Tom Mobley Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 It's been many, many years since I went to a real rock concert. Spoiled by listening to my Klipsch at home. Went with my 19 year old son to a concert last week, group called Alabama Shakes. I'd heard a little of their stuff but not much. Anyway, opening act gets up there, typical cruddy sound, muddy bass way too heavy in the mix, poor vocals, screechy lead guitar. I'm sitting there thinking "Yup, this is why I quit going to concerts all right". Then Alabama Shakes comes out after a complete equipment change on stage. OMG! WTF!! Who are these people? Never heard any concert sound like that ever. Hear every tinkle of chimes, every shimmer of cymbals, every trailing half-note of the guitar. All at over 100 dB. This lead singer, an African-American woman from northern Alabama just tears up an SG, plays it like it was a ukelele. I've never in my life heard such a tightly integrated group. We were about 30 rows back, right in front of the sound booth. It was like getting hit by a car. So I'm dumbfounded by the quality and volume. Never sat down the whole time. Talk about hair-trigger dynamics, this is what it's all about. So my son buys their LP album, we fire it up. Now I've got a old Yammie mid-fi turntable, still has the M95ED cart on it from the early eighties. Hasn't been used much in recent decades, but I dragged it out and got a new belt on it awhile back. It plays into a Dynaco tube pre, which dumps into a 3 channel TEAC digital amp via a PWK splitter. Anyway, untouched 1960 Khorns and a homebuilt center Belle. I'm totally dumbfounded again. The whole rig just kicks butt all over the place. So does the recording. I don't know where these people record but their stuff is more or less perfect. Whoever their recording engineer is must be a genius. High energy, high volume sound is just flawless. It's good to get some enthusiasm back. Maybe I'll build more LS and Belles. Alabama Shakes, the entire neighborhood. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Alabama Shakes is a really good group. It's nice to hear they had a good concert sound. Live sound technology has changed/progressed a lot in the past few years. Being a a concert with a good group who has the ones doing sound pull that off is great to hear. Your son still playing cello? Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 I'd never heard of them. They have a good sound! No idea why there is no video of actual people in this clip, but it is their official audio with 8.6M+ views. Nice find Tom's son. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Tom, Wow blast from the past! good to see you post! Glad to hear you are still enjoying music! Craig 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted August 14, 2016 Author Share Posted August 14, 2016 Thanks guys for remembering me. It really has been awhile. Marvel, he's 19 now, a soph at Gonzaga in engineering. He plays upright bass and sings in the choir. Lately he's been asked to play electric bass guitar at church. So he picks it up and plays it. Just like that. All that classical training pays off. Craig, you still building amps? I found my new Heyboer iron I got for the HF-81 project the other day. Still all wrapped up in the boxes. I guess I sort of got burned out doing Smilin's DBB cornscalas. Jeeze those things were nice, but I had way too many hours in them. Good to be on here again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 how about this Tom, i remember sending you a K-55V that you needed for that Belle and you sent me some pie slice logo replicas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted August 15, 2016 Author Share Posted August 15, 2016 yessiree, I remember that. vaguely. I was very ill in 2013 and lost 80 lbs among other things. My memory is still not quite the same. Doc says I have drain bamage. It's kind of selective like my hearing loss, mainly seems to affect me when my wife is talking. Russ, that Belle still really rocks. It ended up with an early K-33, your K-55-V and a K-77 that I put a Crites diaphragm in. Found a Klipsch 700 horn. Built it an ALK AA with all the good parts. I *think* I still have enough of those parts to build another AA. That Belle came out really good with Mahogany veneer and Oxblood grill cloth. The grain of the Mahogany evokes a sort of an old time California surfboard motif. I'm still very glad I joined here, I learned a lot in a fairly short period of time.Everything from soldering point to point stuff to exotic veneer finishing. I did some stuff in African Lacewood for a guy here in town. That stuff positively shimmers as you walk by. I would never have known how to do any of this stuff without the help of generous forum members. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted August 15, 2016 Author Share Posted August 15, 2016 another 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted August 15, 2016 Author Share Posted August 15, 2016 and this is good: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted August 15, 2016 Author Share Posted August 15, 2016 LOL, just saw something said she must be the love child of Janis and James Brown. pretty apt, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Tom, Yup still building and rebuilding. Have to make a living somehow so might just as well do something I enjoy. I have no idea what ever became of Steve (Smillin) I still have a complete set of iron to build him a pair of 120 watt mono blocks that he ordered and then he vanished after the housing crash. I think that hit him hard financially. Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Now if we could just get everyone else back in here ... Craig, since you have the iron, have you ever thought about just going ahead and building those. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 On 8/14/2016 at 1:49 PM, Tom Mobley said: He plays upright bass... Ah, I knew that, and now on the PC instead of my phone I can see your avatar better, too. Wow, engineering... good for him. My youngest finished at Valparaiso U. with a major in Music Composition. I think he's actually out of debt now too. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 3 hours ago, Deang said: Now if we could just get everyone else back in here ... Craig, since you have the iron, have you ever thought about just going ahead and building those. Why? I have absolutely no use for 120 watts or the massive heat they would produce. I'd have to have someone commit to purchase before I would spend the remaining bucks and time for a pair of one off hand built amplifiers. My time, health and resources are not what they used to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 3 hours ago, Deang said: Now if we could just get everyone else back in here ... By the way you will never see this place like it once was.... most of the people we miss were here for the wild west nature of the forum back then. This place is way too restricted for most of them now. I can only handle it in small doses....I really get sick of biting my lip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 17 hours ago, Tom Mobley said: another I'm diggin' that old school P-bass with the low finger rest and gold pick guard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizRotus Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 I first became aware of this group watching The Grammy Awards show. Glad, but not surprised, to hear they put on a good live show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 3 hours ago, NOSValves said: By the way you will never see this place like it once was.... most of the people we miss were here for the wild west nature of the forum back then. This place is way too restricted for most of them now. I can only handle it in small doses....I really get sick of biting my lip True ... and I heard that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted August 16, 2016 Author Share Posted August 16, 2016 Thanks to all you guys who responded. It's good to be remembered. What's this stuff about being restricted? I didn't see any stuff about posts being moderated before posting in public. I remember Al K. had some run-in with the company and quit, a big loss. I saw something about Dean being sick with something serious. Has there been a mass exodus due to some big dispute? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Mainly you don't discuss religion or politics in open forums. That get's out of hand and people get pretty nasty with eachother. I get why Klipsch doesn't want to be represented that way. After all, they are a company. As for other moderation, it is usually more about people just being scorned and lashing out. Thin skin is the main culprit there. Instead of intellectual banter and sparring, people start name calling and acting beneath themselves. Enter the moderators. . . Hope that helps. And yes, there has been a good bit of moderating done lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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