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OOPS! Backfed a class D with an SVT

#41
bucephylus said:
Yeah, I knew a couple guys with the big iron back in the 70’s. Their idea of fun was to take the cars to an isolated street, pour bleach all over the road and then burn through the tires with all the power. I suppose that was impressive from a certain perspective.
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Ha! I am usually interested in trying to get MORE traction! I swore off drag racing because I love stick shifts and they break parts when you put slicks on and sidestep the clutch at max torque...

Ampeg definitely feels like the muscle car of amps to me.
 
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#42
Radarsonwheels said:
Ha! I am usually interested in trying to get MORE traction! I swore off drag racing because I love stick shifts and they break parts when you put slicks on and sidestep the clutch at max torque...

Ampeg definitely feels like the muscle car of amps to me.
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I played with an excellent drummer (no, not an oxymoron) for several years; and his gig mobile was a ‘52 GMC pickup with a 455 in it. All tricked out with the wheelie bars etc. He finally sold it because he couldn’t find rear ends that would hold up to the horsepower. They were too expensive to replace every 2000 miles. LOL.

SVT’s OTOH have great tone and will run forever with proper maintenance. I dig them when I have a healthy one on a supplied back line. Meanwhile, I’ve long ago gone lighter weight, simply due to practicalities of doing gigs. Fortunately, engineers like Jim Bergantino and Andy Field have given us better and better lightweight technology; to the point that it pretty much passes muster.

No, in my mind, the issue about amplification is no longer the tubes vs Class D. It is the ampless vs amp/backline evolution that is going on. If you think adjusting to Class D is rough, just wait until all of your tone is purely in IEM’s, and you have little to no idea what is going out front. THAT is an adjustment. IME / YMMV
 
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#43
Radarsonwheels said:
Ha! I am usually interested in trying to get MORE traction! I swore off drag racing because I love stick shifts and they break parts when you put slicks on and sidestep the clutch at max torque...

Ampeg definitely feels like the muscle car of amps to me.
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You know, the analogy to muscle cars reminds me of another entertaining story. I’ve always had a fascination with drag racing, being an engineer by training. And, of course, nothing still beats the nitro methane dragsters for sheer horsepower and speed. They are truly unique and still partly an art.

But, this drag racing story was related to me by one of my best friends, who got his engineering degree at Tri-State University in northern Indiana. He was in a fraternity with a bunch of the ME’s; and the school was heavily oriented to the car industry, due to proximity to Detroit. This would have been 1975 or so.

So, they used to hold drag races on the road next to the fraternity house. Small town, and I guess the cops kind of let it go. The local kids used to participate; and as you might imagine, there were a lot of MOPARS, Camaros, Vette’s etc. During his senior year, one of his ME fraternity buddies did a senior project with an (at the time) unknown device called a turbocharger. The guy actually made his own turbocharger in the machine shop and put it in one of those little Porsche 1600’s with a 4 banger. The result was the muscle car would demolish the Porsche off the line; but, the turbo would kick in at about 40 mph, and the little Porsche would nip the muscle car at the line. Every time. The engineering guys who were in on the secret got great entertainment at the expense of the local kids who had no idea what was going on. For a while.

Anyhow, interesting story in perspective.
 
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#44
bucephylus said:
No, in my mind, the issue about amplification is no longer the tubes vs Class D. It is the ampless vs amp/backline evolution that is going on. If you think adjusting to Class D is rough, just wait until all of your tone is purely in IEM’s, and you have little to no idea what is going out front. THAT is an adjustment. IME / YMMV
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Back when I was a making a run at doing music for a living I did some stints as a hired gun and even with 10-15,000 head crowds on the euro summer festival circuit I never had in ears. I definitely got the feeling that 1/6th notes were kind of useless but wielding that amount of sound reinforcement was an amazing experience.

Rental gear is what it is and I never minded as long as my stage volume was loud and clean enough to hear the nuances of my playing.

If I ever found myself in a situation where I used in ear monitors I would hope that we would bring our own sound guys to get the mix right in the house and in our ears.

As a hobbyist now with a kid a mortgage and two stores I run with my wife I’m happy to play once or twice a month inside a two hour drive and do an occasional long weekend tour. It seems I need to have music in my life somehow.

