Although I'm not a Rush fan I got a charge of what Geddy Lee said when asked about his backline of chicken cookers,fridges and assorted appliances he did it in fact to make a dig at all those who insist on having walls of stacks behind them.Apparently he goes directly into the board through a sophisticated string of effects and preamps.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I saw Rush on the Power Windows tour back in 1984 ( I think that was the year ) anyway, Alex Lifeson was playing through a rack system, you didn't see any amps just PA speakers suspended from trusses above the stage. That gave them more room for the Fans to see them on stage. and they had great visual effects Laser and a big screen with video behind the band. I don't think anyone left that show feeling shortchanged due to a lacklustre performance.

+1

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riley

I don't think The Allman Brothers Band ever stood in front of empty boxes that looked like amps......they are a real band,whatcha see is whatcha get...it might be off a little some nights and it might be great but it's real.
But to stage props and antics,in the beginning somebody said their stage presence was boring,they suggested that Gregg get out from behind the
B-3 and put some velvet pants on with a salami stuck down the front.
Butch Trucks said,"they wanted him to dance around like an English sissy boy".
enjoy that

Right but did you consider that they may not be the kind of band that can just rock up with their blues junior and boss tuner? Or some weak arsed 'blues' player with a couple of 2x12 combos and the tone of a paper and comb kazoo.

The point is theres no speakers in the cab you saw. Not that theres no speakers onstage. If that matters or detracts from the performance at all, then you're seeing the band for the wrong reason anyway.

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No no and no

Yes, your right. The reason to see a band with Fake Stacks on stage, must be to see how many Fake Stacks are on stage. I was under the Impression I liked to see live music played to hear the music. I guess the Tone you get from a Fake Marshall, is better than the Tone you get from a 2-12 combo anyday.

So because of that picture you surmise there are no amps onstage? Oh and look at the size of the crowd and their reaction. Like that band need any advice eh?

Who's got it right, you or them?

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No no and no

Some great music has been recorded using small practice amps!

Yeah but recording and performance are two entirely seperate things. Performance is visual as well as audiable.

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No no and no

Fake Stacks=the opiate for the masses

Wow. Some posts on this thread are getting needlessly aggressive. Calm down and be friendly, why not, gents.

I can think of bands from many countries that have used fake stage gear. And I can think of people from many countries that have stuck "salamis down their pants and danced around like sissy boys" - people are on thin ice throwing around nationalistic insults in this of all areas...

Anyone who thinks there isn't a level of fake pantomime tomfoolery to virtually every big act at some stage or other is kidding themselves.

Personally, I think macho rows of empty speaker cabs are pretty silly - and my favorite band of all time has done it, so who cares? The Who are about as real and hardcore as it gets, and yet Pete Townshend never had more than one or two of his 4x12 cabs actually switched on (by his own account). He had four and sometimes six cabs lined up but most were just for show - and that was after he wasn't even smashing them up any more.

I saw The Who twice in the '70s (when The Who were officially the loudest band in the world) and one of those times I was right at the front of the stage with my face poking up between Pete's monitors, getting the full force of his backline straight in the eyes. Even if it was only one or two of those cabs I was hearing it near blew my flippin' head off! Devastatingly, stupidly loud. Like Nick says, any more would just be unsurvivable.

For that matter, a few years ago I sat at the front of a small club with Frank Gambale's Marshall half-stack six feet in front of me. By about five numbers in I and half the rest of the audience had popped off to the men's room to stuff our ears with tissue paper in order to tollerate the excruciating treble he was kicking out of his rig - and that was just four cones. I'd have been only too delighted if that cab had been a fake and the real sound had been DI'd through the PA. Sadly, it wasn't.

What that man is doing to his hearing night after night I shudder to think.

And Mssrs AndyBigHair and Nutter report that Jeff Beck was giving a similar painful effect with his Marshalls (not Fenders) just the other night. I'm seeing him in a few weeks. I'll take my ear plugs.

So there's reasonable points to be made on all sides of this discussion, far as I can see.

BB King: now there's a fella who's got it sorted...

Cheers - C

Add also that it was English sissy boys that invented the 4x12 and the best amplifiers in the world. Spawned the best music ever recorded and the best offstage antics too.

Sissy my arse.

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No no and no

lol man's got a point

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I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk...

Hey man,Butch Trucks of the Allman Brothers said it,it was his quote not mine.
BTW Marshall copied the '59 Fender Bassman.

This is my last post on the subject, lest anyone got their feelings hurt by my posted opinions, I was a civil as i could possibly be realizing that everyone IS entitled to their own opinion without resorting to angry posts. It's all OPINIONS isn't it, If I think that going to see a large show with fake gear is a ripoff, than so what of it. I never asked anyone to agree with me. So lets let it go and talk about guitars again.