My crew will smile at this....

[Harvester]

Mark posted this over at PM:X

(Immortal)

 

[manowarfan1]

but these go to 11

 

[jem777az]

Haha! That's funny! Probably a wall of plywood Marshall stacks

 

[Jasonic]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's freakin' hilarious!

 

[Wayniac]

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin about!
Can we do that for a backline and just mic 1x12's? lol

 

[halcyonwayband@aol.com]

It HAD to be Immortal too, hahahahahahaha

http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/1124/top-10-most-ridiculous-black-metal-pics-of-all-time-2/

 

[euleria]

For all those weekend guitarists who've always wanted to own a Marshall stack, but have had to make do with a Fender Champ... I sense a great marketing opportunity.

 

[lady_space]

And not only the crew... that is indeed *awesome*.

 

[St Enigma]

Hahah... when you have the chance ask Zac or Marco of Tarot about the difference between fake and real Marshall piles and what happenend when they lended their gear to some quite unknown band called Metallica back in the mid-'80s.

This ís a snippet from the translation I made two years ago of the inteview with Zac and Marco whic was released on "Undead Indeed" DVD. If you want to read the whole interview it's available on Tarot's website *here*

..................
Actually, the reason why we purchased a huge amount of gear was that we wanted get the wall of Marshalls like can be seen on a Maiden video or something similar. At that point we were unaware of the fact the those guys had maybe 2-3 working speaker units there and the rest were plain cardboard boxes.

We went on and ordered the whole fucking pile. Like, see. we have two guitars and a bass, each would get four units, we'd have a dozen of them on stage and we'd put the drumkit between them. Sure it looked cool but it also wasn't cheap! In other words... it may be that there was involved our lack of knowledge added to enormus amount of ambition... but it sure looked cool as hell!!!

 

[digitalink]

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin about!
Can we do that for a backline and just mic 1x12's? lol

Load in is much easier with those. Gotta love it, eh Wayne?

 

[CD INZANE]

"New from Ronco!!! Look good, feel great and act now!!!"

Whether "turned to 11" or not, this is REAL metal. Next maybe an electronic v-drum kit to replace the acoustic!

Totally awesome

 

[General Zod]

You don't need a Marshall stack when Satan is powering your amps.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin about!
Can we do that for a backline and just mic 1x12's? lol

You KNOW that after seeing this pic, everyone will be checking to make sure we have the real deal! You're not getting old, are ya?

Load in is much easier with those. Gotta love it, eh Wayne?

that takes all the fun out of one of my favorite Glenn quotes my first year on the crew: "Let the hazing begin!"

 

[Orion Crystal Ice]

amazing

 

[Pellaz]

Immortal for PPUSA 2011! (As long as they bring the plywood.)

 

[skyrefuge]

So although this was news to me, apparently it isn't really a secret...I checked Wikipedia (when wondering "wtf would be the point of all those Marshall stacks anyway?"), and this section has been in there for years:

Bands such as Slayer and Yngwie Malmsteen also use walls of Marshalls. Both Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman of Slayer can be seen playing in front of a total of 24 cabinets, and Yngwie has used as many as 31. However, it is usually the case that far less are actually powered, as using this many could cause serious problems with the overall sound mix of a live show. In most cases these are "dummy cabs," which are onstage for visual impact, not actually played through. For ease of transportation and lifting, most of these actually do not even contain any speakers. The same goes for some of the amp heads in a scenario like this, as they are just the wooden frame with, in fact, no heavy inner workings.

So for you sound guys, how much of the guitar sound in the PA comes from a mic'ed-up on-stage speaker cabinet, and how much comes from some sort of direct line from the amplifier? 100%/0%? 50/50? Depends on the guitarist? Also, how much of what the audience hears comes from the PA vs. the on-stage speaker cabinets?

I was under the impression that these days, you can just plug your guitar into some box, and plug that box into the overall sound-system, and that's all you need. Is the mic'ed-up speaker cabinet a throwback from before such fancy electronics were invented, or is it something that's still necessary for "good" sound? Or are the band's on-stage speakers simply a necessary part of the overall sound in the venue?

Btw, here's the front-view form that Immortal show:

I remember asking a while ago, in this age of in-ear monitoring systems, if the monitor wedges at the front of the stage are purely dummy props just there for Bruce Dickinson to balance on and Steve Harris/Abbath to prop his leg on. At the time I found it hard to believe that they would go to the trouble of lugging empty boxes around just for show, but now that's a lot easier to believe!

Neil

 

[euleria]

I always assumed that bands lugged around all those extra Marshalls so that if something malfunctioned during a gig, they could do a quick swap-out and the show would go on. But does Yngwie burn out enough cabs to need 31 on tour? Hmmmm.

I remember asking a while ago, in this age of in-ear monitoring systems, if the monitor wedges at the front of the stage are purely dummy props just there for Bruce Dickinson to balance on and Steve Harris/Abbath to prop his leg on. At the time I found it hard to believe that they would go to the trouble of lugging empty boxes around just for show, but now that's a lot easier to believe!

Neil

Petrucci discusses the need for faux wedges in the first minute of the following tour of his guitar rig...

 

[TychoCelchu]

In the front view photo (and in most large outdoor show settings) I think even if you DID have all of those cabs blaring, it would still sound pretty weak and directional (pinpointed). You need those huge (usually hanging) main speakers to get the huge sound. I can't see the mains in that photo, but I assume they're there.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

I'm not 100% certain, more like 97%, but I don't think anyone on the guitar (not including bass) end of the spectrum went direct in. There are a lot of PODLive & Toneworcks pedal boards, but those are still run through the power section of the amp heads on stage, and out of a mic'ed cab. I can only speak for the last 2 years. Maybe Wayne will elaborate?

Oh, I do remember IA not liking using a POD for the big Stars cover, don't know if he was direct in or not for that, I'm assuming with all the people onstage, he probably was......

 

[Wayniac]

You are right with IA - we just did not have enough mics! Nightmare with the input list for THAT jam set! lol

The only other true direct feed I can recall is Evergrey on the fly-in gig (The Rage effect set). They used Line 6 Pod XT's IIRC...
Most of the time what y'all hear through the PA is one, maybe 2 12" speakers mic'd up for guitar. Bass is a mix of direct and mic.

Some bands use the full amp stack, some use just bottom cabs. I am partial to bottom cabs, mic'd on the top speakers. You get less reflection from the stage that way - but that is more important in studio recordings. And each sound guy has a different preference of mic placement on the speaker. Many are good enough that they hear the difference or see a change in levels if the mic gets bumped during the live set.

Many guitarists just use the amps, or modelers INTO amps so speakers can be powered.

The newest trend is an AXEFX or similar unit, where there are no speakers used - they go direct into the PA, and then rely on in-ears or wedge monitors.

Yes - I have seen prop wedges used as well as false 4x12 walls or empty cabs.... it is pretty common...

Hope that helped