showconsole - too good to be true?

B

brian maddox

Senior
Jan 13, 2011
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frederick, md
www.fcfchurch.com
okay, so i came across someone selling harrison showconsoles for just over 20k. now i never got to work on those back in the day, but i remember when they came out and they were hugely more money than that...



so... aside from the obvious reasons [they weigh a million pounds and they aren't digital so you don't get all that effects jazzola you get with a digital desk] why would i want to run away from a showconsole in excellent condition for 20 grand for a fixed install with plenty of space to make it fit?



enlighten me, oh wisened ones.



fwiw, i'm expecting horror stories about all those motorized pots and what have you. it doesn't take a genius to see that that much mechanized stuff in a road console is asking for trouble. i've just never talked to anyone who has first hand knowledge about these desks.



tanks.



brian
 
Re: showconsole - too good to be true?

Willie Nelson had a Harrison out with him, wi a big box of spare parts. It was cool watching his guy take apart chunks of the console during sound check with the band.
 
Re: showconsole - too good to be true?

Hello,



The Harrison Consoles were nice sounding consoles. I wouldn't recommend anyone purchasing one of these old road consoles. They're great, but, getting parts, schematics and spending a lot of time refurbishing it seems like a nice expensive hobby and not a good business decision.



The fact that they've been replaced, shows that the time of the big-boat consoles have come to a close.



Cheers,

Hammer



want to buy a Scorpion?
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Re: showconsole - too good to be true?

Charlie Zureki wrote on Fri said:
want to buy a Scorpion?
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Click to expand...



Or a Soundcraft Venue, Soundcraft Delta monitor console or a Soundcraft K2?



Everyone on the staff agrees that the Midas XL3 that serves as the monitor console in one of the clubs here in SF sounds INCREDIBLE, when it's all working.



But it had a long touring life (admittedly a well maintained touring life) before it came to us and now enough small component parts are at the end of their service life that it cannot be fully depended upon when all the inputs and outputs are needed.



So a new digital console is coming in for FOH, and the Yamaha M7 that's been their FOH console will become the monitor board.



A sacrifice in actual audio quality? No question. Will the multiple band shows that are the norm in this venue go a bit smoother and quickly? Absolutely.



Full disclosure. I once bought a ''closeout'' Tychobrahe ''Blue Board''. It was unusable in several regularly worked venues due to a susceptibility to RF interference. Also the one ''stereo'' monitor/aux send was limiting even then.



Ultimately the Jensen input transformers proved to be the most valuable and sellable part of the console.



All that said, ''Grampa'' will gladly mix a show on a Midas XL4 or Gamble EX56 on these two conditions.



1. All of the essential things are fully functional.

and

2. Someone else has to do the lifting.





 
Re: showconsole - too good to be true?

Lee Brenkman wrote on Fri said:
All that said, ''Grampa'' will gladly mix a show on a Midas XL4 or Gamble EX56 on these two conditions.



1. All of the essential things are fully functional.

and

2. Someone else has to do the lifting.
Click to expand...



+1



+10 if it's a paragon. I, not II. you know, the black one. how i do love that funky old thing. but fer sure someone else is putting it on it's weird little pedestal...

 
Re: showconsole - too good to be true?

I'm not even that picky. All I want's an H3000 or H4000... with an extra input bank computer and three power supplies. And 8 crew available any time I want to move it.



Or a Series 5 FOH.



*stares wistfully off into the distance*
 
Re: showconsole - too good to be true?

brian maddox wrote on Fri said:
why would i want to run away from a showconsole in excellent condition for 20 grand for a fixed install with plenty of space to make it fit?
Click to expand...



Because there were only ten Showconsoles made. Also, I'm not sure how many Harrison LPC consoles were made or if the parts are interchangeable. If I were going analog, I would want something a little more widely available like an XL4 or H3000. Both of those can be found used at reasonable prices.



 
Re: showconsole - too good to be true?

Apart from the availability of replacement parts, the other big drawback with a ShowConsole is that many incoming band engineers won't be familiar with it (or have even heard of it) and some may reject it out of hand.
 
Re: showconsole - too good to be true?

yeah, i'd love to hear more first person.



although if they only made ten, i suppose there aren't a bunch of folks that have significant time on one. my only exposure to a showconsole was directing a fundraiser in DC where we had reba and martina mcbride as the talent. reba had one of these and martina's hubby had a paragon. i thought the paragon show sounded better.
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i did think that the harrison lpc and the showconsole were essentially the same desk. but again, i'm no expert.



fwiw, i'm not really seriously considering this. but a lot of the misgivings i'm hearing don't really apply to my situation. this wold be a church install, so it's a fixed location with relatively light use. 3-4 people max [volunteers, but skilled ones] ever mix in our main auditorium, so rider acceptance is a non-issue.



what is a huge issue is that i don't have copious amounts of time to spend fiddling with a foh desk. and that will almost certainly kill any inkling i might have to get one of these. but when i see a large format analog desk with gates and comps on every channel and recall for 20K, it's hard to not salivate just a bit.
icon_smile.gif






brian 'wants to be one of the chosen ten' maddox
 
Re: showconsole - too good to be true?

I've seen Paragon IIs selling for $25000. You'd still need ''Tech-in-a-Boxâ„¢'' to keep it running...



I like old analog, too. It's part of a very usable tool kit, but one that is currently more at home in boutique installs. That's you? At any rate, working as an IATSE hand I've tipped exactly ONE large frame analog console in the last 12 months at an arena show. FWIW, I'm seeing more DiGiCos and Soundcrafts and fewer PM5Ds...



Probably the biggest impediment to the Show Console is the computer. IIRC, it was a 286 or 386 based machine that ran MS-DOS. How's your stock of 20 year old parts? It's probably easier to find the old audio parts for the desk than parts for the computer.



John McBride will continue to mix Tina on analog. He's a joyful Luddite that loves what he can do with old tech. As BE, he can spec what he wants, and holding a seat on the Clair board he will get it...



Have fun, good luck.



Tim Mc
 
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