Shure Vocal Master pa

First question is, how much are they asking? It shouldn't be much, which makes me say, "why the heck not?"

 

It’s the best the 1960’s had to offer. Pretty dreadful by today’s standards, though if you are into the aesthetics and can live with the performance it’s cool.

 

With persistence you can maybe find an old Fender 100 watt Tube PA that would be a great mod platform, have a similar aesthetic, and with a few tweaks could actually sound world class for both guitar and bass. But for 50-80 bucks you might have a nice ride with the Shure, just realize that those speakers will not love distorted guitar much at all.

 

It was the first real PA that my band had in the 60’s. There were two columns that fit in a car trunk. It’s possible that the paper cones might be in pretty rough shape due to time. Some of those old cones would turn to dust. These amps stayed in production into the 70’s as I recall.

I used a Shure model 55 Unidyne studio mic with it which I still have.

 

I bet if you offered $60 they'd take it gleefully. I promise you there won't be any bidding wars for that thing. (VMs were great in their day but that day is long long gone.)

 

Replaced (in a quantum leap) by the Pro Master. Store where I worked in high school moved a poop-ton of them.
Vintage 1979 Shure Pro Master Power Console Model 700 | Shane's Music Shoppe | Reverb

 

I think you're wasting your time and money and will be unhappy with the results. You're starting with 60 year old technology that wasn't even meant for guitar to begin with. It will be really cool for about 5 minutes; then you'll wonder what the hell you were thinking and how the hell you'll get rid of that albatross.

 

The power amp for the Shure Vocal Master is a current feedback design - paired with the speakers that it came with, the system performance is "greater than the sum of its parts" (more hi-fi) in some respects. It's not at all a standard amplifier topology - it's clever, it works very well (in 1960's terms) as a system for what it was designed for (vocals especially). It's just not...normal.

Repurposing that amplifier with random speakers, in a completely different application, what you've got is a crapshoot. It'll try (and succeed) in creating a very different EQ though those speakers than what you'd hear with a standard power amp - the places where the speaker has higher impedance will be emphasized, and the mids won't - it'll be an interesting version of "scooped".

I don't know if you'll like the result or not. I'm just letting you know it'll be an experiment, with some variables you didn't (until now) expect. I'm all for experimentation, assuming you can afford to blow the cash if you don't like the result. Just be aware that you're on the "cutting edge" if you decide to do this.

 

Country Road band I was with waaaaay back when (mid 70's) carried 6 of the tall columns for FOH and 6 of the half columns for monitors.

Can't remember what they were powered with, it was Shure somethings and some Sunn (?) power amps.

Sounded pretty good to my young ears and never gave us any problems, sonically covered alot of ground too, (we miked the backline back then, no DI's available.)

The Vocal Master's sounded "MUCH" better than other column style cabinets that came along (PV's, Fender's, ect.)

Not shure how they'd do as a guitar amp/cab.

 

Our band had that setup years ago. Wouldn't take it even for free.

 

First time I saw floor monitors, Sly and the Family Stone would use them as monitors

 

My band had the Vocal Master in 1972. At some point we replaced the column speakers with JBL scoops and horns and used one of the columns as a monitor. Big improvement in volume and sound quality.

 

If I brought something like that home my wife would ask me what was I was thinking... It would probably be one of those painful times I'd have to admit she was right.

My bet is if you buy it... you'd never be able to sell it again, and you'd have to bust it up to get rid of it.

Admittedly I've got a pile of old Ramsa speakers to quench my thirst for retro gear. (8 of em') So I may be just about as senile.

 

I remember seeing the Buddy Rich band using one in the 70’s.
My friend had one around 1975.
Our “state of the art” Sunn, sounded much better. Even back then, 10 years in advancement of gear made a difference.
If you buy it, don’t expect much.

 

Had one in a dive band in the '70s. Good for that but the Mitchell cabs and Biamp board in the next band were way more robust.....

 

Shure and Peavey

 

My band, back in 73, had a VM rig, but strictly for vocals. It worked okay, but once we got into some big clubs, we acquired a couple of Aztec Voice of the Theater speakers (A5?) and powered those with the VM head to one, and a Shure Power Master slave amp, also 100W, as I recall. The Shure columns just went away.