Things we didn't know or do in the 60's and 70's

[brianrost]

Actually people DID know all the things mentioned in the OP. Not everybody, but somebody. Like the roadies for the big stars. Or Brian May and Bill Wyman building their own instruments and using them through their entire careers. Or people bringing instruments into shops for setups.

Just an example: "We had two cords. We used them interchangeably between speaker and instrument." You would notice pretty quickly that you were using a speaker cable to plug your bass into your amp, so I hope you at least owned two shielded cords.

BTW the only reason we know (and argue about) so much stuff today is there is more information available than there was back then. Not just teh interwebz but all the publications that didn't exist. Guitar Player magazine started up in 1967 and was all there was for almost 20 years. Mel Bay and Carol Kaye were pretty much all there was for method books and tablature began and ended with fingering diagrams showing scales and arpeggios, not entire songs.

I could argue that all the points made in the OP are still common with beginners. Nobody comes to the instrument knowing everything.

 

[Jehos]

If we did so many things wrong, how come we made the best music of the century?

You didn't.

 

[BwanaDust]

We didn't know basses needed to be set-up. We just played them.
We assumed intonation had been done at the factory.
We had two cords. We used them interchangeably between speaker and instrument.
We didn't carry a spare bass. If we needed to change a string we had drum solos.
We thought a 15" folded horn could be used full-range. We didn't need anything over 300 Hz. anyway.
We didn't know you couldn't put any speaker in any cab, so we put a JBL or an EV in everything- It didn't matter which model. In 1978 we decided Fender bass cabinets sucked (they did), and we took out the speakers and put them in TL 606 cabs. This was the single biggest improvement in bass sound since the invention of the electric bass.(not including the Fridge, which is still cool)

If we did so many things wrong, how come we made the best music of the century?

Speak for yourself.

 

[4dog]

You didn't.

did

 

[LT131]

You didn't.

Somebody did.

 

[Turbo Sparky]

And cocaine was considered good for you and the creative process...

...Peruvian marchin' powder.

 

[rohi]

What can I say? You get ‘em.

If you post a thread, you're gonna get replies. The purpose of a forum is to bring together many different viewpoints. Even if you don't like them. If you don't want to hear contrasting ideals to your own, what you may be actually looking for is what we call an "Echo Chamber" or, "Facebook".

 

[Goatee220]

As someone who had his hey-day in the 80's, I can relate to most of those...

Well, Ireland was a little behind the times back then, no?

 

[DavC]

70's ... yep , had basses setup by the local gtr shop ...

discovered Round wounds

our light show was ' borrowed ' various spot lights from peoples Xmas displays ...

coiled cables still ruled

platform shoes were dangerous

solid state was the New thing .. !! Sunn Concert & Coliseum heads

2 2x15 cabs were just loud enough ..

our Sunn folded horn 18 cabs sounded just fine ... a coupe miles away .. !!

a couple Quaaludes and a case of beer strangely made me forget stuff .. !!??

 

[Richland123]

Thanks for that picture! Brings back fond memories. Those early Gibson amps of that style sounded real good! Don't remember exactly what model it was, but I used to rent one from Dana Morgan Music in Palo Alto California to use at gigs, because my tweed Fender Deluxe couldn't cut it on stage. The amp I rented that looked very similar to your photo had two 12" Jensen speakers I'm pretty sure. I know it had a pare of 6L6's. Me and the other guitar player in the band I was in at the time would both plug in to it. We were playing surf music, all instrumentals, and it was perfectly satisfactory for our gigs. Played surprisingly loud, actually. Saved my nickles and dimes until I could afford a Fender Showman. I thought I was hot #$%$# with that! But when I got a Dual Showman, I was probably insufferable! Young, and full of fire.

I still have my Gibson Falcon guitar amp and it sounds great. I took it to a good technician about 10 years ago to go over it and it is like new. I have had offers to sell it; but, I want to keep it. It has 1 12" original Jensen speaker. The reverb and tremolo work fine.

 

[socialleper]

Know about: consequences
Do: care about consequences

 

[socialleper]

You didn't.

Talkbass: endless Boomer nostalgia-gasm.

Also Talkbass: "why is live music dying?"

 

[Nevada Pete]

The OP literally said "best music of the century." That is a little more than waxing nostalgic.

Perhaps more than waxing nostalgic, but tongue in cheek as it was, paulabass was right.

The term music has a definition. What passes for music in too many cases these days ain't. The music my parents may have complained about nevertheless contained the elements of music (rhythum, melody and harmony) composed in such a way as to be memorable. Just saying.

 

[Richland123]

I sang through a Shure Unisphere A Model PE585 High Impedance Microphone just like this one. I kept the microphone and the plastic carrying case after all these years.

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[City]

Sorry can't even find an image of them on the net. Coffee Can lighting. We took 4 coffee cans, painted them black, affixed them to a piece of wood, insert sockets, in parallel, screw in colored spot lights that were sold (in think they still sell them). Our singer constructed a control box. Was an ingenious kinda guy. We had 8 spots total (4 each side), hot hot hot, but we were the naz, with a lighted stage.

 

[socialleper]

Perhaps more than waxing nostalgic, but tongue in cheek as it was, paulabass was right.

The term music has a definition. What passes for music in too many cases these days ain't. The music my parents may have complained about nevertheless contained the elements of music (rhythum, melody and harmony) composed in such a way as to be memorable. Just saying.

So you at first say that it is a tongue in cheek statement, and then go out of your way to prove that it isn't a tongue in cheek statement.
Then make the false equivalency that states because you like music different from music "these days" it must be objectively better. Opinion about art can only be subjective, so you dropped the ball there too.
Apparently logical thinking wasn't something they knew about in the 60-70s either.

 

[Nevada Pete]

I sang through Shure Unisphere A Model PE585 High Impedance Microphone just like this one. I kept the microphone and the plastic carrying case after all these years.

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The Shure Unidyne and Unisphere series of cardioid dynamic microphones were vastly superior for live performance to anything else on the market at the time. I bet most of those microphones that still exist would work just as well now as they used to! Shure made a barrel transformer with a phone jack on one end and a cannon connector on the other to convert them to low impedance. You still can't go wrong with Shure.

 

[Nevada Pete]

I still have my Gibson Falcon guitar amp and it sounds great. I took it to a good technician about 10 years ago to go over it and it is like new. I have had offers to sell it; but, I want to keep it. It has 1 12" original Jensen speaker. The reverb and tremolo work fine.

What is the tube compliment?

 

[Pushrod]

One member of the band was able to get a loan, so the band went to the music store, bought a TAPCO board, a couple speakers, and a small Crown Power Amp. PA heaven. Of course, the band played a couple gigs each month to make the payment on the new PA, which of course if a member left, or the band broke up, no one but the guy with the loan ever got anything from it, even after it was paid off.

 

[Winslow]

I kept the microphone and the plastic carrying case after all these years.

Wow! We had 2 or 3 of those. So awesome that you still have them!