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Author Topic: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100  (Read 16561 times)

Richard Stevens

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Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« on: February 11, 2013, 01:31:47 PM »

Greeting, all. First post from a neo-noob: part-time gigging guitarist/soundman in the '70s-'80s, away from live music for 25-ish years, now all growed up and now the father of a bass-playing teenager starting his first band.  I've been trying to think of ways to help them with their vocal-monitoring needs, working with a near-zero budget. The good news is, almost anything will be a step up from their current rig: an SM58 into my spare Vox Pathfinder guitar amp; 15 awesome watts of SS power into an 8" speaker. 

In this context, I was browsing a music store the other day, and came across and intersting old piece: a Yamaha EM100ii.  Being an old fart, I remember these fondly from back in the day.  They impress me as serious-soundgear-made smaller, rather than the glorified guitar amps that passed as small PAs (Peavey, Earth, Univox, Traynor) back when I was in highschool.  Anyway, this particular EM100ii is a musieum piece, it must have been stored in a closet for its entire life.  Not even a scratch in the tolex.  I fell instantly in love, and want to give it a nice home.

It has a good, solid feature set for a small band-practice-in-the-family room powered mixer. It's also built like a tank compared to today's low-end gear: chassis-mounted connectors, metal-shaft pots, heavy-duty everything, and room to get your fingers around the controls. Problem is, it's woefully underpowered by any modern standard: 50 w/ch stereo at 8 ohms.

So my question is, is this fondly-regarded piece of history in any way useful in 2013?  What sort of speakers would make the most of its paltry output?  Is 50 watts enough to drive a modern 12+horn passive wedge?  I'm remembering that back when this thing was new, we didn't throw away half our amp power in a passive crossover: vocal cabs were one-way, starting with little 2x10" cabs and working up to 4x12" columns.   I assume there's a good reason we don't do things this way any more; I can't recall the last time I saw a compact PA cabinet that wasn't at least two-way passive.

Enough of my nostalgic rambling...  Is there any way to make this little cutie useful for anything beyond calling bingo numbers?   Or should I tell the kids to start saving their allowance, and they're stuck with the Pathfinder until they can afford some 21st-century soundgear?
« Last Edit: February 11, 2013, 02:43:37 PM by Richard Stevens »
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Jerome Malsack

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Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2013, 03:05:11 PM »

I would not consider this unless it was used at home for practice and price would be cheap  75 or about. 

S/N is luck to be 75?  current modern UBB1002 is around 90.  5 inputs no amp.  used price about same. 

The inexpensive Kustom 10 floor monitor is 60 watt 2 way.  about 70 dollar.

this wont fill a bar but works for a garage band if your getting a start and not spending much. 
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Richard Stevens

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Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2013, 08:25:43 PM »

Yeah, this would be for home practice only.  The band members are all 16, not serious about a lot of gigging. Chances are, they'll all part ways and go off to different colleges and careers in a few years.  In the meantime, I want to encourage the "band" thing as a learning/team building experience.

If they get into gigging beyond the house party stage, we'll look into renting or buying some "real" sound gear.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2013, 08:27:46 PM by Richard Stevens »
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Gus Housen

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Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2013, 09:41:44 PM »

my favorite no dough used PA head is the old xr600 c or b 210 watts @ 4 ohms. This will get loud enough to drive old 100/150 watt speakers like Sp2's or whatever bargain you find.

Those old em100's really arent loud enough to compete with a drum set, or any decent guitar amp.

They are bairley loud enough for coffee shop gigs, I have a buddy who does childrens music in libraries and it barely did the job.
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David Parker

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Richard Stevens

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Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2013, 08:56:49 AM »

Yes, that is highly amusing.  It's not even the "ii" version.  The one in the auction has hi-z inputs.  It's also exactly ten times the price I'd be willing to pay.  LOL
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Mark McFarlane

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Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2013, 09:27:30 AM »

Yes, that is highly amusing.  It's not even the "ii" version.  The one in the auction has hi-z inputs.  It's also exactly ten times the price I'd be willing to pay.  LOL

Yah, but it's a vintage unit.
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Mark McFarlane

Richard Stevens

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Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #7 on: February 13, 2013, 10:04:38 AM »

I appreciate all the answers and the general sentiment (most likely correct) that the EM100ii is under-powered.  However, I couldn't resist.  I stopped at the store on my way home from Albany yesterday.  When I asked about it, the salesman immediately warned me (to his credit) that it's short on power, which I told him I understood.  He didn't know its back story or why it's so clean after 35 years.  He did say he had been reluctant to take it in, but since it was in such good shape, he had.  A quick demo later, I offered him $70 and we had a deal.



