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common old school myths and legends

#101
I also used a right handed bass having never even heard of a left handed bass. But I was lucky too as I was able to get a used 1960 Jazz for $100 (of my parent's money). At first, the go tp amp was the Fender Bassman and I finally got the 2x12 version and thought it was really great. Next was the Ampeg B-15 - but I never had one of those. Also, when I started in the mid 60's, we didn't really change the strings, but then in the late 60's Rotosound wounds came out and most of us switched to them. And, yes, we definitely boiled the strings to make them last a bit longer, but they would start to fade fairly quickly after boiling, so you could not keep them for years like we did with the old Fender flatwounds.
 
#102
As far as the tall guy myth, I think it was the
tall skinny guy!
I still boil my strings if need be!
One last thing:someone should send the
inflation calculator to Fodera cuz his prices
don't even come close to the early models!!
 
#104
Jim C said:
umm; not everybody
I went from 2 Radio Shack Hi-Z PZM's into a Sony cassette deck with a compressor
My new rig; 2 Low-Z PZM's into tube mic pre's, compressor, to CD burner to record rehearsal and our current club demo

Love that live 2-track recording when there are decent players in the same room
Click to expand...
I used to record gigs on minidisc. I'd hang a couple of LDC's out in the room and run cables back to the stage. Connect up to an Audio Buddy preamp/phantom supply. Run the output through a homebrew voltage divider pots box to control levels, and then into the MD player. It took half an hour to set up, and half the time the MD got vibrated while we were playing and the tracks were unreadable.

Now I use a battery powered Roland Edirol R-09 on a mic stand. It's the size of a pack of cigs, has built in mics, and records 4 hours or more on a single memory card and pair of AA's. It takes 30 seconds to set up and makes remarkably good recordings.
 
#105
namraj said:
Are you saying it's true?

Because the 70's Fender's I've played didn't live up to the 70's Tokai I played. It may have just been that particular Tokai that was set up well, but by comparison I really wasn't impressed with the Fenders. But then I've only been really impressed by Fenders a couple of times.
Click to expand...

no, i'm not saying it's true, i'm saying it's a myth. i played both back then, and while a tokai was good, it never surpassed the Fender, to me.
 
#106
The first Jazz I had was a Tokai fretless and it was a nice bass, but nothing THAT special. Then again, it's also true that were some Fenders around at the time that weren't that special, either.

I now own a 78 fretted P that's a great (but heavy) bass. I'd say that some of the modern Fenders are every bit as good, though.

So, basically - yeah, Fenders in the 70s, like now, varied from being a bass you felt was generally sound to being something pretty much awesome. Not a lot has changed in that respect, then.
 
#107
Back in the 60's I don't think the average guy knew much about myths or heard many. Most people didn't know much about electric instruments - you got one and played it, and you learned how to use it as you want. With no Internet, your information resource was one or two other nearby guys who might own something similar to the gear you had.

Yes, the basses were usually Fenders. Flats, yes. Gibsons were EB-0s - I knew there were hollowbodies out there, but only in pictures. No one in my area had a hollowbody bass, so they were an unknown to me. I knew McCartney was playing a violin bass called a Hofner, but that was just because it got a lot of press.

Amps were typically small Ampegs or Bassman units in the 100W range unless you were into the "big amp", which in my part of the Pacific NW meant SVTs with a couple of 8x10 columns, or some of the Sunn stuff. 1x15 and 2x15 speaker cabs were pretty common.
 
#110
totallyfrozen said:
Uh...why?
Wouldn't it be better to clean them with denatured alcohol than to risk getting water inside near the core where it can rust?
Click to expand...

well that was the myth, which is still around today.

boiling strings DOES get the crud out, but it risks making the strings rust. denatured alcohol is the modern, updated method. personally i just buy new ones, but i'm anal about the sound of my strings.
 
#111
Why boil, alcohol, etc. etc.....????

