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Jamerson using wireless?

#21
lofreek said:
Notice how the box extends past the tail end of the body. This is because the old Armstrong color boxes had the output jacks on the rear panel, along with the captive input plug. This also explains why you cannot see the guitar cable. No way is that a wireless transmitter.
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I'm a big DA effects fan, and I have never, ever seen one like what you're describing. Can you link to an example like that?
 
#23
Not that hard to make a small radio transmitter fit in that box, as it'd just be a transmitter, not a transceiver like a whole walkie-talkie. Eliminate the speaker and the push-to-talk switch and it'd be pretty small.

The first I heard of the Dan Armstrong stuff was in the early '70s (Skunk Baxter talking about them in GP around 1975), and I don't think they were common at all among session players in Detroit (or even NY and LA) in the mid '60s. Gotta remember that the fuzz was still pretty new mid-60s and the wha pedal didn't come out until the late '60s (no wha on the first Cream ablum, only shows up on "Disreali Gears", and I think there's some on the first Hendrix "Are You Experienced" album so that's 1967 or so).

I'm going with Jamerson trying a wireless becasue his amp is so far away from him in the clubs. Easier than stretching a coil cord all the way over. And check out the bigger picture in the book. You see the receiver on the amp.

jte
 
#24
The Micro-Frets guitar/bass makers from Frederick, Maryland made some wireless equipped guitars from '69 til a few years later when they pretty much closed shop. Possibly the very first compact on-board units, which were tuned to an FM (or maybe AM) frequency, with excellant sound repro. I had an Orbiter guitar model that had one and was a finely designed/playing instrument in total, very odd but fun.
 
#28
bongomania said:
According to Wikipedia, D cells were invented in 1898 (not a typo) and the 9V's we use so much were invented in 1956.
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Batteries were obviously available, the carbon battery was around for a while used in flash lights and transistor radios.

Anyone have any REAL evidence that this is a wireless transmitter?
 
#29
So the photo with the receiver box with antennas on top of the amp, and the fact that there is no cord coming out of the bass, and the fact that a respected book on the subject identifies it as a wireless... that's not REAL evidence.

Look, none of us were there. You weren't there. I posted the bit about the batteries because you asked what kind of battery was in it and how long it would last. Considering the fact that 9V's were readily available, and that short-distance radios do not draw a lot of power, realistically it would have lasted about as long as the battery in an active bass or any other modern device that takes 9V's.
 
#30
We're talking 1964 here, so regardless of what the respected book says it's a REAL stretch to say that was a wireless gizmo and if it were it would be very large, larger than the box you see. And then there's the battery power, a single 9 volt of the period would last probably about a minute in that gizmo if in fact it existed.
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Allow me to clarify...

IMO, this isn't an instrument wireless transmitter and the scenario pictured doesn't support this being an instrument wireless transmitter. The box would require an antenna which it does not seem to have, and the battery life wouldn't be sufficient for a real world application in a studio setting and then there's the question of the sound which still seems to be an issue with some 45 years later.
 
#32
Phil Smith said:
We're talking 1964 here, so regardless of what the respected book says it's a REAL stretch to say that was a wireless gizmo and if it were it would be very large, larger than the box you see. And then there's the battery power, a single 9 volt of the period would last probably about a minute in that gizmo if in fact it existed.
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As noted in the link above, they had miniature radio transmitters in 64, and their tiny batteries would have lasted a lot longer than a minute or they would not have had any practical use. Also 9V batteries in 64 were not much weaker than the ones we use today, I'm not sure where you got that idea.
 
#33
It isn't a Dan Armstrong unit anyway since the first ones only came out in 1971.
It looks like a wireless emitter and receiver, there is no cable and the most comprehensive book on the matter says it's a wireless unit. Why not believing it?
All the needed technology was available back then as well as several commercial systems.
Shure's Vagabond system got on the market as early as 1953. It operated on two hearing aid batteries and boasted a 700-square foot “Performance Circle” range.
Sennheiser debuted the SK 1004 in 1962; that same year Beyerdynamic introduced the “transistophone”.
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Invalid Link Removed
 
#34
sorry for this resurrection, but I just got the book, Standing in the Shadows of Motown this week, and immediatly was drawn to this same pic for a number of reasons.
Without reading the caption, my first thought was a transmitter because of the lack of cable.
Then I read the caption and spotted the receiver, a whole TWO feet from him . Why have it so close to him? Not convenience,a 3 foot cable would've reached his amp.
So I concluded he was TESTING the wireless unit.

great music written down in this book btw

Now I have to go brush up my music reading skills, TABS are just so easy I became lazy lol
 

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