When Kicker first approached the management of the alt-rock band Collective Soul to see if they would be interested in some type of partnership, it seemed to make sense on more than one level - especially for guitarist Joel Kosche. "Growing up, I was always around auto gadgets in one form or another with my father, who owned a mechanic's shop in the Atlanta area, and I had known of Kicker quality," Kosche says.
And Kicker had certainly known of Collective Soul, with the band's list of achievements including sales of more than 10 million CDs, seven number-one hit singles on the U.S. mainstream rock charts and three top-10 hits from the band's latest release Youth. Since intense sound was obviously the connection between Kicker and the band, the idea was brought up to outfit a couple of feature cars with a complete sound system for Kosche and guitarist Dean Roland.
Kicker drove out to Atlanta to pick up the vehicles, Roland's 2004 Toyota Tundra and Kosche's 2005 Dodge Magnum R/T 5.7L Hemi, and Installation Manager Toby Lewis was able to get an idea of what the musicians wanted out of their daily drivers. "We wanted to do something really powerful but not too over the top, since the guys actually use these vehicles for transportation and to haul gear around," he reveals. Although the band members didn't know exactly which components they wanted in their rides, they did have three things on the must-have list: something that sounded clean, that had iPod interface ability, and that didn't take up any storage or passenger space.
With parameters set, Kicker hauled the vehicles back to Oklahoma for the build. Headed up by Lewis, the Kicker team consisted of installers Randy Botts, Sean Murphy, Dave Adams and Tim Smith, who together put in about 250 man-hours into each vehicle.
For Roland's Tundra, a simple, yet eloquent install was the end result. The installers ISO-mounted a Pioneer AVIC-Z1 receiver into the dash for a perfect fit so that Roland could watch the band's live DVD Home while waiting in his truck. This unit provides the requested iPod interface ability along with Bluetooth capability and the ever-popular navigation. Backing up the 7-inch screen, a Directed Electronics 12-inch monitor flips down from the headliner.
Sound clarity is a must when doing an install for a guitar whiz, so the guys added a SS56.2 matched component system in the front doors. To fit the midbasses of the set into the door panels, the installers fabricated fiberglass pods that unobtrusively fit the curve of the existing door panels. While they were sprucing up the doors, they also had Matworks place a Collective Soul logo over the map pocket (Matworks also made the custom door mats).
In the back, rear fill comes in via a set of 6 1/2" SS65.2 components. But that's not all that's behind the front seats. The rear seats flip up to reveal a pair of 8" CompVR subwoofers on one side with the SX650.1 650-watt amp on the other. The Kicker boys dropped the subs in a Q-Forms box and finished off the top with some sueded trim. Meanwhile, for the amp they got a little violent, pulling back the carpet and pounding down the sheet metal. Once they had gotten it as low as they could, the installers made a bracket to mount the amp to the metal and then trimmed it out using fiberglass, wood and suede. Due to limited room, the other two amps, a pair of ZX350.2's, were placed unobtrusively under the front seats. "When I first saw it and heard it," Roland says, "I was really impressed with all that these guys did - the look, the sound, the quality, all of it."
In Kosche's Magnum, the game plan didn't change. Saving room for golf clubs and guitar cases, the Kicker team created fiberglass enclosures on each side of the rear cargo area. Here, two pairs of 10" Solo-Baric L7 subs push the bass. For power and convenient signal processing, an SX700.4 multi-channel amp and an SX1250.1 sub amp were recessed into a false floor. The installers then made a suede cover to trim the amps in.
For rear fill, a SS65.2 component system was placed in the factory location in the rear side panels. A matching set provides the front soundstage, but simply dropping the midranges into the factory spot would not do. The installers had to build out the doors, making a trim ring out of MDF and fiberglass. This ring lets the midrange sit flushly in the door. More suede finishes off the installation.
Another AVIC-Z1 source unit lords over the system from the dash. Unlike the relatively easy install on the Tundra, here the installers had to take out the existing factory navigation system and then remold the dash with ABS in order to make a clean, perfect fit for the Z1. After a nice coat or two of paint, the new head unit integrates perfectly with the factory dash layout.
Underneath the interior of both vehicles, the Kicker team laid down a hefty layer of Dynamat to dampen out road noise and cut down on unwanted resonance. "I knew this install was going to be great, but this is above and beyond," exclaims Kosche. "With the little things like the Collective Soul floor mats and the custom interior design, it's absolutely amazing."