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Calling all Geezers...

#21
I am trying to get a picture of what it looked like in the basement in 1968, I was 14-15. I am thinking there was a Mosrite (blue grill cloth?)amp sitting behind the Farfisa mini-compact organ (with the leg lever volume pedal) ... a Fender Princeton Reverb amp ?? behind the guitar player, with I think a Silvertone guitar ... probably a Tiesco type bass at that time with possibly a Kingston amp ?? ... we had a Bogen power amp for our couple home made 4-10" PA colums

Fast forward a couple years, and the picture changed dramaticly, dumped the keyboard, I had a Sunn Colliseum stack with 2-118 Vega speakers behind me, with a 66' Fender Jazz, dots, no binding, oval tuners, Fender flats .... and a Sunn Concert Lead amp stack behind the guitar player with 2-115 cabs, playing a black Les Paul Custom through it, or his walnut SG, dont remember which was first ... Cerwin Vega sound system on each side ..

... the 2" paisley type cloth strap for me, and the little thin black leather with the shoulder pad for the guitar player .... AND a Peterson Strobe Tuner (the big one, model 420 ??, which I still have BTW and its for sale) was behind us also ...

oops, forgot the bright red coil cords, and WIDE WAIL CORDUROY flair pants with silk puffy sleaved shirts ... the look and the attire was the most important of the whole works of course ...
 
#24
Back around that time frame, I was playing a Sunburst P bass. (sold it like an idiot, wife bought me another one just like it. Still have it - love her!)

I had a strap like the one in Exaltbass' photo (still have it). I also had the little black one with the pad on it (still have it).

I had a Kustom Black Roll & Pleat and I think it had 15's in it. Loved that blue pilot light!

I also had a Fender Bassman 100 Silverface with a 4x12. Still have it.

No stands. I always sat the bass back in the case, I was paranoid.

Rotosound black tapewounds. Foam under the strings near the bridge.

Puffy sleeve shirts, white Beatle boots, big bell bottoms and long hair (as opposed to now - no hair).


Oh, and with one group, a late 60's Greyhound double decker tour bus. All the big groups were riding around in the Silver Eagle bus.
 
#25
Kustom 250 tuck-n-roll with the 2x15 cab. Black is the proper color, since thats the color I have :cool:. Too bad you aren't closer, I've been thinking on rehoming mine.

Vox (Bill Wyman, Paul McCartney), Fender Bassman (Bill Wyman), Ampeg SVT "Blue Line" (Bill Wyman), Hiwatt (Bill Wyman) and Marshall (John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, Noel Redding), and Versatone Pan-O-Flex (Jack Casady, Carol Kaye) were also is use ... but not as cool looking as a Kustom. :hiding:

Those darned coiled (slinky style) cables were really popular.

Bass straps all seemed to have sewn on colorful patterns, just like the acoustic guitar straps.
 
#26
Sweet Ric up there! I had one in fireglo but it was a rubber necked piece of something that would just not stay in tune... lord it was beautiful though. Likea boat owner's happiest 2 days, incoming and outgoing ... outgoing was actually due to theft and the insurance claim was a happy ending for me.

In 68 - it would have been the Showman Amp that was the standard in New England - that or a Twin installed in a cut down cabinet. If I were going back - that would be the amp I'd bring on home today ...
 
#28
I started playing bass in '63 and got my HS diploma in '68 and I (still) have a few functioning brain cels.
My name is John and I'm a Geezer. :D

Let's see:
Sunn amps were all tube back then. The 200s was the best.
If several bands played a gig we often would pick the best amps from what we all had and then gig with them. So I got to play a (pre-200s) Sunn amp with the controls in the top (not on front). Also got to gig thru a Vox Super Beatle with 2 cabs (with sealed backs for better bass). It was the best bass amp in Lima Ohio at that time.
Fender Bassman was the norm and if you had the $$ you got a Dual Showman w/ JBL 15's.
I sold my blonde Bassman & cab to buy a Guild Thunderbass w/ 15's. Wish I still had either of them.
Standel made some cool amps. They were some of the few (very few) solid state amps that wouldn't fizzle and die when pushed hard on a gig.
Univox, Vox, and EMC made amps.
Plush was a Kustom copy, complete with tuck & roll.

Today's amps allow you to adjust the EQ. Back then you were just happy if it was loud enough and didn't crap out in the middle of a song.

I bought a used Harmony single PU bass with my paper route money for $65.

How's that for a trip down memory lane?

I'm very surprised (and very grateful) that I am still playing bass today. 47 years so far.
It's brought me so much happiness and allowed me to bring happiness to so many other people through music.

Hope you enjoyed reading this.
Shindig - aka John L Shinn
 
#29
Shindig said:
I started playing bass in '63 and got my HS diploma in '68 and I (still) have a few functioning brain cels.
My name is John and I'm a Geezer. :D

Let's see:
Sunn amps were all tube back then. The 200s was the best.
If several bands played a gig we often would pick the best amps from what we all had and then gig with them. So I got to play a (pre-200s) Sunn amp with the controls in the top (not on front). Also got to gig thru a Vox Super Beatle with 2 cabs (with sealed backs for better bass). It was the best bass amp in Lima Ohio at that time.
Fender Bassman was the norm and if you had the $$ you got a Dual Showman w/ JBL 15's.
I sold my blonde Bassman & cab to buy a Guild Thunderbass w/ 15's. Wish I still had either of them.
Standel made some cool amps. They were some of the few (very few) solid state amps that wouldn't fizzle and die when pushed hard on a gig.
Univox, Vox, and EMC made amps.
Plush was a Kustom copy, complete with tuck & roll.

