amp isolation boxes

[Kris]

Hi all,

A client of mine is pursuing a "silent stage" policy, as best as is possible with an acoustic drum kit anyway... but all singers and band members are migrating to In Ear monitor systems and all guitarists will be placing their amps in iso boxes like the one pictured below.

My question is... an associate of my client has said that the amps will blow their speakers if put in these boxes because the air moved by the speaker will have nowhere to escape and will therefore be pushed back into the speaker cone, thereby blowing the speaker. Please tell me this is crap because it really does sound ridiculous to me, but wanted to double check the turtlerock brains trust before I went back and confirmed the statement was smelly.

Thanks in advance.

Kris.

[TimS]

From experience, I've not seen any probs with iso cabs...
There are a few companies (US based) who specialise in making iso cabs for players.. so there cant be too many issues..

TimS..

[rick]

i know a guy who used to use his garage as a studio and his ek family transit holden station wagon as the isolation box for his amps so he didnt disturb his neighbours late at night
he put two amps in the back and two amps in the front with the window and vents all taped up , it worked great untill he did a extra long and loud session and the 60s fender deluxe inside the wagon got so hot the vinyl seats in the ek holden caught alight
which as you can imagine caused mayhem for twenty minutes untill he could get his garden hose into the "studio"

words of advise from him is if your going to hose down a ek holden wagon that is on fire in your garage with you four best guitar amps in side its best to cut the power to the amps off first because when the amps got wet he tripped the safety fuse on the house which turned off his wifes clock radio which woke her up , which lead to her investigating the "funny smell " in the garage .
and now my mate doesnt have his family isolation ek wagon or his studio in the garage
her new holden astra looks nice in there though :)

[Ausrock]

While I find Rick's story to be a little more than humourous it doesn't really tell us what his thoughts are on the iso box question ;-)

Personally, I know any number of guitarists who would not be too pleased if they couldn't hear their amp "direct" and had to rely on in ear monitoring..............then again, I may hang with the wrong people.

[JulienG]

While I find Rick's story to be a little more than humourous it doesn't really tell us what his thoughts are on the iso box question ;-)

Well, Rick is clearly aiming the Zen party nomination at the Fedral election ;-)

[Kris]

Believe me, this is not a popular decision, but one that has been made and is being carried out nonetheless. I'm just supplying the boxes.

[rick]

oh yeah the point was a speaker box in a iso crate will be fine
except if the band is ac/ dc kinda loud and using say 25 watt celestions on a hundred watt amp ( which are already screaming in thermal meltdown !) those speaker coils may just melt in a crate

but an amplifier (ie a tube combo ) without a source of circulatiing fresh ( err... cooler) air will be a fire waiting to happen
what i would like to see is a 45 min set with a 1960s vox ac 30 coppertop on stage in an isolation cabinet
thats my idea of a funny night out

[Simon B]

just out of curiosity is a tube amp?

If so is the distortion preamp distortion or power tube distortion? just one whether to use the master volume or not

is it possible to put the amps behind the line of the drummer facing away from the front of stage mic it as normal and just use the monitor sends to the in ears to hear it back?

"what i would like to see is a 45 min set with a 1960s vox ac 30 coppertop on stage in an isolation cabinet
thats my idea of a funny night out"

That is funny but for so many WRONG REASONS I think I would just about have a heart attack watching a JMI ac30 burn even if I didnt own it.

I have a 70's ac30 and it has been used to heat a room.... so much more productive then using a heater. I am selling it so I can buy a 60's JMI original.

[heathen]

I'm with Rick, I'm almost certain your going to have some issues with coils burning out but an amp head in there also would be downright dangerous. Amp coffin.

[rick]

simon when you have had a few 60s ac 30s that you OWN catch a light on stage you start to see it as funny trust me
i think a coppertop ac30 is probably the best sounding amp ever
but i will never own another one, they are like a thermal time bomb set to go off every two years or so

[rick]

oh yeah i meant all my posts to say the iso boxes with just the speaker cabinets inside them will be fine you dont need any extra air to make the sound ( within reason)
putting combos in them is really asking for trouble

[Kris]

2 x vox AC30 and 1 x Orange 2x12 (cab only)

I was wondering about the heat issues myself. Any ventilation will surely destroy any isolation. Bt the speaker movement thing, all crap right? Good.

[rob]

speaker movement - ok
amps cooking - not ok
as to what it will sound like with an amp closed mic-ed inside a small resonate box- who knows?

Rob

[Simon B]

[quote="rick"]simon when you have had a few 60s ac 30s that you OWN
catch a light on stage you start to see it as funny trust me
i think a coppertop ac30 is probably the best sounding amp ever
but i will never own another one, they are like a thermal time bomb set to go off every two years or so[/quote]

how different are the copper tops to the blue/grey panels? and your fav a 60's ac30 does that have a factory added top boos after purchaset, factory standard top boost and the vib/trm chaneel.....?

in terms of fav guitar sounds.... I have spent years searching. the last good amp I heard was a blackface bassman head.

the person I bought my marshall superlead from told me of how the original cab caught fire because it was a green back quad.....

Hi Kris.... with the heat that comes from my ac30, there is no chance in hell I will be putting it in a box where the vents couldnt get air.

I wasnt joking when I said I used my ac30 to heat a room. its scary at the heat that comes from the thing......

[rick]

there are a dozen sites on the world wide waste of time that with wax on about the vitues of different ac 30s but in my experience the coppertops sound the best ( one i owned had a external top boost mod and it was rockin in every way)
the difference between a copper top and a grey jmi ? , not much the earlier copper tops version were not made as well , caught on fire more often
but in my experience of 7 ac30 i have owned (ie 3 copper tops 4 various others ) was 2 out of the three of my copper tops were amazing , the other one could not ever get to the point were it was reliable and sounded really thin .

ac-30 use to cost $700 so buying one to see what gives was no big deal its a very big deal nowdays

i heard a a new jmi reissue the other day that sound pretty convincing to me .


anyway you cannot put an AC30 combo in an isolation cabinet - well you can but if you do your a fool

[Simon B]

thanks Rick.....

I have given up on searching the world wide waste of time.... thats why I ask stupid questions here, I find that things expressed here are from personal experience as well very educated people that make a living from the opinion they are giving. as compared to other sites that have people just quoting an opinion that is not theirs. and just getting in a huff. there is only one other forum I goto reguarly, and it is an aussie forum, with no bickering and crap that I have seen at most forums.

with a few of those ac30's catching on fire I understand why you find it funny now.because I would laugh as well, because it would be the only way to stop myself crying.

[Kris]

Sweet. Sorted. Thanks guys.

[smash]

Hey Mr A.

I'd love to know who it was he he he...

Potentially you could get some slight "compression" from air resistance ... but nothing damaging... my sealed Mesa Box has never complained...

I obviously know where you are talking about - it may be an idea to make sure that there is an available cab there for those who have combo's - there are a Cpl of Marshall's floating around, and
I know that I'm not leaving the AC30 in a sealed box - but I would be fine with disconnecting the internal speaker, and plugging into an enclosure if it were available.

Smash.

[Kris]

working on getting a 2x12 extension cab for both ac-30's.

the third box will accommodate an orange 2x12 only so it's ok.