A.S.S. Project (updated)

With regard to posting images for this thread a pal is gonner do the brain work on that next week as it’s easy peasey to him. I did post this a month or so ago but this site was having problems with it’s server. So I’ll repost it now, and before I do I’ll reread it and update it as I go, as gee a month is quite a long time and my focus has changed due to a huge upcoming gig late May.
In this thread I'm going to show you for starters how you can take a tatty old cab and bling it up to better than the day it left the factory. Most of the cabs I'll be dealing with all had price tags around the two grand mark - some close to three. That's a hell of a lot of wedge. Others I’m not sure how much they cost when new, but that info will come at some point.
About ten years ago I was never able to afford new A.S.S cabs. Personally I ain't into any other manufacturer. I think many cut corners and make compromises. To my mind sound isn't about compromise. You don't compromise on the DJ's, IE put second rate jocks on, or just so-so artists on the stage. So why do that with the sound kit? Never!
When I first got into rigs at about age 19. I was impressed by turbo-sound, and this mad other world looking freeky-deeky system run by a proper enthusiast / zany geezer called Froggy. A gig promoter called Gav used to hire Froggy's rig and that's how I came to know of a company called A.S.S. This was at a time (early 90’s) when Froggy had got his rig as good as he ever did. It was only during the last year due to images posted on these forums I learned for sure that was called a Concert System. An apt name. For if you get the A.S.S gear right you can point-source a big gig (concert) if you have enough. As for line array...go away! It's soulless. It’s about as exciting as a Ford. Big A.S.S rigs are the Lamborghini’s of the acoustic world!
I titled this thread A.S.S BS-600's as they will be some of the first images you'll see. I've been checking out these forums for over nine months and I've hardy seen a complete A.S.S system that's worth getting excited about! Yet I can tell you from experience, big A.S.S systems are very exciting indeed.
Everyone seems to be raving about Function-One these days. I think it's poo. Silver and purple. Whatever!! I think it's trying too hard to have a bling/wow effect. I'll show you bling/wow man, like you've never seen before. One of the reasons I think there are very few complete A.S.S systems is because they were so expensive. You’ll see many pairs of cabs and the occasional half decent collection, but nothing to get seriously thrilled about. And personally I cannot stand hotch-potch sound-systems with collections of cabs by different manufacturers. it may sound good but it don't look scrumptious, it ain’t well fit!
Also many expensive pro-cabs are not looked after and kept in tip-top condition. As to do so requires, space, tools, time and know-how. Many people on these forums acquire second hand A.S.S cabs. My threads will show you some of the best A.S.S cabs you’ve ever seen, in their full and total completeness as complete systems and in a condition better than the day they were made. Which for some of them was almost thirty years ago. And visually better than when they left the factory... because there’s something I really do not like - grills!!! Grills as far as I am concerned are added by the manufacturer to stop some idiot pouring the punch-up, fall over, talk bollox angry fluid in a cab, thus potentially ruining the driver. Grills are attached so the cab can sit in a club week in, week out for years on end and remain undamaged! That's all well and good, but all you see are various shaped box’s with grills attached that totally obscures one of the most appealing aspects of pro speaker cabs. The woodwork. Which is THE CABINET!
Firstly a pro-cabinet is about superb woodwork for acoustic performance. And the fact is some A.S.S cabs have a woodwork style that is proper lush. Personally I think you have to work with wood to actually get really excited about cab designs, rather than just appreciative. As said the majority of these cabs true beauty is hidden behind a grill; that for my requirements is totally unneeded! And when you get rid of the grill, and then put right a few other slightly tricky and time consuming things that you'll have to do to the cab when the grill is removed you end up with an A.S.S minimalist cab that screams look at my beauty and the clever powerful woodwork that is a major part of what I'm actually about!
Making ascetic changes/enhancements to one A.S.S cab is a fair amount of work, but to about sixty it's serious.
But do not forget most of these cabs cost two grand when new and some close on three. I actually thank my lucky stars I own what I do, and I intend to make this kit better than the day it was made. That's achieved in two ways, both of which I'll come to. One of them we're discussing!
The first A.S.S cabs I acquired, just about a year ago, were two BS-600's. I decided this cab would be the bass foundation. I didn't know how many more I would obtain. As like fuk, all this kit is second-hand coming from left, right and centre as it comes up. Now I have sixteen BS-600’s. That's a nice lump when put four wide by four high. Restoring all of those to a new condition is a large task. But it's the removing of the grill and the batons that the grills mount to is where that push to expand beyond the boundaries lies.
Believe it or not the surface area of the unneeded batons of one BS-600, that are attached to the cabs inner edge is quite a large amount. Get rid of them and the cabinet really and truly opens up. However the batons are fixed bastard tight with a rebate. When they’re gone the rebate will need to be filled, and the worst baton is the one where the end curve of the horn meets the outer edge of the cab. You really aren't going to want to remove that one, as when you do it rips the underlying wood and makes a dire mess. But you fill all that, and fill the other baton rebates with P38 body filler as well, which has got to be one of the best substances invented ever! It's like a paste that turns to rock, that can then be sculpted! Me loves it!
Then there's another thing that I really don't dig. Textured polyurethane paint. That rough effect paint. It's proper horrid!. I want a cabinet that once it's been 'opened up' (grills, batons, gone etc) I can make it bling. That rough paint is no good for da bling. An ultra smooth carbon matt black! With protective cloth over jacket for cab.
