EWI amp rack takes a beating

Greg Cameron

Greg Cameron

Senior
Jan 11, 2011
618
0
16
I'm fast to point out that the EWI stuff is generally not comparable to the heavy duty tour grade stuff, but I have to give them props in this case. My little venue hosted the Red Hot Chili Peppers last night and the stage was tight with extra gear since they brought in more Rat subs and L'Acoustic ARCs to supplement my Rat Sound house PA. They had to stack a couple more amp racks on top of my already ~300lb. EWI amp rack. That's about another 300 lbs stacked on top. I expected something to give, but it was not an issue. I wouldn't recommend this as regular practice, but it's good to know you can do it in a pinch.

Greg
 

Attachments

  • ewi.png
    ewi.png
    408.7 KB · Views: 0
Re: EWI amp rack takes a beating

I agree. However, we did have to slide it back and forth a few times. I expected the casters to bind, but they still swiveled and rolled fine.
 
Re: EWI amp rack takes a beating

kristianjohnsen said:
PS: How was the show? How big is your venue? Was Dave Rat there?
Click to expand...

The show was great. We had over 500 in there, probably could have squeezed in another 100-150. But 500 was all the band management wanted. Dave was up in Canada with Soundgarden for their last day of tour, so Craig Overbay filed in. Dave really wanted to be there but circumstances were otherwise. Here's an article in our small town newspaper, the Union (or The Onion as many of us call it): http://www.theunion.com/article/20110729/BREAKINGNEWS/110729722/1066&ParentProfile=1053

Greg
 

Attachments

  • 7.png
    7.png
    696.2 KB · Views: 0
  • 6.png
    6.png
    720.2 KB · Views: 0
  • 1.png
    1.png
    482.4 KB · Views: 0
  • 2.png
    2.png
    695 KB · Views: 0
  • 3.png
    3.png
    417.5 KB · Views: 0
  • 4.png
    4.png
    738 KB · Views: 0
  • 5.png
    5.png
    687.6 KB · Views: 0
Re: EWI amp rack takes a beating

Vinny D'Agostino said:
I just can't believe Flea is playing through that Acoustic bass amp crap.......it's amazing what money can buy you :-(
Click to expand...

He's finally found something even MORE "retro" than the GK 800RBs he used forever?

In my personal experience no one except Jaco Pastorius ever got a nicely defined sound out of the 360 but in their heyday nothing else that size could move as much low frequency air. Lee Michaels used to put a mic in the bottom of his offstage Leslie and run it into four 360s, the bass pedals on that B3 could be heard in the next county.

Of course a bass guitarist couldn't tell how loud he was on stage because the waves didn't fully develop for about 15 feet or more. Next to a Marshall stack, nothing could muck up the FOH balance in small venue like a 360.

Now that I've done some web surfing I see that what's on this stage are three stacks of a NEW Acoustic 360 design. Unlike the original 361 powered speakers which only had an 18 inch woofer in a short folded horn enclosure, these add a - "Titanium Horn Driver w/2" Coil and horn" crossed over at 1,400 Hz so there WILL be some definition and output in the near field.

Whether Vinny's comment was "based" on the assumption that Flea was using vintage gear or an Eden amp loyalist taking a dig at their new "competition" I don't know.
 
Last edited:
Re: EWI amp rack takes a beating

Flea's stage volume was pretty manageable. Actually, nothing cranked to '11'. We did a 'quasi' dual PA. Bass guitar in my Rat center subs, then kick in the Rat supplied outer subs. Guitar in my flying Rat traps, everything else in the L'Acoustic ARCs. It sounded pretty clean and powerful. Also had a fill I setup on delay in the 'upper gallery' to the left of the stage comprised of a couple of Turbo TXD118 subs with an original Mackie SR1530 on top. Sounded pretty good actually. Craig Overbay is a stellar guy, fun to work with.

Greg
 
Re: EWI amp rack takes a beating

Okay perhaps not totally correct physics or acoustics here but real life experience.

