Calling all Geezers...

[John Wentzien]

We also had to drag Leslie speakers up-hill....both ways!

 

[John Wentzien]

AND! a B-3

 

[jackcheez]

... the C/W bassists used Standels.

My first bass amp was a Standel. A combo with a 15 and an extention 15 cab.

I went to high school by the factory in El Monte CA. We used to go and pick reject cabs out to the trash there.

 

[My name is Mudd]

I cannot imagine what it must have been like to have to move a B-3 for each gig...how much does that thing weigh?

 

[ezstep]

Leslie and B-3 after removing the bass foot pedals.... Later came the M-3.



THE bass amp to have in 1968? The one I had was the Vox Essex bass amp. Combo with 2x12's. On/off, volume, and tone controls. IIRC, a whopping 35 watts (ss, not tube). And, yet, it did everything we expected it to do.

 

[Buster Brown]

I cannot imagine what it must have been like to have to move a B-3 for each gig...how much does that thing weigh?

I honestly couldn't tell you the exact weight...but our keyboard player had dollies on each side - fold out type and it took 4 of us to get it in and out of the van. When carrying it up a flight of stairs, it was an adventure.

But what the hell - we were young and full of piss and vinegar - no big deal for us. Remember - there were no video games back then...and the only time we were allowed to sit on the couch was on a Sunday after dinner...

 

[edbass]

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

Now, that takes me back...

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.

Monitors??? You must have been "big time"!

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

Can't agree there, sure some of the "crap" sounded like "crap", but some of the gear sounded great, and still does today.
While I'm a firm beliver that tonal bliss is in the ears of the beholder, the only advantage that I see with modern MI gear (and one I admit to taking advantage of personally) is the practical issue of cartage.
However, that said IMO vintage sound reinforcement gear is best suited for museums and trips down memory lane...

 

[b_carville]

Guild Thunderbass amps were pretty popular my way( Phila.PA) in 1968. You could order them with JBL D140s. Ampeg B18 was popular too. Saw some guys using two of them. Standel was around but that was really expensive stuff. The price on those went down when they got bought by Gibson.Sunn was making a splash. They were easy to repair. The early ones used Dynaco power amps and Dynaco was right over the bridge in New Jersey. Coral by Danelectro was used by some players. Two cabinets with three 15's. 100 watt solid state head. If you could afford it a Fender Dual Showman with the optional JBL D 140s. Kustom was around. They were real popular with the soul/ R&B bands. An amp that was real popular with a lot of Philly bassists was Bruce. Don't know a lot about those. I think the power amp was in the speaker cabinet and you had a seperate preamp. Most player used two cabinets with two 15's.Freebo( Bonnie Raitt's bassist) used to play with a local band called Edison Electric Band & that was his rig. Other players used them as well. Three Dog Night were big Bruce endorsers.Saw a lot of local guys with RMI solid state amps too.
Thick corduroys , Thom mcCann beatle boots. Ban Lon shirts & black polyester slacks if you were in a soul band. Can't forget those little scarves that went around your neck.

 

[John Wentzien]

We went as far as to steal a hopital gurney from an ambulance...and cut all of the "unecessary" wood from the B3 and bolt it ..so we could more easily load it in the van! We didn't tell the keyboardist before we did it! It was a surprise!


Also cut the leslie in half for transport!

 

[Buster Brown]

Now...let's get this straight....if you don't know who these guys were...you weren't alive "back then"

YouTube - The Mod Squad theme song

Sorry....couldn't resist....

 

[John Wentzien]

I took out a " flick-knife" and cut that darn "scarf" from my guitarists headstock...he never put one back on !

 

[DJ Bebop]

+1 to this. You will need someone to run it, it's your light show.

I'm in. I still have my overhead projectors and my clock faces and oils. I'm ready to go

 

[Rockmusician]

Kustom, Acoustic, SUNN and Ampeg were the most common amps.

