Mackie Muscle Car: A High-Volume Ride With Some Serious Funk In The Trunk
Randy Bigness, singer/songwriter and certified auto technician, has combined his two passions to take the portable PA concept to an entirely new level. His creation combines high-horsepower, pavement-shredding Detroit muscle of the 1960s, with an equally powerful Active loudspeaker system from Mackie.
With an active performance schedule that takes him all over the Northeast, Randy’s need for high-quality audio in a “plug-in play” package led him to the purchase of a Mackie DFX12 mixer and a pair of Mackie SRM 450 Active loudspeakers. After a performance in upstate New York in the spring of 2004, however, Randy began thinking of ways he could make his Mackie system even better.
“For an outdoor performance I had my Mackie system set up with the speakers standing in the trunk of my 1966 Dodge Monaco,” Randy explained. “The system sounded great, but as a solo artist, I was curious if I could actually make the whole setup and tear down process even easier. What I really wanted was a system that I could just turn on, plug in, and play.”
It was on the drive home that very evening that inspiration struck and Randy decided to customize the trunk of his 1966 Dodge Monaco to permanently house the entire Mackie PA system. With a little creative installation work, as well as the addition of twin deep cycle marine batteries and a power inverter, Randy’s classic Dodge was reborn as the Mackie Muscle Car.
"Now I can plug-in and play anywhere anytime,” explains Randy. “The sound I get from the Mackie system is truly like no other, nice and big and crystal clear. But the fact that all the great sound is coming from the back of a 1966 Dodge Monaco is what really turns heads.”
