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

#421
Having scanned this whole fun thread, wet blankets aside (I woke up at 3AM) … I remember our garage band actually being in the garage and putting my amp up over the trash can to get a better sound to go with our high tech instrument, the Farfisa organ. I would have cut off my legs to get the sound we can now just dial in. Every way we tried to record sounded like buzzy mayhem and we loved every minute of it. No desire to go back: real happy to have been there.
 
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#423
For a couple years, I drove my gear to gigs in a 1968 Cadillac hearse. It was cool but only got 8 miles to a gallon in the city and 10 on the highway. It had rollers in the back for coffins, which came in handy for rolling cabinets in the hearse.

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#425
Wisebass said:
hi Richland123 :)

Looks like we are not the only turntable freaks…..



Never had one of these for the small one in the car (daaaaang!)

But the "furniture" model had a gadget that was much thinner

and you could even "stock" 6 LPs!!!! and play them (one side)

AAAAAnd the speed did not change a lot! (no lightweight table with a belt drive!) :hyper:

The motors were great! (too expensive)

Remember! :(

In the 70s consumers also went towards new, flashy and cheap.

That's why a lot of companys stopped making these!
(or closed in the 80s like Perpetuum - Ebner)

greetings

Wise
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Remember these odd 45 record spindles?

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#427
I remember fitting by Hofner bass and my Ampeg B15 into my Volkswagen Beetle.
I still use plug adapters, and a Vox Coiled cable. But, I prefer my Aguilar 350 and 112 SSL cabinet with the Hofner bass today.

Did anybody else have a band who had bare instrument speakers resting on the floor connected to so sort of tube amp that I guy in the band made?
 
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#428
Richland123 said:
For a couple years, I drove my gear to gigs in a 1968 Cadillac hearse. It was cool but only got 8 miles to a gallon in the city and 10 on the highway. It had rollers in the back for coffins, which came in handy for rolling cabinets in the hearse.

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funeral-car-cadillac-hearse-883732226865824141.jpg


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Neil Young used to tote his gear in a hearse. That's a nice one you have!
 
#431
I was born in 1960 and playing bass in bands by 1975. A lot of my "memories" of those early days have been covered by others already, and some might only be meaningful to other New Zealand musicians from a similar era, but here goes:
  • A lot of us played Jansen amps - a New Zealand-made brand. My first was a massive tall combo with a single 12" speaker. I've been googling, but can't find a picture. I'm sure it was only 25 watts.
  • I later graduated to a separate Jansen head and cab set. The heads had a very Fender Bassman look. It was 100 watts.
    Jansen.jpg

    The cab was 2x?? - I don't remember if it was 12 or 15". I felt like a pro.
  • Our PA was an old Sonic guitar amp - also a New Zealand made brand, I think. But it had two channels with four inputs, so the lead vocalist got his own channel, and myself and the rhythm guitarist, who both did some backing vocals, shared the other channel.
    Sonic.jpg

    One day our lead guitarist turned up with a bag full of used 10" speakers - must have been a dozen of them. He and I made some tall, thin cabinets in school woodwork class to house them. There was no science about dimensions or volume, just four speakers in each cabinet, stacked vertically. These were our PA speakers. While making them, said guitarist confessed he'd stolen them - removed from a local car parking building.
  • I didn't know the difference between instrument or speaker cable - I just had cables; longer ones for connecting guitar to amp, shorter ones for connecting amp to cabinet.
  • I carried a 440 tuning fork in my bass case (still have it) but we usually ended up tuning to an old piano in our vocalists's house.
  • I didn't know anything about instrument setups. I lowered the action on one of my basses once, but other than that, I just picked it up and played it.
  • I didn't know anything about the geometry of instruments, like neck widths and profiles. After years of playing an old Ibanez that seemed easy and fast, I didn't understand why I wasn't as quick or accurate on other basses.
  • Music was life. Every waking moment when I wasn't at school was spent thinking about music, talking about music, listening to music, queueing up outside the record shop to get The Stones' "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" or Led Zep's "Physical Graffiti" on release day, practising in my room, rehearsing with the band, playing any gig we could get, going out to watch other bands. Life was: sleep, school, bass, eat, repeat.
  • We worked really hard on our playing, developing our skills and technique, and getting tight as a band. We didn't really work on our sound - just plug in, get the volume about right, get a tone that wasn't tinny but not too boomy, and play. By comparison, these days I seem tone-obsessed.
  • Compression?
 
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#432
Paulabass said:
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?
Click to expand...
That was also when guitar players punched holes in their speakers with pencils to get distortion and other assorted effects not possible with a straight amp and speaker(s)..
 
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#434
StereoPlayer said:
I put my 301 cab in the back seat of a 1965 Buick Special. 2 door coupe!

Also had it in a 1940 Chevy sedan, back seat. Many station wagons.
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My first "gig rig" was a 72 Toyota Corolla. I'd shoehorn my Peavey TKO 60 in the back seat on the drivers side, then lay the front passenger seat all the way down and put my bass on the front seat. My repurposed canvas doctor bag went in the back passenger side foot well.
 
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#437
Stewie26 said:
Because a good song is a good song, even when the fidelity was not perfect.
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Also, good sound is good sound even if it's not perfect...

or, if it sounds good, it is good....

because all that great music actually sounds really good (to me).

What's also weird and kind of sad, is the bass has vanished in music. At least I rarely notice it. Not only the sound, but cool basslines.
 
#439
funkytoe said:
Then came Punk and kids thought that playing the same three chords at high volume with lots of energy and attitude was what it meant to be in a band. That, in my opinion, was the beginning of the end. Don't get me wrong, I also love Punk and could not be happier listening to some of the iconic groups like the Ramones, the Clash, Sex Pistols and such. But, I don't think a lot of kids ever became a great musicians playing along to those records, the same way that we did - with apologies to Billie Joe, Tre and Mike, who may be the exception to the rule.
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I sort of agree with that.

I think the songwriting took a nose dive as well.

Technology played a part, too.
 
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#440
GregC said:
As a Boomer myself, I am so utterly and completely sick of this rose-colored glasses view of yesteryear. My generation is so full of themselves, it's incredible.
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I suppose so....

but that music and period is sort of like classical music as far as rock and pop goes. They were the Mozarts and Beethovens.

I don't think it's just nostalgia.
 

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