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Shure Vocal Master pa

#41
I had the head and two of the columns as well. The head found a new home in the late 80's and as far as I know the church I donated the columns to (in the 1990's IIRC) is likely still using them for simple PA duty, smaller stage/background music, and such.

They weren't the worst thing to move around when I had full sized vans, but in much else transport wasn't all that simple. Great gear at the time IMO for vocals and acoustic guitar on folk, country, bluegrass, and lighter rock. Cast iron bass Atlas mic stands, SM58 mics and a Shure VM rig were pretty much meat and potatoes for a lot of working bands back in the day.

As an aside I still have six of those Atlas mic stands and a stash of those rubber feet that always got knocked off loading and unloading along with the push-on washer things that went with them.
 
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#43
TheReceder said:
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.

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I love Ramsa speakers! They are by Panasonic, for those who don't know. I used to DJ jazz gigs in Tokyo with a pair of 12 inch Ramsa speakers powered by a Dr. Amp 15 watt per channel class D amp. All my gear minus the speakers had to fit in my backpack. Stupid loud even at 15 watts!
 
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#44
Well this is a trip down memory lane for me.
In my high school garage band days, (well basement band days in Northern VA) we had this as our PA. We thought we were totally big time with our own PA. For what we did, it worked great in the late 60's, early 70's.
THEN, in the very early days of Genz Benz, Chandler AZ garage days (early/mid 1980's), I had a good friend who owned a local music store in PHX (Gary Lowe) and he had all the connections for used gear and special buys. So some how he connected with Shure and they had 10" drivers that he was told were surplus and used in the Shure Vocal "Blaster" columns. So he bought the surplus drivers and Genz Benz built our first PA columns using these speakers, as a 2x10" column with a tweeter on top. they were compact, ported cabs and they sounded really nice. AND low and behold we discovered that they were excellent for blues harp players and general PA. They actually had a really nice smooth break up for that type of use.
There were a few really hot blues bands in PHX and Tucson at the time and he sold them all on these columns. I have a picture somewhere of my daughter (at 7 or 8 yrs old) sitting on a pair in his shop. I must have made 50+ pairs or more of those things over a couple of years. I even saw them used in sports bars around ASU in their outdoor patio areas---10 to 15 years or more afterwards.
You never know where you're going to find a valuable component that actually finds a good re-use. Sorry for the memory dump but I do have fond memories of that system.
 
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#46
I was playing in a Chicago/BS&T (MALE BOX) cover band at a festival at a place called Idora Park in Ohio back in the 70's. David Cassidy (I Think I Love You) was the headliner. The Jaggars (The Rapper) was playing there also. They use 4 Shure Vocal Master columns with a head and a slave amp. They only used it for vocals and all in all it sounded pretty good.
 
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#48
My band had one and the singer got two more columns and a Shure power amp. We rented it to Oliver (sang "Gene" in a musical "Oliver"). I rented his bass player my Vox Westminster. Our cabinets had speakers blow out or get raspy and were easily tipped over.
 
#49
We used a Vocal Master head and a slave to power 4 Altec A7's. Those speakers were so efficient that you could drive them with a transistor radio. They sounded wonderful with those Shure amps. We used them for vocals, horns and drums. The bass, guitar, and Kb used stage amps only. Somehow we made it all work. We schlepped those A7's, B3's, Leslies, Acoustic 361's, and Marshall 100's with 8 12's and never gave it a 2nd thought. I sure miss those days.
 
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#50
The Shure Vocal Master was just what its name says. For voice it was really good; for instruments and general sound reinforcement … um, NO! But we’ve seen a lot of advances in this type of equipment in the six or so decades since it came on the market. I would not buy a Vocal Master unless it would be only as a collector.
 
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#51
Before the Vocal Master came along most high school age bands were using a Bogen PA amp with a couple of University or Atlas horns. Not full range but it was loud. The band I was in only had one Atlas horn but it was a really big one and we ran it with a guitar amp. It was struggle for a bunch of kids to put together any kind of PA system. We had one member who was embezzling money from his father's drug store to buy gear and stage clothes. Other members were stealing mics from the school auditorium or local churches. After I got out of high school and started playing nightclubs four of our band members were riding together when their car was struck by a train in a rural area of Oregon. They all survived and got large monetary settlements from the railroad. One of the first things they purchased was a Shure Vocal Master (replacing a Fender Solid State PA which was junk) along with guitars, amps, and new cars.
 
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#52
If you have the cash to spare and the itch to scratch - why not . It seems you’ve been well warned about your prospects of it being really good are somewhat dubious but that doesn’t mean it won’t be acceptable to you - for your purposes ..... At the very least you’ll have a cool looking piece for your music room - Kelly
 
#53
In the early and mid 70's The Shure Vocal Master was THE P.A. system to have. Only until the later part of the 70's did the numerous bands I played in, begin buying and using components- one band I was in bought a Crown DC300, a DC150, a crossover, and a small mixer. The snake, was easily the most problematic component of the system. The speaker boxes were the 'Perkins' box style with JBL's, and big Heil horns. One on each side of the stage. That PA was louder than even some I hear today! I always helped carry all of this stuff... leading to some really unpleasant memories.....
I had some dress pants ripped, and have SCARS, from the gouges in my legs, from the sharp edged aluminum extrusions of those HEAVY Vocal Master columns, which were really not engineered like the ergonomic/ user friendly stuff we have today. Simple luggage style side handles placed them in a Rub-your-leg position as you carried them.
I also remember that that PA was prone to feeding back... all are, but it seemed common, and the low power meant you had to crank it more than it was designed to be cranked. I do remember the 'good old days,' but the Vocal Master is where it belongs, in the PA Purgatory of obsolescence.
 
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#54
About '92 I bought a Vocal Master and a pair of Peavey column speakers for $150. It was what I could afford. We ran vocals and an acoustic guitar through it, which made them loud enough to hear along with acoustic drums and electric guitar and bass through their own amps. We thought we were pretty cool, and had some great times.
It would not be my choice for modding into a guitar amp.
 
#56
Woodstock changed everything, PA’s started getting bigger. Acoustic Control Corp was in the right place at the right time. I recall bands using stacks of their cabinets.

This is also when bands found out about blowing transistor based amps when using outdoor generators.
 
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#57
My kid band used a Shure Vocal Master through these Fender columns. It actually worked very well in HS gyms because there was very tame high-end, which let us set it up in line with our amps so we could hear it.
Fender PA.jpg
 
#59
My memories of the Shure Vocalmaster we’re how heavy it was, how big it was, and how weird it sounded. It definitely not a guitar amp. Just my take. At the time we had one, it sounded great alongside the Bogen P.A. we had previously. The Peavey we had after it was a big improvement. One thing for sure it was a very cool design.,
 

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