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Anybody know what effect Jamerson is using here?

E

Easy8

Sep 5, 2007
726
85
Austin, Tx
#1
Never noticed the box plugged into the input jack in this photo before. Anybody know what this might be?

jamerson-bw-bass-week-460-85.jpg


http://www.musicradar.com/news/bass/bass-legends-motown-session-giant-james-jamerson-508816

I remember Electro-Harmonix and Vox sold effects that plugged into the input jack back in the '60s, but have never seen or heard of Jamerson using effects before.
 
#6
It is 100% NOT any effects unit, it is a wireless unit. For one thing, if it was a Dan Armstrong effect there would be a cable coming out of the front of the box. There is no cable anywhere. And you can see the receiver unit with an antenna, sitting on top of his amp (it's easier to see in a less-cropped version of the photo).
 
#10
bongomania said:
Also, I've never seen this sort of plug-in box from Vox, EHX, or any other brand. If someone has a link or pic showing them, I'd be pleased to learn something new!
Click to expand...

Great site for vintage Vox gear
http://www.voxshowroom.com/equipment/#effects

I actually had one of these:
http://www.voxshowroom.com/us/misc/treb_boost.html

The V840 Treble/Bass was a earlier release of the V8401 Treble/Bass Booster made by JMI in the United Kingdom. This item plugged into your guitar jack and had an adjustable bass/treble control. The sonic range of this unit is quite wide. It can sweep from bassy bass to ear piercing bright treble.

EHX? Probably not, I may have been thinking of the Dan Armstrongs.
 
#14
If my memory serves me the EHX boxes plugged in to the amp input not the guitar. My buddy would plug 3 EH power boosters alli into eachother into a little 1 x 12 univox guitar amp it looked pretty funny all those things sticking out of the amp. It sounded great until it blew up.
 
#15
When do you think that photo was taken??

I can't imagine there being any wireless units at that time that would be
a) THAT small, including the batteries, etc. required to run them
b) Of any quality good enough for a pro to use.

Maybe an impedance matching transformer to eliminate hum?
 
#16
Bassamatic said:
When do you think that photo was taken??

I can't imagine there being any wireless units at that time that would be
a) THAT small, including the batteries, etc. required to run them
b) Of any quality good enough for a pro to use.

Maybe an impedance matching transformer to eliminate hum?
Click to expand...

In 1948, Leon Theremin invented a radio transmitter that was the size of two quarters, required no power source, and could transmit through a building with enough fidelity to capture the human voice. It was used by the USSR to spy on the US Ambassador, having been hidden in a gift presented to him by Soviet schoolchildren. :cool:

If we figure that this photo was about 15-20 years later, it doesn't strain credulity to think that a transmitter could have been in use by Jamerson which was not as small, could be powered by batteries, and had much smaller bandwidth requirements.

I don't mean to say that that's definitely what it is - how could I know, not having been there? But that's what seems likely to me, and it's what the book on the subject says.
 
#17
Taylor Livingston said:
In 1948, Leon Theremin invented a radio transmitter that was the size of two quarters, required no power source, and could transmit through a building with enough fidelity to capture the human voice. It was used by the USSR to spy on the US Ambassador, having been hidden in a gift presented to him by Soviet schoolchildren. :cool:

If we figure that this photo was about 15-20 years later, it doesn't strain credulity to think that a transmitter could have been in use by Jamerson which was not as small, could be powered by batteries, and had much smaller bandwidth requirements.

I don't mean to say that that's definitely what it is - how could I know, not having been there? But that's what seems likely to me, and it's what the book on the subject says.
Click to expand...

Except that it was not a transmitter. It was a passive repeater, like the RF ID tags to prevent shoplifting. They require radio waves to be beamed AT them, which they then modulate and reflect back. A similar device was used to bug the USA embassy in Moscow. Also - the quality of such devices was barely voice quality.
 
#18
True, transmitter was not the right terminology (sometimes the right terminology can make a conversation harder to follow) but could that not also be true of the piece of equipment on Jamerson's bass? The bandwidth expectations for a bass app in the 60s were surely smaller than that needed to understand voice, wouldn't you say? Also, this is with the benefit of 15-20 years of progress. A small transmitter using only BJTs would have been simple to build in the 60s.

At the end of the day I suppose all any of us can do about this subject is speculate. The LPB-1 came out in '69, and the Armstrong boxes in the 70s, but there is no reason that a booster or fuzz of the day could not be put in a bass-mounted box like that by an in-house tech. But, is there any reason to think he ever used these effects?
 
#19
Additionally, he is standing like one foot away from the amp. It would not take much power on either end to send or receive over such a short distance, using technology that was readily available at the time of that photo.

There is no cable coming out of the box.
 

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