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common old school myths and legends

#122
bassbully said:
We also used to have to cancel practice if a guitar player broke more than one string. We had one music store a ways away, no money and even if we did had to ask a parent for a ride ...took a week :rolleyes:
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I STILL have to do this. Our music store is in town, and that's miles away, so we break a string, and practice is OVER. The store also kinda tanks, so even though there are strings there, the selection sucks, and is terribly overpriced.
 
#123
THORRR said:
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.
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I'm not discounting this but I've seen a LOT of videos and photos showing very popular bassists using a pick - John Paul Jones, Roger Waters, Bill Wyman, Stu Cook, and numerous others. I thought this was an 80's development for REAL bassists to separate themselves from the converted guitarists. But then I guess we need to take into context what eras the OP is referring to.

Shoot, maybe I've become one of the old guys? LOL
 
#127
Surly said:
Ok well back in the mid 90's when I was in high school, I also did not have Youtube or endless gear reviews. Also I didn't play bass, I played drums, however I did not have all the web reviews and If I couldn't find something at a local store, I never owned it. Example, I could have used those rubber pads you put on drums to play quietly. Today I would just get them online after reading a couple of reviews. :D
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When I was in high school there were no:

Personal computers
Hand-held calculators
Cell phones
iPods
GPS satellites or receivers
Lasers or laser pointers
Infra-red wireless TV remote controls
Flat-screen TVs
CDs and CD players
Walkmans (Walkmen?)
MP3 players
Spy satellites
Sadowsky basses

We did have TVs and transistor radios, though. But you had to get up and walk over to the TV to change the channel. In cars, you had to crank up the windows by hand.
 
#128
Well, I played a Hagstrom 8-string bass - with only the 4 bass strings - thru a 40W Fender Bassman head, into two 2x12 Fender Bassman cabs (the "little" ones). Cranked the amp to 11 and got such a cool Grand Funk bass tone. Then I got an Acoustic amp rig and cleaned up my sound. The Hag got stolen, replaced it with a '75 Precision and went to Music Man amplification. Still have the MM cabs and sometimes gig with them. No "myths", just rockin' with the times.
 
#129
Late '70's, I was 14 y.o. We Had a residency at a local funtion centre- we got to leave our gear there, play 5 nites a week & got a meal each nite we played. LOVELY.

The a year later, we got another residency at a motel in a favorite Summer tourist town for a couple of summers, about an hour & a half drive outta the city we lived in - SO....

They hired us to play, WED, THURS, FRI & SAT nites & Sunday Afternoons.
SAme as B4- gear left in the stage area- all set up of course. (Not our guitars & any small things, just the Drums, PA & amps) - AND they gave us accomodation for the WHOLE Summer Then for the NEXT summer. About 16 weeks each summer!! :hyper:

Breakfasts were included everyday & counter meals /basic restaurant meals(pub meals) included on the days we played. :cool:
They were FUN Summers- :hyper: I was 15, 16 or 17 IIRC???? LOTSA girls up there with the family, just DYIN' to hang with the 'band' ;)

We often just drove home on the Monday & back up on Wed. Oh yeah- 1 & 1/2 hrs drive was a fair way back then too!! HA ha!

Don't hear of this sorta thing happening much these days sadly! Maybe a DUO with KARAOKE style backing trax.....:rollno:
 
#130
Oh yeah- re the learning off the radio/ recods/or those new 'cassette tape' thingys.
With records - I used to put the 33 1/3 LP's onto 45 rpm's (or 45's onto 79 rpm's ) this would let the bass sound show 'up' a li'l more- albeit FASTER & WAY higher a key!!!!! :-)
Still, i could often HEAR it, where as before it was often buried i the mix.
Good tip for ya all! :-)
 
#132
rodl2005 said:
Oh yeah- re the learning off the radio/ recods/or those new 'cassette tape' thingys.
With records - I used to put the 33 1/3 LP's onto 45 rpm's (or 45's onto 79 rpm's ) this would let the bass sound show 'up' a li'l more- albeit FASTER & WAY higher a key!!!!! :-)
Still, i could often HEAR it, where as before it was often buried i the mix.
Good tip for ya all! :-)
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Yea. You wanted to get the know the guys with those huge cassette recorders that played stuff at half speed(so you could figure out what Coltrane was doing, sort of). And to think the old farts were griping about it!! They used to have to turn an LP slowly by hand to get half speed, and I'm sure they were doing that up-hill both ways in the snow!!
 
#135
Here's one, maybe not exactly musician related: if you played your Sabbath/Zeppelin/Kiss records backwards you would hear "hidden satanic messages"!!! Cretain "experts" called it "backwards masking" and said it was why all the young people were addicted to rock & roll. Nevermind that nobody but these charlatan preachers had a turntable that played backwards...... I came home from school one day to find my parents had burned my entire Kiss collection, albums, 8-tracks(remember 8 -tracks???), etc.:spit:
 
#136
delta7fred said:
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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Did anyone pre-Sab detune intentionally?
 
#137
Midfour said:
Did anyone pre-Sab detune intentionally?
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Not that I knew of, we had all on just trying to not de or up tune, but tuning was all over the place unless you had some form of keyboard in the band.

I remember playing on a small ship once for a cruise, as we were loading our gear on board we were asked 'did we have a keyboard' as if we did and it was a tone wheel (Hammond type) then forget playing it as the generator frequency was directly geared to the engine speed, hence the keyboard tuning was as well. Luckily we didn't.
 
#139
I think the biggest changes from the early 70's when I started is the availability of tuning pedals! back then you used your ear compared to an lp (the pitch of which could change if they were belt driven and the belt stretched) plus to learn a riff, you had to be pretty good at picking up the needle and moving back to start of your riff!
 
#140
delta7fred said:
Not that I knew of, we had all on just trying to not de or up tune, but tuning was all over the place unless you had some form of keyboard in the band.

I remember playing on a small ship once for a cruise, as we were loading our gear on board we were asked 'did we have a keyboard' as if we did and it was a tone wheel (Hammond type) then forget playing it as the generator frequency was directly geared to the engine speed, hence the keyboard tuning was as well. Luckily we didn't.
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interesting...

Thanks for taking the time to answer my stupid question, by the way.
 

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