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Commercial La Scala Hanging


trapper9

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I have a set of the old metal framed La Scalas that i want to suspend up high outside under a covered roof. I have large beams to attach to and a wall type hanger that I could bolt on would be the easiest but I cannot locate a system. I can always fabricate something but buying is easier. Anybody else tried to hang a set that has any ideas would be helpful. Thanks 

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They work great just replaced the stock tweeters that are easy to blow up.Other than that I have never had an issue with any LaScalas. Been blasting them for 40 plus years!! The key is to use lots of CLEAN power preferably tube amps in my opinion. Bypass the tweeter protrction circuit also

 

 

 

 

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Three points will work. You can mount hanging hardware on the sides, with thru bolts and metal plates on the inside. Use chain that is heavy enough for the load. A third chain on the lower part of the back can be used to tilt the cab to point down as needed. 

 

Bruce

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If you roll your own hardware and rigging, assume this is a life safety design and size all components for at least 4x the load.  and at least 2x after one failure using working load ratings, not ultimate.  This is especially applicable to the support structure.  That means the roof structure must be able to carry 4x the weight of each La Scala or about 600 lbs.  Make sure all fasteners in wood are loaded in shear, never in tension.  Make sure all of the roof structure is in great shape with no deterioration or rot, anywhere.  The stress will be distributed across the entire roof structure.  Steel bolts and eyes may be loaded in tension as long as the 4x/2x rule is followed. 

 

You don't want it to fall and hit someone. 

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1 hour ago, JohnA said:

If you roll your own hardware and rigging, assume this is a life safety design and size all components for at least 4x the load.  and at least 2x after one failure using working load ratings, not ultimate.  This is especially applicable to the support structure.  That means the roof structure must be able to carry 4x the weight of each La Scala or about 600 lbs.  Make sure all fasteners in wood are loaded in shear, never in tension.  Make sure all of the roof structure is in great shape with no deterioration or rot, anywhere.  The stress will be distributed across the entire roof structure.  Steel bolts and eyes may be loaded in tension as long as the 4x/2x rule is followed. 

 

You don't want it to fall and hit someone. 

Exactly correct, we went well past the 4x with this and being a little bigger they have dedicated fly bars also designed well over 4x, and 2 extra safety straps from the top, one on each side. 

 

 

museum steam building-15 copy-1.jpg

museum steam building-02-1-copy.JPG

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That's only 300 pounds, because the sub cabinet is missing because it's not needed, a different sub is on the ground in the center. The bottom cord, if I remember correctly,  the other is a safety.

 

300 pounds is nothing, Roy and I are over that ourselves, the speakers just look big, probably less per cubic foot of speaker than a pair of LaScalas?

 

Actually those straps and chain and fly bar is exactly what was spec for hanging those in commercial applications, a complete designed system. NOW that fly bar was taken apart length wise, it's normally designed to hang 2 sets including sub units from each fly bat with that exact chain. All we did was unbolt half of the fly bar but still used the chain designed for the whole system then doubled up on the straps.   It's way overkill, same system but less than half the equipment hanging, the sub unit designed for the 600's is by far the heaviest section and we never needed it. 

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Sounded kind of rough, Roy came over and made a bunch of adjustments  with the amps, got everything balanced with the sub and it sounded really good. It actually sounded better than we expected for a big brick building with alot of hard surfaces, but that's one of the things he does besides designing speakers. He goes out to sites and dials everything in, we step back get out of his way and let him do his thing, I have to say he is good at it, no BS . 

When we were hanging them he drove me crazy, Kevin and I would go up on the lift and he would say OK take one link out of that chain, move this chain to the left a little on the support. He got them pointing where he wanted and the toe-in how he wanted before even making any adjustments, it took all day just making adjustments after they were hung.

 

But when he was happy you could hear it, after he left we really cranked it up, Craig had a DB meter on his phone at the other end of the room with a constant 112 db. It rocked that old building, we went to leave a few minutes later and noticed as we were locking up all the signs we hung about 15 were all crooked from vibration, it was funny.

 

Roy listening between adjustments, went on for a good while. A huge rug was added later to the floor and all the books went on the shelves so it's a little different now, I would have to guess better.  

 

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On 6/27/2019 at 10:42 AM, JohnA said:

If you roll your own hardware and rigging, assume this is a life safety design and size all components for at least 4x the load.  and at least 2x after one failure using working load ratings, not ultimate.  This is especially applicable to the support structure.  That means the roof structure must be able to carry 4x the weight of each La Scala or about 600 lbs.  Make sure all fasteners in wood are loaded in shear, never in tension.  Make sure all of the roof structure is in great shape with no deterioration or rot, anywhere.  The stress will be distributed across the entire roof structure.  Steel bolts and eyes may be loaded in tension as long as the 4x/2x rule is followed. 

 

You don't want it to fall and hit someone. 

 

When I was trained in rigging at Ontario Hydro, the provincial power utility, the rule was that the equipment must be rated to support 6x the load.

 

If the load will be suspended over people, the equipment must be rated to support 10x the load.

 

Most of the work there was with heavy objects, which could be very dangerous, but with the company's insistence on working by the rules, accidents were very rare.  We appreciated that.

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On 7/1/2019 at 10:29 PM, Islander said:

If the load will be suspended over people, the equipment must be rated to support 10x the load.

That's what I was told this was rated for 10x the load if we added the sub box to the bottom of each speaker. I thought it sounded high but I think your right, that"s exactly what I was told, I know the rigging could hold it, it just sounded like alot when I first heard it. :emotion-21:

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Moving loads and uncertain loads require a higher F.S., perhaps 10x was a good number for crane rigging a moving load.  Motion adds a good deal of uncertainty and a lot of energy. 

 

A static load, absent earthquakes, has a low level of uncertainty and does not require a large F.S.  Add in the specified 4X the allowable working load (which is 1/5th of breaking strength in both wire rope and chain), I believe 4X is sufficient against failure.  Specifying wood bolts in shear (with 4X applied) also controls uncertainty as well as puts the bolts in their strongest application. 

 

It appears we have two different situations requiring different F.S.  However, if you wish to use 10X rather than 4X, it will be a conservative solution.  I wonder if the roof structure will qualify at 10X. 

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