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

[GregC]

This is worthy of a longer post. I think there is a strong tendency for every generation to wear those rose-colored glasses (dunno if it's particularly stronger in us boomers, tho' you might have a point). To me, the more interesting thing concerning the original post is the list of present day hardware don'ts - and that an awful lot of good music was made in spite of our past sins. We can question whether it's the best, but it was pretty darned good. We got away with technological murder!

I'm as guilty as the next person but it seems to me a lot of us possess quite a few hardware / technology / convenience fetishes these days. I vacillate between luxuriating in the wealth of bass playing goodies available to me and on the other hand wanting to be a stone Luddite. By virtue of having too much disposable income, I think I've come down on the side of "golly-gee-whiz that new amp sure looks to be a fine thing, let's give it a whirl". But I could certainly stand to do a whole lot more plain ol' music making.

Thanks for the thoughtful post. I agree with most of your points, particularly regarding the push-pull now between the allure of vintage-type gear and the new stuff. My main amp is the Ampeg V-4B reissue, which is 1/3 lighter, so I guess that's a little of both.

Certainly, a lot of great music was made back then. I think what gets overlooked is that "we" got away with a lot of hardware don'ts because live recording gear, and playback equipment, was for the most part much lower-fi than it is today. A lot fewer performances were recorded at all, too.

My initial post was strongly worded because of what seems to be the constant drumbeat on TB by many of my fellow Boomers about how all or most music was great then and it basically all sucks today--edited to add, or sometimes it's argued that everything after the '80s, or everything after 1975 or so, stinks too. I think many have lost the open-mindedness they were celebrated for back in the day. Maybe future generations will act similarly. But there are so many of us Boomers (thus the term!) right now saying this kind of thing.

It's a busy day at work and we have company at home, I'll respond to others when I get a chance.

 

[gorneyg]

I'm not sure about these...most of the people I knew did...

We didn't know basses needed to be set-up. We just played them. Basses were 'set up';

We assumed intonation had been done at the factory. Nope...intonation was done

We had two cords. We used them interchangeably between speaker and instrument. NEVER

We didn't carry a spare bass. If we needed to change a string we had drum solos. Always had a spare

We thought a 15" folded horn could be used full-range. We didn't need anything over 300 Hz. anyway. SOME PLAYERS WERE BI-AMPPING

 

[BadSanta1281]

One thing we boomers have in common with the younger generations...

Thinking that the generation before ours was lame.

 

[Richland123]

What is the tube compliment?

The Falcon got 14 watts out of two 6V6 tubes (the same tubes used in the comparable Fender Deluxe), and had a Jensen 12" speaker. The pre-amp was powered by three [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] tubes, and a 7199 for the reverb circuit.

 

[40Hz]

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".

Contrasting opinions are always welcome. State your thesis, present your evidence, and make your case if you’re feeling contrarian and nobody will have a problem with it.

Snarky one-liners and comebacks, or “sniping” to use another social media term (which is the preferred modus of a small group of TBers whose handles I’m sure many of the regulars here already recognize) aren’t contributing anything to the conversation.

FWIW, my roots in the online world go back before the Internet when I was one of the early subscribers (or “Well Beings”) on The WELL and hosted a few of my own dial-up online bulletin boards. Back then there was a set of generally accepted guidelines regarding what constituted acceptable behavior that was referred to as “netiquette.” And for the most part, they were pretty well adhered to.

One of the netiquette guidelines suggested that if you ever found yourself in a conversation where you had nothing of value or interest to add, and you didn’t feel like chiming in as a supporter, you either be a “lurker” (i.e. reader) or exit it and go find another conversation you could constructively participate in. As the guideline put it: Avoid playing devil’s advocate unless there’s a serious and compelling reason for you to do so. Most differences you’ll encounter online are differences of opinion rather than actual substance. Learn to recognize the difference.

There’s been many topics and threads I’ve encountered here where I disagreed strongly with the trend in the discussion or didn’t have any skin in the game so to speak. So I just moved into other threads where I could more profitably spend my time. Spared me dozens of circular arguments and wasted keyboarding.

