Hauling equipment!! yeash its a pain

[slowfinger]

Slight tangent here:

 

I went window shopping last Saturday - tried a few 410 cabs, and liked a couple. However, the things weigh nearly 100lbs, so can someone describe how one person (for example, a 62 yr old bloke) actually gets one of these things into the back of his Subaru Outback (or similar modest wagon). I imagine that there is a technique that works without popping a hernia, but it has not revealed itself to me yet.

 

Any advice? Hints?

 

Looking at a 210 as a compromise - not much lighter by easier to manhandle. I would hire a 410 as needed.

[slowfinger]

Originally posted by Luke73:

that have learnt how to get the guitarist to turn down

I'm still working on that one...

When you figure that out Luke, would you mind giving us a hand with our git hero? (even tho he's a lovely bloke)

[Bottomgottem]

thanny XIII:

dnkritr. Buy a 64 mustang with an eight cyl engine. ad hitch. it is neither cheap nor fuel effeciant but it is friggin' cool.

It's a '64 1/2 Mustang. There was no '64 Mustang. And putting a hitch on it would cause much more of a stir than putting a sticker on a '62 Jazz.

[alexclaber]

Originally posted by dnkritr:

By show, I mean big looking equipment.

I have enough big looking equipment without carting an 8x10" to gigs.

 

Originally posted by dnkritr:

Alex, since when did one way become better than another. Im happy you play soft, I dont like it.

Well for starters, I don't play soft. But I do play with dynamics and that means only the loudest bits of the music are seriously loud. For rehearsals 1kW into a 2x10" suffices, for gigs 2kW into 4x10" worth of speakers. And I do bounce off the limiters on the loudest parts. Is that soft?

 

Originally posted by dnkritr:

Some people use coffee as a natural laxative, I use very loud bass frequencies.

Wow, so cool.

 

Originally posted by dnkritr:

I dont think people hear only with there ears, and also, if you can get an experiment going, go to a dance club and turn down the music it becomes a sitting club most often. I like people to sweat and move when I play. It also helps if they are on copious amounts of drugs, but thats an unfair jumpstart.

You see, we're not talking about the difference between a coffee house trio and a metal band, we're talking about the difference between a rock band that can play loud and quiet and a rock band that just plays mindlessly loud because it doesn't know how to do anything else. If you think it takes 130dB+ for people to feel the bass then you're sorely mistaken. 110dB is plenty loud enough to rock hard - and when you do punch up another 10dB for the climax of the song it actually sounds louder rather than slamming up against the limits of your audience's hearing.

 

Originally posted by dnkritr:

As for the IHC and OHC of my cochlea are protected by gun range ear muffs or sonically balanced ear plugs. I can still hear from about 25 hz to 21,000 and I play loud all the time..

Gun range ear muffs? That must sound clear... I'm glad you're protecting your ears - but remember that others may read your words extolling the virtues of really high stage volumes and miss the parts about hearing protection. Do you want to be responsible for the consequences?

 

Originally posted by dnkritr:

You are sounding like an old man, turn that down, you dont need it to be so loud

I'd rather be one of them than a "what, huh?, why do young people always mumble..."

 

Alex

[jcadmus]

Best thing for hauling my gear around is the 1994 Dodge Caravan I relegated to my kids last year.

 

I have the third seat pulled out, so getting my cabs and stuff in and out is super easy, with room to spare.

 

If I pulled the second seat as well, I could easily fit a small band's worth of gear in there.

 

At 169,000 miles, it's still going strong, it's been paid off for about 10 years now, and it gets about 24 mpg highway, 21 mpg city.

[Tom Capasso]

Originally posted by C. Alexander Claber:

I'd rather be one of them than a "what, huh?, why do young people always mumble..."

