups we encountered on almost every gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fling the poo Posted March 5, 2009 Members Share Posted March 5, 2009 back to the original pos about kiss... not only were the marshalls fake. but they used fender twins out of view for their onstage amps. same dude who told me did sound for cheap trick and the ramones. i worked with him doing sound for years he told me all kinds of wierd tales of rock excess look in L.A. craigslist and even ebay you find empty marshalls and other companies a lot worked a slayer/marylin manson show last year. those upside down cross marshalls are DEFINITELY empty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members offramp Posted March 5, 2009 Members Share Posted March 5, 2009 Since Geddy goes direct anymore, and Alex still uses amps, they started putting things on the other side, for visual balance. I did several shows on VH's 'Carnal Knowledge' tour. My first night out, I discovered just how many of those 5150 heads and cabs were empty. Out of that entire wall, only the middle three are hot; the center one is dry signal, and the other two are effects. My first night out, Matty handed me a pile of 1/4' guitar cables about 2' long, and told me to 'build the wall'. I plugged each cable in, then tucked it in between the head and top cabinet, letting it dangle behind the cabinet. The heads had AC cables, but only to light the jewel lights. Oh, and I was instructed to 'turn every knob up to 10', "because," Matty said, "I guaran-damn-tee you there's a whole slew of idiots out there with binoculars checking out that little detail." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lonotes Posted March 5, 2009 Members Share Posted March 5, 2009 Oh, and I was instructed to 'turn every knob up to 10', "because," Matty said, "I guaran-damn-tee you there's a whole slew of idiots out there with binoculars checking out that little detail." But these go to eleven... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nobody Told Me Posted March 6, 2009 Members Share Posted March 6, 2009 But these go to eleven... 2009 Tap News Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members surferbeto Posted March 10, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 10, 2009 YES! So Rush really is the coolest band ever. I'm so glad to hear that. My faith is restored. I'll bet chicken tastes better when it's bombarded with maximum high volume rock n roll while grilling. I remember reading that the chickens are real and are used to feed the band and crew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stella Joop Posted April 15, 2009 Members Share Posted April 15, 2009 I'd put any one of those combo amps up against any amp out there. tall drum riser is tall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nijyo Posted April 15, 2009 Members Share Posted April 15, 2009 tall drum riser is tall Yeh. Hope the drums don't creep too far on that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted April 15, 2009 Moderators Share Posted April 15, 2009 This thread rememded me that at my show on Sunday I put my DRRI on top of the headlining band's Bassman cab- just to it off the ground- didn't even plug it in. Boy, did it look cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nijyo Posted April 15, 2009 Members Share Posted April 15, 2009 This thread rememded me that at my show on Sunday I put my DRRI on top of the headlining band's Bassman cab- just to it off the ground- didn't even plug it in. Boy, did it look cool! A "Fraud Stack"?????? Such deception! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Super Bass Posted April 15, 2009 Members Share Posted April 15, 2009 As stated before, dummy cabs have been a part of rock-and-roll showbiz presentation for a long, long time now. Check out Rick Nielsen's "Checkerboard Wall" of Gibson Goldtone heads & 2x12 cabs -- they all are packed inside a huge wheeled road case. Look closely: only the center cab has speakers in it, and the other cabs have had white lights installed in place of their speakers. The lights are turned on for a "wall of light" effect during parts of the show. Showbiz, baby, showbiz. Damn good idea though. I'll have to remember this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GOSG Posted April 16, 2009 Members Share Posted April 16, 2009 Apparently KISS used to (still does?) play in front of a wall of empty, fake Marshall cabinets. To look cool. I guess I knew they were doing that in their stadium rock days, but apparently they were doing it back in their early bar days too. I know they've made a million times more money in rock n roll than I ever will, but that still seems awfully lame to me. What do you think?I recently saw a Youtube video of Detroit Rock City that reminded me of part of their schtick from back in the day. At the end of the song there's a fake car crash sound and the wall of fake Marshalls have a fake explosion where the faceplates pop off and various gizmos dangle down. It was kind of funny, but looked really lame. Would you ever do that? It happens more than many would think...back in the 80's I did local (IATSE) stagehand work when I wasn't on the road. Van Halen had 12 cabinets with 12x12" speakers in each cabinet onstage...three of them were plugged in...I don't remember the specific details of a Motley Crue show, but there were also many "dummy" cabinets onstage...some with lighting fixtures instead of speakers. More instrument speakers onstage does not always translate into good quality sound for the audience...and isn't that who the show is for...? I've seen guitar rigs placed: Under the stage, In dressing rooms, Inside isolation boxes and turned upstage to get stage SPL to a manageable level for the audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zekmoe Posted April 16, 2009 Members Share Posted April 16, 2009 It's a rock show, not a music performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members V-man Posted April 16, 2009 Members Share Posted April 16, 2009 I've seen Kiss roadies toss them bucket brigade style during load out, and I think that they admitted to it a long time ago. Seems to me that Marshall made empty cabs for them. Hey, it's a backdrop, and Kiss is musical theater, like Alice Cooper, who had more in common with Broadway, than rock and roll. This. Critiquing Kiss for their showy antics is as lame as critiquing "soulfull" bluesmen for their lack of energy by just "standing/sitting" there. That's part of the schtick and obviously it was part of a successful format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nijyo Posted April 16, 2009 Members Share Posted April 16, 2009 It's a rock show, not a music performance. A rock show is very much musical theater. Theatricality, even on a small scale, is what separates the 1,000,000 bar bands from the 12 you remember a year later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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