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Stanley Clarke "Giant Softball" Speaker Cab

S

spottorf

Aug 9, 2006
9
0
#1
Here is a question that has been with me for years. During the '76 RTF Romantic Warrior Tour, Stanley Clarke was using what looked like a very large softball (sphere) suspended in a frame above a large round pan, as a speaker cabinet.

The sphere/cabinet looked like it was made of smooth, white painted fiberglass and appeared to have a number of 10" speakers around the outside. It also had a 15" or 18" on the bottom of the ball, firing down into the pan. Does anyone have information on this?
 
#4
No really, that is what it looked like. I kid you not. Serious. I suppose I could go to Stanley's web site and ask. I have been there before, but then they start start sending me adverts for his new collection of CD's. But then, I would not have to suffer the ridicule that I find here ... :)
 
#5
spottorf said:
Here is a question that has been with me for years. During the '76 RTF Romantic Warrior Tour, Stanley Clarke was using what looked like a very large softball (sphere) suspended in a frame above a large round pan, as a speaker cabinet.

The sphere/cabinet looked like it was made of smooth, white painted fiberglass and appeared to have a number of 10" speakers around the outside. It also had a 15" or 18" on the bottom of the ball, firing down into the pan. Does anyone have information on this?
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you're talking about! I was playing in a large disco band around 1978. We had two of those speakers as part of our PA (in addition to large subs/horns/etc. ). I have no idea who the manufacturer was, but I do know that they sort of disappeared from the scene very quickly. I really don't recall any sonic advantages-I think they were just a bunch of hype. Like they say, if you remember the 70's, you weren't really there... :hiding: :ninja: :D
 
#6
spottorf said:
No really, that is what it looked like. I kid you not. Serious. I suppose I could go to Stanley's web site and ask. I have been there before, but then they start start sending me adverts for his new collection of CD's. But then, I would not have to suffer the ridicule that I find here ... :)
Click to expand...

Oh, c'mon, the abuse is just getting started.:cool:

I saw a date on the '76 RTF tour. I remember the rig as being a triamped deal, and the part-spherical part was sort of similar to the Dead's Wall Of Sound's array of 5s. For some reason I'm thinking Stanley was a Kustom endorser at that time, but hey, it was the mid-70's!
 
#7
Passinwind said:
Oh, c'mon, the abuse is just getting started.:cool:

I saw a date on the '76 RTF tour. I remember the rig as being a triamped deal, and the part-spherical part was sort of similar to the Dead's Wall Of Sound's array of 5s.!
Click to expand...
If it worked it wouldn't have been relegated to the dust bin of time. All you end up with from a sperical array is 3D comb filtering. :bawl:
 
#13
This one?
 

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#15
I found a picture in my "Guitar Handbook" of one of Stanley's rigs. It says he had a plexiglass dome loaded with 24 4-1/2inch speakers and two cabs loaded with single 15" speakers. But that is all that it shows. In front of the cabs is a Carl Thompson Piccolo bass and two Alembics.

I would post the picture I have, but I don't have a scanner. Sorry. Hope this helps.
 
#16
spottorf said:
No really, that is what it looked like. I kid you not. Serious. I suppose I could go to Stanley's web site and ask. I have been there before, but then they start start sending me adverts for his new collection of CD's. But then, I would not have to suffer the ridicule that I find here ... :)
Click to expand...

I never trust anything that I remember from the 70s. :)
 
#18
I also saw that tour back in the day, and remember that stage rig. I assume that was Stanley's attempt to get his very treble oriented sound from a backline rig prior to the days of full range bass cabs with tweeters and crossovers.
 
#20
I know who made those cabinets. They had 4 1/2 inch speakers in the dome. A genius named Mike Buyukas designed and built them. He also built those cabinets
Want a 9 saw in the "Guitar Handbook." Mike is from my old home town and I have his speaker cabinets and they still sound better than anything else I've heard in 50 years! Mike got Al Di Meola his gig with Return to Forever and his wife sang on Al's first solo record. The specific 4 1/2" speakers were discontinued and Mike couldn't find adequate replacements. Mike was a brilliant designer but a lousy businessman. The company was called RM Sound. The Rolling Stones bought Mike's monitors after using them at Electric Lady Studios back in the 70's. They bought them right from the studio!
 
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