We're going to use it for band rehearsals at home, and I'll offer it to my daughters' little private school (really little: 24 kids total) for meetings, talent shows, etc.  They often show videos that the kids have produced in their classes to the all-school meetings, and need something a little better than a pair of computer speakers.

If my son's band ever gets to the point where they're gigging, I'll recommend they rent powered mains and use the internal amps for monitors, or more likely add external power for monitors, too, and save the little internal amps for around the house.  Now, I need to find a deal on some used wedges, I suppose.

Anyway, for $70 it's fun to own this little piece of audio history, especailly since it's in like-new condition. Here's to 35 more years.
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David Parker

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Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #8 on: February 13, 2013, 10:32:15 AM »

I appreciate all the answers and the general sentiment (most likely correct) that the EM100ii is under-powered.  However, I couldn't resist.  I stopped at the store on my way home from Albany yesterday.  When I asked about it, the salesman immediately warned me (to his credit) that it's short on power, which I told him I understood.  He didn't know its back story or why it's so clean after 35 years.  He did say he had been reluctant to take it in, but since it was in such good shape, he had.  A quick demo later, I offered him $70 and we had a deal.



We're going to use it for band rehearsals at home, and I'll offer it to my daughters' little private school (really little: 24 kids total) for meetings, talent shows, etc.  They often show videos that the kids have produced in their classes to the all-school meetings, and need something a little better than a pair of computer speakers.

If my son's band ever gets to the point where they're gigging, I'll recommend they rent powered mains and use the internal amps for monitors, or more likely add external power for monitors, too, and save the little internal amps for around the house.  Now, I need to find a deal on some used wedges, I suppose.

Anyway, for $70 it's fun to own this little piece of audio history, especailly since it's in like-new condition. Here's to 35 more years.

monitors are critical to a good performance. scrimping on monitor power is a big mistake. I use the same amps on my mains as I do my monitors. Best bet, and the cheapest route if you are starting from scratch, is to go with in ear monitors
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Geoff Doane

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Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2013, 01:28:09 PM »

Does the mk II at least have XLR inputs (likely not balanced), so you don't have to mess around with adapters for your microphones?  Here's an EM-200 that was offered locally, although it's not quite as pristine:

http://halifax.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-musical-instruments-pro-audio-recording-equip-Vintage-Yamaha-EM-series-200-powered-mixer-REDUCED-PRICE-MUST-GO-W0QQAdIdZ455418647

If that link has expired (it was "sale pending"), here's the original owner's manual:

http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/pdf/pa/english/mixers/EM200_en_om.pdf

A coffee house that I used to play at in the very early '80s had one of these and a pair of A4115H boxes (not sure why they had a powered mixer and powered cabinets).  That might have been fine for the folkies, but it didn't cut it for our punk band.  I think we tried to use the A4115Hs as monitors.  ::)

GTD
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Richard Stevens

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Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #10 on: February 13, 2013, 01:48:15 PM »

Yes, the EM100II has XLR inputs.  On the 100, they are indeed unbalanced.  On the higher-level models, starting with the 2x75 watt EM150, you could add optional transformer modules to give you balanced ins.  Always check used EM150s and EM200s to see if they have the modules.

I played a lot of small bar and frat house gigs with A4115H cabinets in the '80s, but we usually ran four of them, and we weren't playing punk.  I wish I still had our monitors from those days, Yamahas with the same 15" and horn as the A4115H, put in an unpowered wedge.  They were large and unwieldy, but not heavy, since they were made of plywood instead of MDF, and kicked booty. 

Good old days...
« Last Edit: February 13, 2013, 01:49:51 PM by Richard Stevens »
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Geoff Doane

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Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #11 on: February 13, 2013, 02:09:25 PM »

I wish I still had our monitors from those days, Yamahas with the same 15" and horn as the A4115H, put in an unpowered wedge.  They were large and unwieldy, but not heavy, since they were made of plywood instead of MDF, and kicked booty. 


My memory of the S2115H monitors is a little different.  I had a pair of them in the '80s, and they were the best sounding monitors I owned at the time, but they were HEAVY.  I took a little bit of heat for shirking work from the guys working with me on a 3 am load-out one night, until they found out I was negotiating the sale of those monitors to the band we had just worked the week with.  Then all was forgiven.

There was a later version of these that may have been plywood, but the ones I had were definitely MDF.  They wouldn't hold screws worth a damn!

GTD
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Richard Stevens

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Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #12 on: February 13, 2013, 03:08:59 PM »

You might be right. I don't recall them being all that heavy, but I definitely remember having the hinges and latches falling off all the time.  Also, replacing the plastic jack/crossover plate with a piece of 1/8" aluminum.
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Making do with old gear? Yamaha EM100
« Reply #12 on: February 13, 2013, 03:08:59 PM »


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