Flats last just about forever. These have been on my '63 P since at least 1972. And that goes a long way to explain why flats have never gone out of style. They work, they sound great, and they don't wear out.

P3120045.jpg
 
#112
Great thread. What did you guys think when you heard about a band called Black Sabbath that did something called "detuning" to their guitars? Or is that a stupid question because people had detuned prior to Sab?
 
#113
THORRR said:
Fender Jazz and Precision Basses were the norm, along with Gibson's EBO. Ampeg B-15 had the most sound and boom.
Most other bass amps were a little weak. Years later Acoustic came out with the folded horn design that took us all by storm - Finally bass players could have a big voice.

There was no internet, no blogs, no knock-offs yet because design copyrights were still in effect for Fender. You're instrument was more a tool than a collectable. Nobody took their guitars apart (except guys like me) and nobody was building their own from parts.

You could buy a new bass for a couple hundred bucks and flatwound strings were the norm. Roundwound LaBellas and Rotosounds came out but most balked because of the noise when sliding on the strings. We soon got over that.

Nobody ever thought of our "axes" in terms of collectability and increasing value. these were our Hammer and saw - just tools - painted lumber, pretty much.

We left the chrome on the Jazz & Precision and used the thumb rest. Bass was a background instrument with very little opportunity for soloing. Slap was non-existent unless you made a mistake and caught one of the strings and it banged on the fingerboard. And that was an "oops, excuse me".

Playing with a pick was for losers back them (you weren't a bass player unless you used your fingers to pluck.) Two and three note bass parts were most common with an occasional walk between chord changes.

It was the same planet, but totally different worlds.
Hope this gives you a taste of the good-old-days-when-times-were-bad! hahaha! I wouldn't trade it for the world!:D:bassist::hyper:
Click to expand...

No, it wasn't that bad, some of us had Rickenbackers ;)

But heaven help you if you had a bass and wanted to change the pups out, replacement pups simply didn't exist - well they did, but over here in the UK you had to order them from the manufacturer in the US, hand over a month's wages and wait 3 months to get them.

Oh, and of course you couldn't put roundwounds on a Ric 4001 - by the time I heard that particular myth, in those pre-internet days, my Ric had worn Rotosounds for at least 5 years (not the same set like the flatwound guys though). Too late to heed the dire warnings that the headstock would snap or the fingerboard would pop off, or the neck would bend like a banana so it's worn rounds ever since; and the neck is still dead straight
 
#114
Midfour said:
Great thread. What did you guys think when you heard about a band called Black Sabbath that did something called "detuning" to their guitars? Or is that a stupid question because people had detuned prior to Sab?
Click to expand...

Back in the '70's when I first picked up bass, Sabbath was one of my favorite bands. I would come home after school and sit in my room all night learning the songs off their first 5 albums.
I had no idea they de-tuned a step, cuz my junk turntable spun fast! Then, when playing with other high schoolers, I always found I was seriously out of tune...
 
#116
thetawaves said:
Not from me personally (I'm a 90s kid) but heard some of these gems from guys I know who played in bygone times:

Don't ever go above the 7th fret on any string.
Chords on bass will damage your amp.
Click to expand...

My favorite variation of this, told to me by a veteran bassist was:

'There's no money above the 7th fret'

and then

'Don't play more notes than the guitar player, even if you can'
 
#118
Midfour said:
Great thread. What did you guys think when you heard about a band called Black Sabbath that did something called "detuning" to their guitars? Or is that a stupid question because people had detuned prior to Sab?
Click to expand...

In the days before electronic tuners a lot of people detuned, or up tuned if you did not have a pianist or organist to tune to, as everyone tuned up together so you could go up or down over time, well away from concert pitch. When the singer started complaining them you found a fairly accurate reference and tuned back to that. I stood in on bass with one band and they were a tone and a half out from what I (and my band) were tuned to, and we had access to a piano so were not too far off.

Tuning up could be a painful experience. The electronic tuner has changed all that and for the better.
 

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