I have a whole host of A.S.S projects. You will see the most powerful Concert System ever! The most powerful for two reasons. Firstly whose ever actually seen an A.S.S Concert System, other than that catalogue image? And the stacks on that catalogue are mini Concert System stacks, as really you have twice the double 15 cabs and twice the double 12’s, and put at the bottom one of those fuk-off rear loaded 21” inch horns with the A.S.S logo embossed on it. It’s what you call the twin-towers. There's only one photograph in existence of a Concert System stack that Ian Miller owns. And that photo ain't all that.
The sixteen BS-600's will be the bass compliment to a mightily Concert System the likes of which very few will have seen. My Concert System cabs were made for a permanent instillation and had cloth covered thick as hell chicken wire gills on the fronts, that to fit flush had the vertical vanes cut down. To change the cab to the touring version with normal length vanes and added carrying handles was a fair amount of work. You’ll see images of the change. An dudes you just have not heard midrange until you have heard the midrange of one of these Concert Systems. AND THAT'S A FACT brethren!!! Just think about it. You have the double 12” horns, that are long throw horns like no other, they are giving you lower mids. Then you have on top a whacking great radial flared horn with a very powerful 2” compression driver throwing at ya upper mid. But it doesn't finish there homeboyz (and gurlz) cause on top of that is something very, very special indeed. An acoustic lens, also with a well phat two inch driver, that’s a very top of the range jobbie, that's delivering to you midrange in an acoustic manner (as it’s coming through a lens) not done these days. And it will blow you away. And as for rig-bling. It's off the fookin' scale! Function One… up yer bum!
Plus what you will see will be the very rare acoustic lens cab (not seen in the A.S.S catalogue) that has included the mini acoustic lens with a 1” compression driver placed snugly under the big lens all in the same cab. Yeah didn’t know about that sucker did yer. Froggy had those ones!
The components for this lens cab which I need to get such as the conical horn that’s inside the cab that the driver bolts on to that’s then bolted to the slanted metal plates are coming over from New York, when I wish for them as they have been paid for.
As my system was missing the lens’s Ian Miller is letting me check out his original A.S.S lens box so I can build two perfectly identical box’s true to the originals while using some of the vintage JBL bits such as the interior conical horn (for the driver) that’s come over from the states.
There's a lot of work still to do with the Concert System, and none of ya gonner see a single image until the BS-600 (x16) bass lump is ready. I got kinda excited today as it was a day spent using a compressor and spray gun that I bought last summer. Spray painting is about prep-work, prep-work and more prep-work to get an awesome finish. And cabs that have been knocked around for fifteen years need a lot of prep work before you can spray em. The Concert System upper bass and lower midrange cabs are coming up for thirty years old and they needed soooo much work as you'll see. As I have taken images of them at various stages.
The other reason the Concert System will sound far better than when it was originally made is because drivers have improved in the last thirty years. And the lower mid 12” cabs and double 15 inch punchy upper bass cabs will be reloaded with the best drivers this world has developed so far. This will be frightening. Froggy’s when ran to the max sent chills down your spine. We used to have Carl Cox, Slipmatt and many of the countries best dek masters play on that rig at events we put on at the Essex University 15 years ago. {Which stop press! Since I first wrote this my pal GAv has been in touch and has booked the Essex Uni for 23rd May and I’m working real hard to make a lot of Reflekta look seriously wicked for that night, of which I will post the images, we have some of the countries top DJ’s and live acts on that night, it’s going to be soooo pukka}
Where were we??? Oh yeah all this restoration work is very much worth doing as when these rigs are set up it'll often be outdoors in France where you can let rip in areas of scrumptious natural beauty; meaning the surrounding environment where your rhythms are released are forests, lakes and mountains. With no sound restrictions or ANY restrictions for that matter, and that’s for a time duration for as long as you friggin well like. TEKNIVAL. Free party, Free People, Free Future. On-Top-Non-Stop! ...cause me likes it a lot!!
The plan was that in a year or so's time when the Concert System and BS-600 subs are all done, it'll be time to get stuck into a mini mountain of A.S.S Reflekta MX600's, MX1200's and eight of those rear folded matching left and right (how cool is that) 21" subs with the A.S.S logo embossed on it. However since I first posted this thread a few weeks back just days before the sites sever went Pete Tong the recent restoration work in the last couple of weeks has all been on Reflekta MX1200 cabs to make as many as possible lush for 23rd May.
On the big 21” horn subs - when you remove the grills you get to actually see the clever design of matched ‘left handed’ and ‘right handed’ subs. Now that one of those has been fully restored with all the batons gone and rebates filled and sprayed dark grey (undercoat) it looks so cool.
These A.S.S systems when run together as one mobile summer-thunder machine will be the baddest A.S.S system in the world, and span three decades of one mans acoustic genius - who designed such sexy cabinets. That if they were chicks would be the very most beautiful and dirty!
The backdrops we use for inside gigs were sprayed by my good friend Lawrence (Kaos) whose the airbrush artist for the McClaren Formula 1 team. He does their cars. You will freak when you see these drops. {Off which we’re putting them up on 23rd May}
It occurred to me the other day that when I was a kid I was always amazed at how much a simple conical megaphone would amplify ones voice, even a conical rolled up cone of paper will amplify someone's voice MUCH more than your voice box on it’s own. Apply that principle to specific A.S.S cabs and you have the pure fundamentals and can hopefully understand why certain A.S.S cabs seem to be just so friggin’ awesome. It’s because the design of the cab is an amplifier in itself.
Now you know why a megaphone makes up part of the A of A.S.S. Of which on my 21” subs the ‘embossed’ megaphone will be subtlety highlighted.
Well must go.
Jim

Hey Jim

Good work!!!

Bring on the pictures! My mouth is watering at the thought!!!

Reflekta is the LOUD, I cant wait to hear it all up and running... If you need any help please feel free to ask, the forum is full of A.S.S. followers and even home to the A.S.S. father!

Bloody 'ell, what more can I say.