We do operate the band as a business but it is a non profit haha! If T-shirts keep selling we’re gonna turn our sweat into vinyl- another beautiful dinosaur
 
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#45
If we are going with the car thing:
I had a 1970 SS396 Chevelle that was dead mint and stock.
We thought that was a high performance car back then.
We built a pretty potent 66 Chevelle that started life as a small block but is now a big block drag car that will run 10:30's all season long without opening the hood; pretty bullet proof a 12 bolt and all the good stuff with big slicks.
It sucks as a street car.
I still like going to a summer event that attracts some super nice restored muscle cars.
My buddies bone stock 2017 Mustang GT will beat all the stockers including 440's, 427's, etc.
If we only had that technology back when body styles were classic.
OTOH, there is a small block Camaro with a tube chassis (something like 2,200 lbs) that runs on pump gas that really goes an 8:20 with slicks. It might have tags but it sure isn't a street car...
 
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#47
Since we are on a car theme now, I used to love my 73 Nova SS followed by a 74 Nova SS. Both had the 350 engine with the Turbo 350 tranny. I was young and stupidly wrecked the 73, removed some of the parts and added them to the 74. That was a very cool car, but by the early 90's it was becoming a money pit and I was getting tired of riding my motorcycle to work in the cold, rain and snow.

So I eventually got rid of it. I don't miss either of them anymore though as my 2015 Dodge Challenger is awesome. Gotta love new technology like Class D amps. :smug:
 
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#50
RoadRanger said:
He didn't want to run a spool?
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Once you put a spool then you twist axles, then you get cocky and put wider stickier tires on, then you twist the driveshaft into a pretzel, smoke a clutch, rip the shift dogs off 2nd gear, it never ends! Give me 400hp and less than 3500lbs and I’m happy to let 10-12” street radials break loose before any hard parts.
 
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#52
38FC2F57-7B4A-492C-875F-4F57F406AE8E.jpeg
RoadRanger said:
Yah, motor sickles were cheaper to break :D. Unfortunately more likely to break YOU though :meh:.
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Roger that! It took a long time to come back from this one but I think all the hand strength, muscle memory, and dexterity from playing bass was a major factor in my recovery. And yes I still have bikes!
 
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#54
Radarsonwheels said:
Once you put a spool then you twist axles, then you get cocky and put wider stickier tires on, then you twist the driveshaft into a pretzel, smoke a clutch, rip the shift dogs off 2nd gear, it never ends! Give me 400hp and less than 3500lbs and I’m happy to let 10-12” street radials break loose before any hard parts.
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What breaks is the weakest link.
Our 468 BB with a Turbo 350 and a narrowed 12 Bolt with 14" slicks
The rear has pro gears, Moser Axles with C-clip eliminator, heavy duty posi unit with decent spider gears, forgot who made the drive shaft or the U joints.
Full disclosure it had a spool for about 2 years when it was not driven on the street
The weakest link for us is the sprag and drum on the Turbo 350; If you give ATI about $350 you are all set although the sprag needs to be checked.
When this was a serious bracket car, the tranny had to come out after 200 runs for a check up.
He sells the gears and axles every 2 years at the Carlisle swap meet; they sell for good money too!
BTW, we built the first version of this car in 1976!

Love those early Nova's. My favorite is 66'-67'.
Those things were death traps with the flexible shock towers, poor steering geometry, and tiny drum brakes.
With today's front end clips, these can be really nice.
Our pal with too much money just took his simple 66' BB bracket car and decided he wanted to go 8's with pump gas and no power adders.
Car had a full cage, Dana, and Turbo 400 which were both rebuilt before a new engine
He's gone 9:10 but broke 2 engines getting there. 600+ CI and about $30K later, it looks like it might do it in the spring and not be a grenade...
 
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#58
Rockbobmel said:
Can I wedge a Honda Valkyrie into this hijack?
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Well since I’m the OP and no one seems to know exactly why what I did would tend to make a squealing sound I’m all for it. This thread was long ago hijacked brilliantly and effectively multiple times!

Around 2000 I had a 5 speed sportster that was bored out with axtel 3 13/16” cylinders- it was like 92 or 93 CID but still revved like a 1200. I thought I was the stoplight racing king of philadelphia until I pulled up beside this old black dude on a valkyrie.

He was skinny like maybe a buck thirty soaking wet and that V6 didn’t even know it was pulling a load. He hole shot me three lights in a row, carrying his front tire a couple inches off the ground all the way through the intersections but never wasting torque with big wheelies.

I never looked at those bikes the same after that! Amazing machines. The new ones look good in black too but the two tones are ugly.
 

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