Plexiglass shields

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ctoddrun

ctoddrun

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I've seen a lot of drummers isolate themselves with those plexi-shields.

I seem to recall a guitarist using them, but who/when escapes me.


Does anyone have any experience with using them?

I'm thinking if they work, I could get some actual power tube tone out of my rig. I swear, I never get it past 9-9:30 before its "too loud".


I guess I could always do that Lynch trick of facing the cabinet towards the wall and then proceed to peel the paint off of it?
 
If you're miking and you have a good PA, just turn your cabs away from the audience. :rock: :rock:
 
I could build a plexi shield for about 50 bucks.


I've had Hot Plates in the past (two different occasions) and dont really dig their effect.
 
ctoddrun":fgzwr1s0 said:
I could build a plexi shield for about 50 bucks.


I've had Hot Plates in the past (two different occasions) and dont really dig their effect.
Click to expand...

For the record, I don't like the tone of hot plates either. No matter how hard you run your amp, your speaker still needs to travel to sound right.

Blocking it with a shield seems like a logical solution to battle the beam that blasts the front row of people.
 
Its Joe Bonamassa who always uses a plexi shield infront of his cabs :) He swears by that method and says it makes a huge difference for him when playing live!
 
My Hotplate seems to be OK up to -8, I do not like it at -12 or higher.
I use a 2x12 cab with different spaekers than my 4x12 for lower stage volume situations. Maybe Beam Blockers would work? As far as drum shields go, we ran the full gauntlet because no one would listen to reason... We contracted a place to resolve some stage sound issues, and right off the bat they said Rolands were what we really needed for this location. So of course the management bought drum shields, then taller drum shields, then built an insulated half wall, then a full "drum house"......1-1/2 years later, we got Roland drums..... :lol: :LOL: ....just like they predicted we would do!
Good luck with the shields, at least as far as drums and cymbals their effectiveness is minimal. I don't know what the venue is like where you are having problems, but a lot of sound is also transmitted through and under the stage and shields will not help that at all. The best way to deal with stage volume issues is to reduce it.
If you have an open back stage, then turning the cabs around can work. If you are close to a wall or solid barrier it is just going to reflect back mud anyway.
 
The brother of SRV also did that when I saw him somewhere in the late-middle of the last century :D
 
Plexi shield is a good concept, but since it reflects like a mofo I'd go with some carpeted surface, and make sure it isn't paralell to the cabs.

But what amps are we talking here? I can gig with a 100 watt Marshall without worrying about that...
And for home, well it has to have a Hot Plate.
 
Its a Diezel Herbert.

I've yet to crank it past 11 o'clock, and that was without the band.


I really wish it was a smaller wattage amp (30-or so) so I could let it cook.


As it stands, its quite loud and overpowers the stage volume if I get anywhere near that loud.




My friend up there mentioned it was Joe Bonamassa who had the shield and that is where I read it. Joe talks about a shield that is four part and makes a "M" shape (to combat the reflection issue you mention, Ed), but the carpet does seem like a good idea as well.

How would you gig the 180 watts? I'm totally up for suggestion.

I havent tried the Hot Plate on this amp, but it always feels like a blanket over my cab when I've tried it before. Sort of like wearing ear plugs... all the tone (highs/mids) is gone.


I know you work for THD and probably wont/cant talk about other products, but maybe there are other attenuators that will keep those high frequencies that I seem to miss with the Hot Plate?
 
Faustine is doing one through Tone Merchants that is suppose to be transparent.
 
When I saw KWS he used a plexi glass shield in front of his to Fender Twins, it worked well.
 
I definitely wouldn't use a hotplate with a 180 watt amp. The hotplate maxes out at 150-175 watts I think (Ed knows for sure) and that's probably peaks not average power. That herbert will produce peaks well above 180 watts which could be why the Hotplate is not sounding so hot.....hot, ha I made a funny.
 
If Mr. Diezel designed a 180W amp was to prevent people like us from getting too much power amp distortion. Turning up the volume won't get you better tone from that amp. If anything, it will sound mushy and loose. Adjust the volume to play with your band, and enjoy your way-overpowered amp.

The insane-volume-equals-better-tone myth needs to go. At least for modern amps.
 
I've used them, but not in the M configuration you spoke of. Had 3 pcs in front of the amp, I did have some reflection issues when recording with them, more so when using them on drums, maybe the M conf. is a better choice, never tried that
 
ctoddrun":2xu2ubji said:
Its a Diezel Herbert.

I've yet to crank it past 11 o'clock, and that was without the band.


I really wish it was a smaller wattage amp (30-or so) so I could let it cook.


As it stands, its quite loud and overpowers the stage volume if I get anywhere near that loud.




My friend up there mentioned it was Joe Bonamassa who had the shield and that is where I read it. Joe talks about a shield that is four part and makes a "M" shape (to combat the reflection issue you mention, Ed), but the carpet does seem like a good idea as well.

How would you gig the 180 watts? I'm totally up for suggestion.

I havent tried the Hot Plate on this amp, but it always feels like a blanket over my cab when I've tried it before. Sort of like wearing ear plugs... all the tone (highs/mids) is gone.


I know you work for THD and probably wont/cant talk about other products, but maybe there are other attenuators that will keep those high frequencies that I seem to miss with the Hot Plate?
Click to expand...

I thought the whole point of a 180 watt power section was just to amplify the preamp, not to get the power tubes to cook/overdrive/clip. If you want more poweramp in your sound, you might want to get another amp...

Wouldn't power tube distortion really muddy up the Herbert's preamp based tone and/or make it messy sounding?
 
manyaxes":2lx7nltq said:
If Mr. Diezel designed a 180W amp was to prevent people like us from getting too much power amp distortion. Turning up the volume won't get you better tone from that amp. If anything, it will sound mushy and loose. Adjust the volume to play with your band, and enjoy your way-overpowered amp.

The insane-volume-equals-better-tone myth needs to go. At least for modern amps.
Click to expand...




Good point.

I think I'll cross post this over to the Diezel forum and see if this was the thinking behind that much power.
 
their is a local guy that used to play around here.

he got 6 inch foam cut a hole threw for a mic, and mounted it to the front of his 4 x 12, worked great.

kinda looked funny tho!
 
For years, I used an empty, rectangular guitar case. Opened up, stand it on it's end- and placed in front of a roaring 4x12 cab. Worked great in small bars...not only did it stop the pinpoint foward blast, but helped to disperse the sound out the sides.

Downside was it looked hillbilly as hell, I often pondered the more pro looking plexiglass aproach, but never tried it.
 
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