Based on observed genetics, this is going to happen to me anyway

 

Slowfinger - there are many tricks to getting a heavy cab in and out of your car (wheels, ramp, etc.). None of them help you when you get to the gig and you have some wacky staircase to negotiate. My best advice it to buy small enough that you can do whatever you need to do on your own (even if it takes multiple trips). My next best advice it to follow the old adage "many hands makes light work" - whether you hire a roadie or get your kids to help or your bandmates.

 

The argument about having the right appearance is silly. Make amps out of refrigerator boxes (you must know someone in the art dept. at school who can spell "Ampeg"). If you want to put on a show, you need props.

 

Tom

[Thomas Wilburn]

Originally posted by Tom Capasso:

Make amps out of refrigerator boxes (you must know someone in the art dept. at school who can spell "Ampeg"). If you want to put on a show, you need props.

I am so tempted to do this even though I play quite softly at coffee-house style gigs. I can just imagine having these huge, cartoon-looking fake cabinets behind me--maybe even lit from inside. Like GWAR or Lordi, but for my equipment.

[alexclaber]

Originally posted by slowfinger:

Slight tangent here:

 

I went window shopping last Saturday - tried a few 410 cabs, and liked a couple. However, the things weigh nearly 100lbs, so can someone describe how one person (for example, a 62 yr old bloke) actually gets one of these things into the back of his Subaru Outback (or similar modest wagon). I imagine that there is a technique that works without popping a hernia, but it has not revealed itself to me yet.

 

Any advice? Hints?

 

Looking at a 210 as a compromise - not much lighter by easier to manhandle. I would hire a 410 as needed.

Cretinous bloody website just vanished my response... Anyway, I was just saying that 4x10" cabs are not easy to move on your own, though smaller, shallower, and (obviously) lighter ones, with better positioned handles and centres of gravity, are more manageable.

 

A pair of 2x10" cabs, a 2x10" and 1x12" or a 2x10" and 1x15" is a much more portable and versatile solution, with just as good, if not better sound, as most 2x10" cabs have more volume per driver than most 4x10"s, which equals more bottom.

 

And finally, carting heavy gear is just about technique as it is about strength. Keep your spine straight, your shoulders back, your core rigid and use the power in your legs to do the lifting. Get it right and everything seems much easier to move - get it wrong and you could be looking at strained backs, hernias, and all that nastiness.

 

Alex

[The Bear Jew]

IMO, it's fine if you wanna have a certain "look" for your band/gear onstage--big amps DO look cool. Kiss has a prefab "wall of amps" as a backdrop. It looks like cabinets and heads, but it's really all a prop... for show.

 

Granted, not everyone can do such things, but anyone can cart around a big amp if they are resourceful--and every closet is a walk-in closet if you try hard enough.

 

But if you do have a big rig, don't complain about having to lug it around.

 

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, and all that.

 

Personally, yeah, I have a biggish rig, and I like it... and I don't whine about having to carry it.

[way2fat]

Originally posted by slowfinger:

Slight tangent here:

 

I went window shopping last Saturday - tried a few 410 cabs, and liked a couple. However, the things weigh nearly 100lbs, so can someone describe how one person (for example, a 62 yr old bloke) actually gets one of these things into the back of his Subaru Outback (or similar modest wagon). I imagine that there is a technique that works without popping a hernia, but it has not revealed itself to me yet.

 

Any advice? Hints?

 

Looking at a 210 as a compromise - not much lighter by easier to manhandle. I would hire a 410 as needed.

I have a 2x12 that weighs in at 69 lbs. and feels like 50 lbs. because of the balance, which my 52 year old carcass appreciates. It will keep up, and more, with any 4x10.

[jeremy c]

As far as props and a stage show go,

one of my dreams is to do a show with small amps...Fender Champ for the guitar, 2x12 Bassman for the bass and so forth.

 

But behind a curtain would be a wall of Marshalls.

 

People would wonder how we got such a big sound out of little amps.

[...]

I still like Geddy's backline of a coin operated washer and dryer. Adding the vending machine was a brilliant way to even out the 'stage ballast' against Alex's wall of H&K amps/cabs.