Today's amps allow you to adjust the EQ. Back then you were just happy if it was loud enough and didn't crap out in the middle of a song.

I bought a used Harmony single PU bass with my paper route money for $65.

How's that for a trip down memory lane?

I'm very surprised (and very grateful) that I am still playing bass today. 47 years so far.
It's brought me so much happiness and allowed me to bring happiness to so many other people through music.

Hope you enjoyed reading this.
Shindig - aka John L Shinn
Click to expand...

Enjoyed immensly!:D
Shure 'Vocal-Master' for PA!!!!!!;)

edit...or plug in the vocal mic through your amp!
 
#30
I started '68 playing a '65 Precision out of a Kustom 2-15". My back-up bass was a Harmony batwing hollow body.
In the spring of '68, having seen Cream, Hendrix, and Blue Cheer live, I traded in the Kustom for 2 Marshall stacks (2-1992 heads and 4-1935 bottoms). Traded the P-bass for a '65 Jazz, and bought a Gibson EB-3.
Used mostly Fender flats...850's? but also LaBella's and a couple of others.
Straps were mostly those wild design jobs.
Don't remember what brand of guitar stands we had, But I had a couple of them.
I should probably add that I worked at 2 different music stores at the time, so all my stuff was bought pretty much at cost.
Wore mostly hippie type clothes...bell bottoms, sandals, etc.
It was a great year, and except for the draft hanging over my head, it would have been about perfect. (Didn't get drafted until Sept. '69)
 
#31
Ric5 said:
1968 4001

Rimg1297.jpg


Rimg1307.jpg


Rimg1283.jpg
Click to expand...

STUNNING!
 
#32
GEEZERS? I'm only 57 and in '68 I was a feshman in High School in So. Calif., had a '64 Fender Precision and a Vox Bass Amp, wore Big Bell Bottoms pants and s**tkicker shoes, and our band's gear transport was a 65 Volkswagon Van. I'm only 57 and don't consider myself a Geezer yet. Btw, my older brother got out of Vietnam draft by holding his breath for over 3 minutes right before his physical which gave him super high blood pressure. They held him overnite and he did it again and got a deferrment.
 
#33
'68 was the first year for the "big boy" Sunn, the 2000S, but the 200S "little brother" was far more prolific likely because the 2000S rig pictured would have cost $2K in 1968 dollars.
So, you could get a 2000S rig; or a new car...

DSC00114.jpg


I'm pretty sure this Kustom is a '68 also (maybe a '67, I'm not a real Kustom expert).

DSC00110.jpg
 
#34
ya ed, sunn for the win, although honorable mention must go to the b-15. but the b-15's just don't crank loudly enough, and while i like the heads, the bassman cabs just don't get the job done with bass imho, so you have to go with the sunn if you want to be period correct.
 
#35
John Wentzien said:
Enjoyed immensly!:D
Shure 'Vocal-Master' for PA!!!!!!;)

edit...or plug in the vocal mic through your amp!
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Yes we plugged the mikes into the amps. Some amps had an input for that.
Then PA systems came out.

Back then the PA was just for vocals. No instruments!
Shure VocalMaster was the king, especially the low Z version. Also used Kustom and Vox PA systems with the tall skinny speakers.
Eventually we got a low Z Shure PA head, a tube power amp, and 4 Altec A7 PA cabs. That was the s**t. We ran monitors off the Shure head.
Man, it was loud - and sounded good, for the time.

If you wanted to cover the room with bass then you brought the bass gear to do it. So we had stacks of speakers and amps. The more the better.

Most of us don't remember how bad most of the gear sounded back then. It was just loud - and we were happy with that.
Today's stuff is amazing.

Shindog
 
#36
Shure Vocalmaster!!! Now THAT brings back some memories!! :D

Although I do recall feeling like we had "made it" when we got 4 Altec Voice Of The Theater cabinets....the biggest problem with that, however, was carting them, a B3 with a leslie, drums and my gear........:spit:

More often than not it was upstairs at some VFW....

Now everyone raises hell if they have to tilt back an 8X10.....:rollno:

Could you imagine this now??

l.jpg
 
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#38
Buster Brown said:
Shure Vocalmaster!!! Now THAT brings back some memories!! :D

Although I do recall feeling like we had "made it" when we got 4 Altec Voice Of The Theater cabinets....the biggest problem with that, however, was carting them, a B3 with a leslie, drums and my gear........:spit:

More often than not it was upstairs at some VFW....

Now everyone raises hell if they have to tilt back an 8X10.....:rollno:

Could you imagine this now??

thumbnail.aspx
Click to expand...

Yep! remember the VOT schlep!!!...My balls still thank me for it!
 
#39
JimmyM said:
ya ed, sunn for the win, although honorable mention must go to the b-15. but the b-15's just don't crank loudly enough, and while i like the heads, the bassman cabs just don't get the job done with bass imho, so you have to go with the sunn if you want to be period correct.
Click to expand...

I agree. The Fender cabs just didn't put out the low end like the Sunns did. Even with JBL's.
The 200s with one or two 2x15 cabs was IMHO the standard for others to try to match.
 

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