That 4 foot tall "W bin" with an 18 inch woofer in it produced more of the bottom most frequencies than most other bass amps of that era could. But it did not produce much "presence" in the way that the 8x10 inch Ampeg SVTs and eventually "nearly everyone" 4x10 and tweeter horn speakers did in the years to come.

The player in front of an original Acoustic 360 would not hear the actual amount of the lowest frequencies that speaker configuration was putting out unless they were able to stand at least 15 feet in front of the cabinet. That wasn't possible on any club stage and very few theaters either. The result was a lot of 100 to 160 Hz "rumble" (a rough estimate) in the audience that the player on stage didn't fully experience.

Still they were popular because they were "loud enough" to compete with double stacks of 4x12s on the guitar side. They didn't "fart" like the Marshall bass amps (listen to any live Cream recording with Jack Bruce). The contemporary pre SVT bass amps, the solid state Standells and the Sunn 100 series all SOUNDED better but were not anywhere near as loud in that "the backline HAS to fill the venue era.
 
Last edited:
Re: EWI amp rack takes a beating

Lee Brenkman said:
He's finally found something even MORE "retro" than the GK 800RBs he used forever?
Click to expand...
No...not the case as you found out.

Lee Brenkman said:
Now that I've done some web surfing I see that what's on this stage are three stacks of a NEW Acoustic 360 design. Unlike the original 361 powered speakers which only had an 18 inch woofer in a short folded horn enclosure, these add a - "Titanium Horn Driver w/2" Coil and horn" crossed over at 1,400 Hz so there WILL be some definition and output in the near field.

Whether Vinny's comment was "based" on the assumption that Flea was using vintage gear or an Eden amp loyalist taking a dig at their new "competition" I don't know.
Click to expand...

My point exactly is these are not the famed Acoustic amps of yester year....they are simply a junk line that I believe Guitar Center owns (Not possitive, but I believe this is the case) and put the Acoustic name on.
There is NO affiliation with the original acoustic brand.

As a bass player and someone who just loves gear, what Flea did here in the bass world (in my opinion) would be like if Claire Brothers in the Pro Audio world switched to using the new Behringer Inuke series amplifiers.
 
Re: EWI amp rack takes a beating

Could be. But there's no arguing it sounded good at the show. And a lot of the bass was stage volume.
 
Re: EWI amp rack takes a beating

Greg Cameron said:
Could be. But there's no arguing it sounded good at the show. And a lot of the bass was stage volume.
Click to expand...
Greg, at your show, Flea was using the new ones that were designed recently with the horn loaded 18 AND the horn tweeter for everything above 1.4 kHz. So he would have been hearing himself "full range" a LOT better than, say John Paul Jones, would have on that same stage.
 
Re: EWI amp rack takes a beating

True dat. I jammed with him once years ago back in '85. I'd have to say it was one of the best times I've had playing drums.
 
Re: EWI amp rack takes a beating

Vinny D'Agostino said:
No...not the case as you found out.



My point exactly is these are not the famed Acoustic amps of yester year....they are simply a junk line that I believe Guitar Center owns (Not possitive, but I believe this is the case) and put the Acoustic name on.
There is NO affiliation with the original acoustic brand.

As a bass player and someone who just loves gear, what Flea did here in the bass world (in my opinion) would be like if Claire Brothers in the Pro Audio world switched to using the new Behringer Inuke series amplifiers.
Click to expand...

The web site I found today shows a pretty well thought out line of new design amps with the same look as the originals. The only product that is shown in detail IS the 360/361 combination and nothing on that page even remotely resembles the cheap junk with the blue accents that Guitar Center was flogging recently.

The "Acoustic" name has been bought and sold several times since the original company went under. Pre GC ownership there was a truly bizarre line of sound reinforcement gear that was shown at the AES show about six or seven years ago. The website showing the amps in Greg's photos at least looks credible.

As for the decision of a well known artist to use or endorse something less than great you could go back to the Rickenbacker amps that Led Zep used on their first US tour or, even worse, the Univox amps that Jimmy Page negotiated for the band later on.

One well known "originally blues based but later VERY pop" guitarist band leader has an entire warehouse of gear he's "endorsed" at one time or another and stopped using when the next rep contacted him.
 
Top Bottom