Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

If I just had this Laser, It would be really cool bouncing off of my guitar...

OHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!, H********LL YEAAAAAAAAAAA, NICE

If you use that on a gig make sure it doesn't blind somebody. Could be bad for the liability insurance coverage.

All right Pink Floyd all the way. (I know I'm mad, I've always been mad...)

Can a legal light spectrum laser actually blind some one?
I find it difficult to believe in these days of no personal responsability that you can actually purchase an item like this that would be harmfull.
Perhaps the scab kneed lawyers have just not recovered from their greed hangovers yet.

To quote my wife - "Please point that thing somewhere else!"

I have been reading and pricing some lasers. As I had suspected all those that are of the gp legal wattage are not visable without fog / smoke.
Huge issues arise in my mind about an Indy show utilizing any of this indoors in public. Those of you with some experience doing light and laser complents to your live shows might interject some of your experiences here.
It would seem that the green party will soon irradicate the smokey room
alltogether. Options?

Yes a static beam of just a couple of milliwatts can cause permanent ocular damage to the retina. You have to have a FDA/CDRH Variance to put on laser shows. Crowd scanning is now illegal in the US. I've put on a couple of laser-shows for a neighbor's 4th of July parties. I've got 2 blue argon gas lasers, a couple of green and a blue DPSS, and am presently working on building a direct-inject 636nm red laser. It's a hobby. Its dangerous and fun all at the same time!! I've been working with lasers since the mid 1980s and I still have both my eyes. Yeah usually smoke/ fog is needed for maximum beam visibility. One of my blue argons (along with the "xyz" song) is here- (I put this up on utube a couple of years ago) (it's kinda crappy) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhTxwOaVCLw

I knew there was a lot to be learned here.
Seems every time I ask a question about production someone is doing, or has done it.

I'm hobbyist catagory only. No pro shows. Too rich for my blood. The guys who put on the concert/ arena shows have $100,000+ invested in their laser equipment. That laser pictured above is around 50-60 grand itself. Usually large heavy watercooled 3 phase 230/ 480 volt gas lasers are used in big shows. (At least they were in the years past.) The diode lasers are coming into their own with smaller more compact multi-watters now. For more info, the gurus of the laser world hang out at photonlexicon.com and alt.lasers(a google newsgroup) .

trippy

The best laser light-show I ever saw was ZZTop (believe it or not) in the 70's. They were bouncing it off a huge mirror-ball on the ceiling of the colluseum. (Memphis, I think).I dont see too many lasershows anymore (well, I dont go to that many concerts anymore) I guess it could be the liability thing. People claiming they're blinded by the lasers and lawsuits encourring everywhere.. too bad.. laser shows are cool

I saw that show of ZZ in the 70's. I forget which tour they did it on but what a head rush. Yea it was awsome back in the day.

A small wattage light bulb is good enough for me.

Was it the "Eliminator" tour? I cant remember.
Bob- I got a 75 Watt light bulb with your name on it.