Backdrop?

Jasaoke · Post by **Jasaoke** » Sunday Mar 24, 2013

Has anyone ever used, experimented with, or researched a portable backdrop for a band? I think it would be really nice to be able to control your background. It's great to be mobile and to play in all different places, but sometimes you get stuck in a corner or in front of something unsightly. I think something as simple as a clothesline with plain sheets on it would be a bit more attractive than, say, a stack of chairs or whatever might be around the 'stage area'. I think it would also help making a lighting rig "pop".

I'd love to hear thoughts and experiences.

Colton · Post by **Colton** » Sunday Mar 24, 2013

You can make cheap stands from pvc pipe...

Merge · Post by **Merge** » Sunday Mar 24, 2013

When I was playing in my old band, we had our own lighting rig. It was 2 trees and some homemade scaffolding. We bought some extra large black curtains, and sewed some grommets into them. The pin lights we used had long bolts on them, so we ran the bolts through the grommets and attached both to the scaffold. The main job of the backdrop was to hide all of the cables we used for the lights, but it also had a good look to it.

sunsetbass · Post by **sunsetbass** » Monday Mar 25, 2013

Merge wrote:When I was playing in my old band, we had our own lighting rig. It was 2 trees and some homemade scaffolding. We bought some extra large black curtains, and sewed some grommets into them. The pin lights we used had long bolts on them, so we ran the bolts through the grommets and attached both to the scaffold. The main job of the backdrop was to hide all of the cables we used for the lights, but it also had a good look to it.

thats pretty much what we do only we used black flat bed sheets and zip ties.

Jasaoke · Post by **Jasaoke** » Monday Mar 25, 2013

thanks.

That's pretty much what I had in mind. I think a curtain or cloth would pack and transport better, but anything flat would probably be the about the same.

About what size are they?

Right now, I 'm considering something like a 3 or 4 speaker stand configuration, with one behind the drummer (or 2 at the rear of he stage) and two at or near the FOH positions. Black would be the obvious choice, but white would give a lot of options for lighting. Of course, if we were a strictly country band I could just cover the stage with camo...

sunsetbass · Post by **sunsetbass** » Monday Mar 25, 2013

i would get 2 king sized sheets. that should just about get you 20 feet wide depending on how you hang them. my trussing is 20' wide we hung the sheets the skinny way so we had the length to raise the rack up as high as we could and it's about a foot short of covering. but it still looks good. i got a gromit kit at walmart from the camping section and 2 flat sheets. make sure you double over the sheet where you put the gromit. i did them over a year ago and we haven't had any trouble with them tearing or anything.

sunsetbass · Post by **sunsetbass** » Monday Mar 25, 2013

sorry just read you post agan. with that long of a span you'll need at 6 sheets depending on how deep the area you want to surround. unless you don't use the side ones. for all the more it will cost i would rig some kind of pipe to go from tripod to tripod so you won't have any saggage in the sheets in between. pvc it cheap and light.

Don Hughes · Post by **Don Hughes** » Monday Mar 25, 2013

Here's another good one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP4wsURn3rw

Lowender · Post by **Lowender** » Monday Mar 25, 2013

I went to see a band once in atlantic city that had this solid backdrop, it looked (just guessing i never got to inspect it) like those 4x8 sheets of blue foam insulation panels. They had these little wooden feet that went at the union between the two. Very cool, all in all it was about 32 ft wide and 8 ft tall. (8 panels wide)They had it painted flat black, some sections had their band logo on it , others blank. The feet looked like a capital letter H with a slot to set the panels in, there was somthing ver small at the top holding each union but i couldnt see it too well. It seems cool and infinitely adjustable, albeit pretty bulky. They had theirs in a very slight zig zag with did some cool things with the lights.

slackin@dabass · Post by **slackin@dabass** » Sunday Apr 07, 2013

Slacker theory had side drops that we attached to pvc pipe stands with velcro. Had them made by a company online and they cost about 350 for both of them. I don't remember the name of the company, but they made signs for sports stadiums and whatnot. Steve made the design in photo shop, and emailed it to them. They worked great, we sat them in front of our amps.