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Hey Guys, I'm interested in owning an old Shure Vocal Master PA. I'm in the Houston area. Know where one or parts of one might be? I cant spend much, but shouldn't have to I wouldn't think.
Thanks
Harold

Comments

Thomas W. Bethel Sat, 11/07/2009 - 04:45

Why do you want to own one? They were somewhat popular back in the early 70's. Lots of churches and schools had them so you might check around with them to see if they are still around stored in some room or basement cage.

It was NOT a very good system but was somewhat popular because you had everything in one package except for the microphones, cables and stands.

Are you doing a retro act from the late 60's or 70's and want to have that "sound" just wondering!!!

JoeH Sat, 11/07/2009 - 12:47

God, I remember those beasties. One club we played in actually had a smaller, shorter version, cut down to half size (maybe they were sold that way?) stuck up in the ceiling as monitors. They weren't very good, but they were the indusctry standard at the time.

I remember a promo brochure from Shure featuring the Fifth Dimension; they were some kind of sponsored artistic act for the brand & speakers. I think they had two columns PER SIDE for their big gigs in Vegas. (!!!!)

I too upgraded from them to a Kustom 200 PA system. In hindsight, that wasn't much better, but at least the Kustom gear didn't have such horrible in/out & lo-cut switches that stopped working the moment cigarette smoke and dust got inside of them. (They weren't sealed, actually!)

Hoooboy.... memories....the kind that makes you shudder. :roll:

moonbaby Sun, 11/08/2009 - 04:07

What dogs! Yeah, Joe, Shure offered a "half pint" sized monitor AND a slave amp to EXPAND that awful system! I used to work with a guy who swore by those; he had the head (XLR version), 4 of the big columns, 4 of the little columns, and a couple of the slave amps...WOW!!! We never sounded so bad, but at least the B-3/Leslie rig would drown it out!

audiokid Sun, 11/08/2009 - 17:18

Ah.... I think we have more to the eye going on here. Looks like our new member is up to something. He's looking for this (guessing) to do some testing???

hehe, you all couldn't resist reminiscing with The Little River Band over the old days. The knobs were bigger than the sound of these old classics. All I remember is the smokey smell that I thought was what electronics smelt like.

http://soundenhancer.com/ :wink:

You've got our attention soundenhancer. Share?

audiokid Sun, 11/08/2009 - 17:37

Interesting. He's creating an enclosure, much like the old horn loaded bottom end.

I used to have horn loaded bass bins and finally tossed them, bought pro front loaded cab's loaded them with JBL's and stacked a bunch of Bryston's and Crown amps to them am WHAM! Sweet sound finally... that's when I really started learning about sound. My PA sound was way cleaner. I kept adding more to each side as I could afford it.
The horn loaded bass bins were loud but had a really overwhelming standing wave at 125k. Their selling feature was how loud they were compared to front loaded.

soundenhancer, does this concept create a similar 125k 250k ... boost from the enclosures tuning, thus, messing with the flat sound of your guitar amp?

Cool idea. I want one to try.

DonnyThompson Sun, 03/22/2015 - 00:53

The Shure Vocal Master PA was kind of "obligatory" if you were in a garage band in the U.S. during the 70's.

I haven't seen one in years.

I would think that Canada's version of this would have probably been made by Yorkville/Traynor.

I had one - it seemed like everyone did. You could find them in schools, churches, coffee houses, and, as mentioned above, in thousands of basements and garages, where the same number of quickly thrown-together bands were cutting their teeth with them. Those were great days. Our band, Franco American and The Spaghetti-OH !'s (yeah, we spelled it like that) were the absolute best band ... in a 2 block area.

I wonder just how many Vocal Master systems squeezed out versions of Gloria, or Louie Louie, or Twist and Shout, along with every other three chord, bash-out, rock and roll jam.

The system I had was a 2-column system, and in order for the reverb to work, you had to give the "console" a good whack with your fist, at which point, glorious spring reverb would EXPLODE through the mains, causing blue-haired old ladies to cover their ears and prepare for Judgement Day, ;)

Awesome fidelity. LOL ;)

jhonmax12 Thu, 04/23/2015 - 21:26

Thomas W. Bethel, post: 293697, member: 4527 wrote: Why do you want to own one? They were somewhat popular back in the early 70's, Here are the speakers on Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-SHURE-VOCAL-MASTER-SPEAKER-COLUMN-MODEL-VA300-S_W0QQitemZ250432357941QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=&itemid=250432357941. Lots of churches and schools had them so you might check around with them to see if they are still around stored in some room or basement cage.

It was NOT a very good system but was somewhat popular because you had everything in one package except for the microphones, cables and stands.

ARe you doing a retro act from the late 60's or 70's and want to have that "sound" just wondering!!!

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