Tour Buses

[Rudy]

DB, I thought that I would be able to get away with just a picture show. I can see now that this tour bus venture will become all encompassing. I'll be glad to describe the techniques that are used, in making what you see in the photos.
I have lots of pics and can get more. What I will do, during the week, is take some photos of the systems that are installed in the bays underneath of the ones we are working on. How's that for techno-info? That will be fun.
Who knows, this thread may run for miles.
Mr. Sandman has just come to pay me a visit, so off I go to dreamland. Often times, dreamland is better than anything I have ever seen on a television. I have not owned a television for over ten years.
Long live lentil soup! Rudy

[Rudy]

Hello, for the next installment, we will look at a few pictures from Nelly's Bus. For those of you who don't know who Nelly is, (I did not either), he had a hit on the jukebox at the bowling alley, and across America, I'm sure, that was played constantly.
He liked car audio, so all the sound systems were 12 volt systems. Oh yes, that was a BIG power draw. The bus was done in shiny black laminate, black upholstery, AND, if I remember correctly, the outside of the bus was black as well. We'll start with the driver's area.

[Rudy]

Oh, let me jump outside the door right now to show you a rack of car stereo amplifiers that we installed in one of the bays under the bus.



There are five of those beefy monsters.

[Rudy]

Let's go back in. When you open the bus door, the first thing you see is the lit (LED ropelight), Plexiglas rendition of his logo.



It is built in to the door panel that we made.

[Rudy]

Back to the audio. There were speakers EVERYWHERE! Here are a couple of photos. We actually built the speaker boxes and cabinets to house these things.



This one is under one of the couches.

[Rudy]

Here are a bunch of speakers in the ceiling.

[Rudy]

Next, we are still in the front lounge. This table you are seeing is one of my favorites. I used a black solid surface material, (Avonite), with a dark blue accent strip in the middle. On top of that, we used blue rope light in there.

[Rudy]

This is one of my favorite photos of all that I have. It is a close up of the table. Normally, I just drill some holes and install plastic cup holders in the tables. On this one, I made some sunken platforms that were lit as well.

[Rudy]

One last view. This is the bed in the rear of the bus.

[Rudy]

We are done with Nelly's bus. I really should go play my accordion now. More pictures are to come. Just because I build these buses for a living, doesn't mean that I find them very attractive. I just want you all to know that. I am providing these pictures because few people get to see the inside of these things.
I'd rather be posting photos of my simple Blue Bird build. There will be more of that, soon.

[Sharkey]

Jeez, what an ugly black hyperhearse that thing is! Given that this guy must have enough money to buy the very best audio equipment that can be had, and the coach has probably a 25 or 30 kW four-cylinder turbo diesel generator that runs virtually all the appliances, why would this tool opt for car stereo equipment. I mean, racked sets of vintage McIntosh tube-type amplifiers, or Hafler MOSFET units, but car stereo equipment? In a car, yes. In a modest conversion, yes. In excess in a coach like this, no.

Keep 'em coming Rudy. It's always interesting to see how much poor judgement and lack of taste people with too much money can exhibit.

[TMAX]

When your goal is boom and thump, fidelity be damned. Save the tubed Macs for those who can appreciate music.

TMAX

[Sharkey]

Oh yeah, I forgot, this guy's a rap gangsta, I doubt that the source material is actually melodic.

[Rudy]

To all the fans, there are more tour bus pics coming. Rudy