 

[Pilgrim]

My initial post was strongly worded because of what seems to be the constant drumbeat on TB by many of my fellow Boomers about how all or most music was great then and it basically all sucks today. I think many have lost the open-mindedness they were celebrated for back in the day. Maybe future generations will act similarly. But there are so many of us Boomers (thus the term!) right now saying this kind of thing.

As another Boomer, I can't say I'm other than amused, as the OP probably intended.

In the 60's everything with electronic instruments was new, not much was known, and everyone sorted it out for themselves. Without online forums or social media, our knowledge bases were newspapers and magazines, our friends, the local music store, and other musicians we ran into. Instruments were Fender, Gibson and a few other brands, and if an instrument came from Japan there was a pretty good chance the pickups were incredibly microphonic and that the instrument was crap. I never knew a brand called Rickenbacker existed; I doubt there was one in a 100-mile radius of my home town.

That made a pretty narrow knowledge base for someone like me who lived in a town of less than 20,000 people where there were only a couple dozen people playing amplified music around town. I tuned with a pitch pipe, left the strings on my '63 P that came on it, used my Bassman amp and 2x15 cab (man, I hated carrying that thing up two flights of fire escape stairs to play the Elks lodge...) and that was pretty much it.

Now we have the Internet, forums, search engines, YouTube, a tidal wave of information, and frankly a much better selection of quality instruments than existed in the 60's. Today's Squier instruments would blow anything Japan offered in the 60's out of the water. Strings in many configurations are readily available. Want a part? Order it online and you'll have it in hours to days, not weeks like it took in the 60's.

Amps and cabs? We have eleventy-billion options for high power amps that start under 4 pounds, and matching options for tons of cabs, even DIY cabs you can build with plans available online - and those cabs actually have some science behind them, they're not somebody's wild hair experiment. And we can put lightweight neo speakers in them, so we don't have to carry cabs as heavy as anvils up and down stairs.

Sure, them wuz the good ole days. But this time is also good days.

 

[Richland123]

When we hired a drummer who owned a Kustom P.A. and a station wagon, we thought we hit it big.

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[rohi]

One of the netiquette guidelines suggested that if you ever found yourself in a conversation where you had nothing of value or interest to add, and you didn’t feel like chiming in as a supporter, you either be a “lurker” (i.e. reader) or exit it and go find another conversation you could constructively participate in.

I don't subscribe to the "agree with me or shut up" mentality, sorry.

 

[Fishheadjoe]

I remember the first time we played a gig and we had side fill monitors... scared the living crap outta me!
First time I had ever heard the vox in monitors!
Fishheadjoe

 

[Passinwind]

If I knew then what I know now, I'd be a rich sumbitch...

Not me, I'd still be paying crazy amounts of child support. Thank you Mr. Darwin.

 

[GreyBeard]

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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I forgot about those, they were the mic to use back then. They didn't feed back as badly as some of the other ones of the day.

 

[Jehos]

What passes for music in too many cases these days ain't.

^^^ Signs you're getting old. Your parents said the same thing about rock 'n' roll.

 

[Nevada Pete]

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.

Logical thinking back then? Not exactly considering all the weed we smoked! Your not doing much better yourself, though. Merriam-Webster definition of tongue in cheek (there are more than one, you know):

Tongue in Cheek: in a way that is not serious and that is meant to be funny.

There is nothing contradictory in what I said. Unless your just itching for a fight. The thing is, your reaction is just exactly why the original comment is tongue in cheek. Do you get that?

By the way, sir, "like" has nothing to do with my comment. Like whatever you want. I don't care what you like, and I didn't say anything about like or not like. Your arguing to a straw man. Public relations and marketing professionals claim people don't know what they like, they like what they know. The game is to create what they call brand identification with a certain product. Works pretty good, doesn't it?

