Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: HTH AMPS on August 27, 2011, 07:27:50 PM

Title: new mixing desk day...
Post by: HTH AMPS on August 27, 2011, 07:27:50 PM
got myself a bargain on ebay... an Allen & Heath GL3 desk, fully flight-cased for £145 delivered. 

these were the thick end of two grand back in the mid-90s when they came out.  pretty chuffed with this one, will be a god-send for live work (certainly a million times better than the Behringer desk we've been using; which is now on it's last legs after only a year of weekend gigging).

Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: HTH AMPS on August 27, 2011, 07:28:42 PM
its a 16:4:2 desk if anyone wants to know.
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: nfe on August 27, 2011, 07:32:50 PM
Good desk that. The Allen and Heath stuff is brilliant.
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: HTH AMPS on August 27, 2011, 09:32:28 PM
with the flight case the whole lot weighs 49kg - it's a heavy bit of kit to cart round, but it'll be worth it (especially mixing live drums).

Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: AndyR on August 28, 2011, 09:46:00 AM
Nice one.

And a bit of a steal if all the channels/groups are working ok. (And I'm guessing fixable for you if any of them exhibit anything dodgy).
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: Frank on August 28, 2011, 10:15:13 AM
No crackly pots? LEDs all working?

Would you take £150 for it right now, turn a quick profit on it?
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: JacksonRR on August 28, 2011, 05:00:37 PM
Jealous. It's great to find an excellent deal every once in a while, yeah?
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: nfe on August 29, 2011, 12:57:06 PM
No crackly pots? LEDs all working?

Would you take £150 for it right now, turn a quick profit on it?

Worth the hassle for a fiver, definitely.

I'm not sure whether this post was a joke or serious but comical.
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: HTH AMPS on August 29, 2011, 03:50:58 PM
No crackly pots? LEDs all working?

Would you take £150 for it right now, turn a quick profit on it?

Worth the hassle for a fiver, definitely.

I'm not sure whether this post was a joke or serious but comical.

I did laugh fwiw - as if I'd sell this for £150.00, the guy must have been mad to sell so cheap (the flight case alone is worth the winning bid).

The desk was sold to me as fully functioning, so thats what I'm expecting - the odd crackly pot or fader can easily be sorted.  Non-working channels would be another thing entirely and I'd be having words with the seller.  I'll see how it all works out at our next rehearsal.

Its got a lot of TL022 opamps in the signal path which could easily be upgraded to a lower-noise opamp, but I figure you'll not hear hiss over the br00tal volume of my half stack  :lol:
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: HTH AMPS on August 29, 2011, 03:52:16 PM
No crackly pots? LEDs all working?

Would you take £150 for it right now, turn a quick profit on it?

I'd flip it for £300 if you're interested  :lol:
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: psy on August 30, 2011, 01:40:43 PM
Nice find, it's a million times nicer than the Behringer mixer head I've been using for the past 8 years or so.
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: Johnny Mac on September 06, 2011, 09:28:41 PM
Wow you did well there. What a great bargain
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: HTH AMPS on September 06, 2011, 11:50:47 PM
we used it last night at rehearsals, the tonality was WAY better - being able to cut some low mids while boosting high mids (for vocal) is a god-send.
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: hunter on September 07, 2011, 02:56:45 PM
Awesome deal. The seller must be on crack.
Title: Re: new mixing desk day...
Post by: HTH AMPS on September 10, 2011, 11:53:18 AM
I'd never have thought a desk could make SO much difference to the sound of a band's mix, but I can confirm that comparing this to our old Behringer desk is like comparing chalk and cheese. 

The price difference is obvious, but I wasn't expecting so much of an improvement.  The whole mix is still as loud, but the tonality the desk imparts is so sweet that it doesn't feel overly loud or fatiguing.  The mix seems much more cohesive too, like the difference between a monitor mix and a pro-mix with compression and such added.

All the lads in the band commented on how much better it sounds and the singer was happy as his vocals can be EQ'd to pop right out in the mix (the Behringer was always troublesome in this respect and didn't carry the vocals very well).

Having sweepable high and low mids is a god-send and I've no idea how we managed without it previously.  It gets rid of the mud in the mix and keeps everything punchy.  My mandolin actually sounds sweet out front now, not an annoying scratchy noise out front.

You might say I'm happy with it   :D