Hi From Oxford, UK

[HugoMack]

Hello Everyone,

I'm from Oxford, with some experience of PA building - and I love it! I'm looking to make a PA for my rock band, with a light-weight part for pub and other small gigs, then subs to add to it for larger and outdoors.

I' m really blown away by some of the videos I've seen of your rigs.

I've bought the Jack Lite 12 and Tuba 24 plans, but on continued study, but I feat that I may not have got this right. I will be most grateful for your advice please.

I think I should now negotiate with Bill over buying the complete set of plans; can the CD be bought from the UK?

I'm currently running an 8k HRH rig, with some Eon 15 tops for smaller gigs, and as monitors for the larger rig, along with some cracking monitors I made years ago using the Celestian handbook. But I can see the BFM designs are seriously superior, and am really looking forward to deciding what to go for and making it.

But looking forward to getting acquainted with you all. You are all very seriously expert in all the things I wish I knew more about!

[Grant Bunter]

G'day Hugomack,
Welcome to the forum

You may well have made a good choice, really subs choice depends on pack space first and content second.

It's been said that Jack12's will typically outperform most commercial 15's (eg your Eons), and can be used with subs.

Unless pack space makes it so, I think you can do better than the T24.
I urge you to look at the T39 SPL chart as well. You will see it is around 4dB higher in sensitivity at 40Hz and the same at 80Hz. T39's are just fantastic for live music

I have 20" T39's and I can dead lift them one on top of another for storage by myself.

Some would suggest for your larger/outdoor rig that you should use dedicated tops/mains, like the Otop or DR series, both of which, once again, have higher senstivity than the Jacks.

Whatever you build from Bill's designs, they are likely to be louder and lighter than your current gear.

You get the "CD" via e-mail...

[HugoMack]

G'day Grant. Many thanks for the welcome and advice. There'l be no competition at all with the Eons, which are very hard to EQ something good...

Yep, I've also been looking hard at the OTop 12's as well as the Jack Lites. And of course the DRs.

My thinking at the moment is to make the Jacks, use them for pub and smaller gigs, then add subs... but all advice apprecaited, plus I need to download all the designs and pore over them all!!

[Grant Bunter]

G'day Grant. Many thanks for the welcome and advice. There'l be no competition at all with the Eons, which are very hard to EQ something good...

Yep, I've also been looking hard at the OTop 12's as well as the Jack Lites. And of course the DRs.

My thinking at the moment is to make the Jacks, use them for pub and smaller gigs, then add subs... but all advice apprecaited, plus I need to download all the designs and pore over them all!!

The melded array is a great way to go. It really gives all the cabs it's used in mid to HF clarity I equate to very high end (think lots of quid lol) and unrivalled horizontal dispersion.
Perfect for small pub gigs. If you get some decent speaker stands, 2 a side will considerably fill midrange and flatten response.

I know exactly what the Eon 15's are like.

Pore away, don't rush in. It's not like you need PA yesterday, so take some time making your decisions.
There is also a lot to be learned here. Many myths debunked. Better performance out of proper cab placement, etc etc...

[Tom Smit]

Hugomack, welcome to the forum!

Grant gave you some excellent answers.

[88h88]

Yup I'll agree with Grant on this too, I have a pair of 22" wide T39s and they're fantastic. Using Jacks as tops isn't the ideal scenario but like you say, when you don't need to use the subs in smaller venues they'll still allow you a decent chunk of low end.

[escapemcp]

I have T30s and Otops and you are welcome to come down for a listen to help you decide (or is that make the decision harder?!). I'm in Trowbridge, near Bath, so about an hour and a half away from you.

[HugoMack]

Very many thanks guys. I read somewhere here Bill saying you must build what you need rather than what you want. I want a big rig that gets louder and even better as you walk away from it (as on a great video here of a three-piece rock band at an outdoors family gig) But the number of gigs I have where that's required are less and less these days. Whereas, having a light rig that can be carried by me easily into a pub, that also sounds like one of the big ones in miniature(well you know what I mean) is the immediate aim.

On the other hand, this PA-making thing is addictive.

I have some amazing heavy duty self-raising stands so weight isn't an issue for these cabs, but the Jacks do look like the way to go. But will investigate the OTops some more.

Thanks for the invitation to listen to your Otops Escapemcp. I'll get me the full-set of plans so I understand what's involved in the making, and get my head round the specs.

[Chris_Allen]

I was going to put a shameless plug for my DR200's but it would appear that the for sale section is limited to 25 topics - I'll have to look at that!

Oh, welcome to the forum!

[Chris_Allen]

Here's Charles' Jack 112's with my T39's.

Although it is a waste of bandwidth of the Jack's, they work fine together if you want more flexibility:

[HugoMack]

Thanks Chris. PM me about your DR200's if you'd like

An interesting demo would be to play the J12Ls on their own, then add T39's. So as a build programme, the J12Ls, then as and when required, to the T39's, would provide a pretty serious rig.

[Charles Jenkinson]

Hello again,

Are you the Hugh who is the top results in Google (UK)? ...the Wikipedia one lives in Oxford as well. ...I'm not saying I spend all my time typing peoples names into google, aghem!

Edit: which ever way, Respect!

[HugoMack]

The answer is probably yes, but if that's a bad answer then no depending... (Please can I stay in this Forum regardless?)

[Charles Jenkinson]

It's ok. I've never heard of you before.

Did you know, Bill is an author as well...? I've had ideas about writing, but nothing serious.

[HugoMack]

Phew!

Trouble is you Google "bill fitzmaurice author" and it comes back with "did you mean bill fitzmaurice authorized" Do you have any links to his books (he reads a lot on Good Reads - assuming he's from Corona CA....