 

[1n3]

I remember Kustom and Sunn, but it seems like they got a lot more common around 1970. The brand I remember most from '68 is Silvertone. I and several other kids I knew had them. Still have mine. I also had a Standel, a Super Imperial XV, with two D130s. Wish I still had that; it met a sad fate.

And yes, coily cords.

 

[whocaresnotme]

I started playing bass in 1968 (I was 22) and do remember that Ampeg had a bass amp then but everybody used Fender Bassman including me.. I had a used Fender P (most likely pre-cbs) with flats (can't remember the brand-maybe Fender- but I never changed them anyway..LOL....) and, for awhile, a VOX with a really stupid body shape. If I still had all that stuff I could sell it and buy a vacation home.

I owned a VW Micro bus but it was always broken and a 1956 V8 Chevy Bel-Air hot rod with surfboard decals and stickers all over it. I have no idea what happened to either of them. Always wore Levis Bell bottom jeans and weird puffy sleeved shirts and real big belt buckles and pendejo boots.. I'm getting nauseous.

 

[Aussie Player]

In '68 I was in my second or third "garage" band in a small city in Texas so my list is not what was used on either coast.

Firstly, every garage band had at least one guy who brought Silvertone stuff to gigs and practice. I see this stuff today at guitar shows but I thought they sounded horrible.

Amps - 2X15 JBL Bassmans, 2X15 JBL Sunn 200S, Marshalls, 2X15 Peavey was very popular in Texas, the C/W bassists used Standels. I had a 2X15 Acoustic but I don't think that was until '60 or '70. If you saw an Acoustic 360 you were dumbstruck.

Basses - Gibson EBOs, Fender Precision, Jazz and Mustang?, I never saw a Rick back then, and the country guys played "old" Fender Tele basses or full size hollow body Gibsons and Gretsch.

Strings - Ernie Ball flat wounds, Gibson and Fender branded flats and rounds.

Stands - girlfriend or hanger-on would hold your bass during the break.

Straps - medium width with the wildest print you could find.

A lot of guys used felt picks rather than plastic.

You blokes made me remember all that stuff again.
All true. I still have the EB 2D with cloth strap with white flowers on it. The amps have changed many, many times.

There used to be the stain from the glue reflecting from the ban the bomb sticker (later called a "Peace" sign) that was on the front of it. You could see it in reflective light some times.

When I send the bass back to the Gibson Custom shop a couple of years ago for a neck fix and refret they buffed the body and it was lost to memory.

Still, better than having the body refinished as it was unchipped and very orignal.

 

[wagdog]

Oh yeah, coily cords. I loved those things but they never lasted. My amp was a Guild Thunderbass into a 2x15 Traynor. Everyone used 2x15's if you were serious. Smoked amps and blown speakers were common. Quality volume was not. I also used a Standel (loved it) and a Kustom (loved the looks, hated the sound). I don't ever remember anyone using stands. For one thing you only had one bass and, when you weren't playing, it went into its hardshell case (tweed if you had money). Straps were thin and painful or wide and gaudy. Flats were everywhere while rounds were just starting to make the scene.

 

[Calaverasgrande]

Me.
I was made in 68.

 

[tdoody]

guild starfier. nylon coated strings. 2 standel amps. 200 wats each. one was a slave amp[ no volume or tone controls] both amps had 2 15's. it was loud and proud.

 

[Orpheus55]

I was 17 in '68 and had to make do with a Hagstrom I bought from my paper route money and a Kay 15" combo; the guitar guys has Silvertones, and eveyone used coiled cords and colorful straps. No stands, and no gigbags--cases or nothing (often the latter). We made our PA cabs with Jensen speakers and plywood, run by a suspicious-looking box of exposed wires and tubes the AV guy from High School made. Had a nice slotted James brown style microphone. My "backup" bass was a Crown, which looked a bit like a Jaguar; never seen one since.