Austin, TX – July 26, 2016: Downtown
Austin watering hole HandleBar has a lot to offer anyone who wanders
inside, from live DJs five nights a week to friendly bartenders, craft
cocktails, and 20 carefully selected beers on tap. But since its 2012
opening many of its patrons were skipping out on the diverse offerings
of its main bar for its expansive, but limited service, roof deck. “At
first we couldn’t figure out why no one wanted to hang out in the main
bar, where we have all of these great drinks and amenities that aren’t
available on the roof,” says owner Brett Vance. “But we were realizing
that a big part of it had to do with a really bad sound system.” In May,
Vance reached out to BASSBOSS
president David Lee to help oversee a complete sound overhaul that
would endear HandleBar’s main floor bar to patrons and also mark
BASSBOSS' 30th major installation on its home turf.Starting on the Ground Level
HandleBar’s previous aging sound system, which was cobbled together from bits and pieces of various sound equipment that had been taken out of service from other neighborhood bars, was not performing up to par. “Even when it wasn’t that loud it hurt your ears,” Vance recalls. “We’ve got concrete surfaces on all sides, so the natural acoustics certainly weren’t helping either. As a result, on a weeknight we might have 200 people upstairs but only 20 in the main bar, which was a real problem because if you passed by the bar on the street you might look in the window and think there’s nothing doing.”