Actually, I didn't go out of my way to prove anything, and my comment was not an opinion. I simply reiterated a definition of music that continues to be agreed upon at any music academy or institution of higher learning I am familiar with. It is a simple fact that a lot of what I hear these days does not conform to that definition. Maybe in time the definition will change. It hasn't yet. Homogenizing everything to sound pretty much the same on terrestrial radio, for example, is not a musical technique. It is a marketing technique.

I do admit to thinking somebody would come along and reply the way you did. We can have a little fun here on TB, can't we? It's all good. As long as you enjoy what you listen to, be my guest. Have a pleasant day. Cheers!

 

[GreyBeard]

When we hired a drummer who owned a Kustom P.A. and a station wagon, we thought we hit it big.

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That PA was a big step up from what most people had been using. It had 4 high imp inputs that had adjustable bass, treble, and reverb on each channel! And, you could sing harmony without distortion and, it had enough power to get the vocals up with the rest of the instruments.

 

[40Hz]

I don't subscribe to the "agree with me or shut up" mentality, sorry.

Neither do I. But not everything I have an opinion about is worth throwing out there.

Remember the earlier netiquette qualifier about the difference between differences of opinion vs substance - and being able to recognize that difference?

So here’s a question for you: Why should a group of people - with no power or influence over anything - who are talking amicably among themselves about things of no real significance be cause for someone to come in and start getting all pissy about it? Ignoring for a moment the obvious “nobody is talking to or about you” issue with that, why be so offended or feel so threatened?

Here’s a good thought experiment to help clarify what constitutes acceptable online behavior in this situation:

Would you go to a party at someone’s house, insert yourself into a conversation about how much more (for example) the participants enjoyed going to concerts back in the early 70s, and promptly declare that they’re totality wrong about that? Then go on to say their bands sucked, the concert sound of that era was horrible compared to today, how much better and more with it today’s musicians are, and how listening to people talking about their preferences for things back then makes you want to puke? Possibly even adding in a few additional age related digs by way of closing just for good measure - and then cross your arms and stand there with a “bring it on” expression on your face?

So…if you wouldn’t do it there (I hope!) then what makes that same sort of behavior and attitude perfectly acceptable in a web discussion. Or is it just that the effective anonymity of a web username emboldens some people to behave in a way they’d never dream of in the physical world?

Bottom line: If it’s something that's unacceptable and/or illegal in the so-called real world, then it’s also unacceptable and/or illegal up on the web. Online does not grant carte blanche to behave however one wants. As some have learned the hard way.

 

[FronTowardEnemy]

Using Pledge furniture polish to clean your entire instrument.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Never been accused of being highbrow, but I did have a tuning fork in my case for a long time. Back when I was just singing I bought the first electronic tuner I ever used for a band that spent more time tuning than practicing. Got super sick of that so the tuner was purchased. What a revelation.

I remember mine as being red, but can't find a picture of a red one.

This exact tuner (mine was black) only gave up the ghost three years ago.

 

[Lowbrow]

Swear to god I can't imagine why we didn't destroy every tube amp head in the band's collection by hooking them up to speakers with cheap, curly guitar cords.

 

[Wisebass]

Hi Goatee220

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

Back then?

greetings

Wise(b)ass

 

[rohi]

So here’s a question for you: Why should a group of people - with no power or influence over anything - who are talking amicably among themselves about things of no real significance be cause for someone to come in and start getting all pissy about it?

I honestly don't know, because no one to my knowledge has done that in this thread.

I've seen people state their opinions, but no one getting "pissy". That seems like something you're personally projecting onto what you're reading. I haven't witnessed anyone stating anyone elses' band preference sucks, nor has anyone announced imminent bowel-vacating due to musical tastes-- again, this is something you're projecting merely because you don't agree with someone chiming in their opposing viewpoint.

The situation you've described is a false equivalency to what's actually going on in this thread. To get ultra-specific, my initial post was merely pointing out that personal opinions shouldn't be presented as facts, and are subject to debate if stated as such.

Edit: spelling