Amplifier screens

camf

Has anyone used these clear amplifier screens for live work? Our other guitarist has a fab old AC30 but it's a bit of an uncontrollable beast in a smaller gig setting and I wondered if a clear, perspex screen in front of it could be a solution.

Cheers,

cam f 

markslade07

There's a guy selling a Divided by 13 here, who's picture shows the perspex screen....may be worth dropping him a message as he seems to swear by them

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/12666/divided-by-13-sjt-10-20-combo#latest

ESBlonde

They can help with the up close beam effect, but if the guitar is too loud for the small room, it is still too loud for the room (just in a dispersed manner). So like dummy loads, they take the edge off nicely but are not the tool to allow uncontrolled volume wars. The player/band need to get accustomed to the sound being dispersed too rather than beaming straight ahead. It's quite a good solution when applied correctly.

If you were to buy a speaker attenuator and a perspex screen for just smaller gigs, it might be cheaper or more sensible to simply buy a used AC15 for those gigs, however if most of your gigs are troubled by AC30 syndrome then the attenuator/screen option pays dividends all round. You might then look at the doughnut solution for the beaming issue.

camf

Thanks guys... it's an original early 60s AC30, so perfectly understandably, he's very attached to it. I'll suggest he checks it out as a possible solution. He was going to consider an attenuator of sorts but has never got round to it. Probably still the best way to go.

Cheers,

cam f

hywelg

I use one at rehearsals and will gig with it just as soon as we get any!. I principally use it to tame the beam. My cabs have got Mitchell Do-nuts in them, which work very well but I found with my big cab with a Red Fang and a EV it needed slightly thicker foam, so I knocked up a perspex screen, 4 section, about 750mm high and each section is 250mm. The benefit is you can use it with pretty much anything.

It wont work to lower the volume though, thats not what they are used for.

You can buy the hinge strip from StudioSpares. I got the 6mm perspex cut to size and then you have to machine a small V-groove to locate the hinge in. No problem with a router.

Thomann do sell some of the Clearsonic panel sreens cheaply now, but the sizes aren't quite whats needed. They tend to be big pieces of perspex, and for small combos rather than tall/wide cabs.

Cirrus

The thing with open backed cabs is the sound goes everywhere. You put a perspex shield in front of the cab and find that half the sound is coming round from the back of the cab and bouncing off walls, and the SPL in the room doesn't change much.

In a way it's a shame it's a vintage amp because there are great ways to bring to volume down while keeping the amp working but they all involve modding the amp, which I suspect your mate is not going to want to do, so I'd probably go with an attenuator. Marshall Power Break seems to work better than the THD Hot Plate, though both are discontinued now. The Dr. Z Airbrake sounded better to me than the Hotplate too, so that's a current production attenuator I'd suggest.

Anything else to reduce the volume is a bit more intrusive - turn the amp down and use pedals, use a less efficient 2x12 or 1x12 cab and make it closed back for better directional control, install power scaling (circuit mods), install a half power switch (2/4 power valves works better than pentode/triode or hot/cold bias IMO), use a half power switch in conjunction with bypassing one of the speakers if yer man likes the old alnico compression - that gives a 6db volume drop and maintains the speaker breakup level.

Skipped

Remember -  it doesn't have to be a clear screen. If the perspex screen is a huge portrait of Joe Bonamassa's face it will still work perfectly.


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matt1973

I use them regularly - they work well in a live environment. They redirect the sound as opposed to reducing it - hence it's dispersed on stage as opposed to blasted out front. It's very effective and sound men are quite appreciative.

johnnyurq

Thomann do them at a decent enough price.

http://www.thomann.de/gb/clearsonic_a2_4_amp_shield.htm

http://www.thomann.de/gb/clearsonic_a3_3_shield.htm

http://www.thomann.de/gb/search_dir.html?sw=Clearsonic+guitar+amp&bn=&gk=

hywelg

Thomann are considerably cheaper than Clearsonic used to charge, but unfortunately they are all studio size panels, big and awkward. The 4 panel ones are better size like you see Matt Schofield using

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6n5uKa3Ucg about 6 seconds in.

matt1973

I bought one just like that on the Matt is using from Thomann.

johnnyurq

hywelg said:

Thomann are considerably cheaper than Clearsonic used to charge, but unfortunately they are all studio size panels, big and awkward. The 4 panel ones are better size like you see Matt Schofield using

What like the first one I linked to from Thomann.

ICBM

Cirrus said:

 I'd probably go with an attenuator. Marshall Power Break seems to work better than the THD Hot Plate, though both are discontinued now. The Dr. Z Airbrake sounded better to me than the Hotplate too, so that's a current production attenuator I'd suggest.

For an AC30 the Airbrake is definitely the right one. The Hotplate is probably the worst of the ones I've tried with EL84/cathode-bias/no-NFB amps - it suits high-powered Fender- and Mesa-type amps best in my opinion.

hywelg

johnnyurq said:

hywelg said:

Thomann are considerably cheaper than Clearsonic used to charge, but unfortunately they are all studio size panels, big and awkward. The 4 panel ones are better size like you see Matt Schofield using

What like the first one I linked to from Thomann.

Indeed. Last time I looked they didn't do one that size. Still too small for a tall 2x12 (D style) or a 4x12. I made mine 75cm tall.

matt1973

I bought this one (610mm high). It's my review underneath:

 http://www.thomann.de/gb/clearsonic_a182_amp_shield.htm

I also bought one of these that I use to increase the height using some perspex off cuts bought locally:

 http://www.thomann.de/gb/clearsonic_hchnl24h_channel.htm

 It's my review beneath that too. Cher-Ching

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