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

[waynobass]

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.

Yes, nostalgia is useless.

A more interesting question to me for this thread is, What are we doing today that will seem crazy 40 years from now?

 

[ak56]

We used Bogan columns with a Bogan m60 pa amp. No monitors. You could not hear anything you were singing. Like shooting basketball blindfolded.

Masco PA amp and homebuilt hi-fi speaker to play the bass through.

 

[Cheez]

Yea, and the question “which model P Bass should I buy” didn’t make any sense....there was only one.

 

[giacomobass]

Some posts here remind me of Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen sketch.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

361, in the last lottery.

Living right. Mine was 84. I got 1Y. Underweight.

 

[Hundred proof]

I’ve seen and used a lot of gear over the years, and yeah unlike most TB faithful I still love the old iron and still use it when it fits what I’m doing. When I have need to use newer gear it’s used and set for an old school voice.

 

[bassliner50]

We did not compete with DJ's. Gigs were plentiful and we took that for granted. We also never guessed we'd be doing this for another 5 decades.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Sock hops? Spinning platters? In the 70s? Seriously?

Where were you doing that? I didn’t grow up in the hippest part of the world back then. But sock hops were definitely considered something that went out with the Dobie Gillis B&W TV era. DJs were were what you listened to on the radio. And you’d go catch a Sha Na Na show if you wanted “rock & roll” instead of just “rock.”

Such disparagement. Don’t dis my wonder years.

 

[Haroldo]

Isn't Johnny A in the Yardbirds current lineup?

The Northeast Massachusetts Johnny A? That Johnny A? I'd pay some money to see that. That mother can flat-out play.

 

[Bboopbennie]

We recorded this back in 1977. Rickenbacker bass. Didn't understand intonation, or strings. Drums were never tuned. Bass and Guitar use the piano for instrument tuning. Compression..... what ?? Gee you own a SM 57!!
1/2 inch 8 track machine was amazing ! ?

 

[LBS-bass]

Draft lottery: I had a musician friend who drew one of the first numbers, or perhaps number 1, don't recall exactly. He enrolled in college soon thereafter. I also had friends who drew high numbers and didn't worry too much. What a scary time for guys. Being female, I wasn't directly impacted. Back then they only wanted men in combat service.

 

[rtav]

We were REAAAALLLLLY good dropping the needle on a record in the same spot 50000 times to learn a song.

Good times.

 

[LBS-bass]

We recorded this back in 1977. Rickenbacker bass. Didn't understand intonation, or strings. Drums were never tuned. Bass and Guitar use the piano for instrument tuning. Compression..... what ?? Gee you own a SM 57!!
1/2 inch 8 track machine was amazing ! ?

That was fun Thanks for sharing.

 

[40Hz]

Such disparagement. Don’t dis my wonder years.

No disparagement intended. I was born in ‘55 and I’m genuinely curious. By ‘68 it was Cream, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, Spooky Tooth, Sly and the Family Stone, Taj Mahal, Procol Harum, The Who, CSNY, etc. etc. etc. where I was. We had dances (usually referred to as “mixers”) but we kept our shoes on.

I was just surprised to hear those terms in use in the late 60s and 70s. Like I said (I grew up in CT suburbia about 50 miles due east of NYC just off I-95) we weren’t on the cutting edge by any stretch where I lived. So I’ve got no cause to disparage anything or anybody. And I really was just curious.

 

[Indiana Mike]

Not in the timeline,but kinda...
Reading the OP ,not setting up basses...

Man,I had a Hondo P in about 1984. The action was so high my teacher kept asking "how do you even play that"

So I let a tech look at it ,and the truss rod broke.
So a friend of the family loaned me an ancient Fender P, sunburst, lots of wear, I was horrified ,the thing had paint missing,dings and dents, was obviously played to death ..played that a couple years and finally got something else (don't remember)

It was a bass many would love to have nowadays

Didn't know what I had

 

[Cutter8]

We used a lot of these in really old buildings and somehow survived.

View attachment 3486462

Sure did, which is miraculous, but I certainly had some close calls and a band mate took an ambulance ride to the ER courtesy of one of those handy little gadgets!

 

[jza57]

Back in the day I never changed strings no matter how bad they were . And when I broke a string I would just replace the broken string. Yes , for some reason I would break strings back in the 70's , don't know how but I did.

 

[sgtpepper]

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?

Because you had a passion and a heart. (Most) musicians nowadays just do it for the money (I know every pro musician does it for money, but you know what I mean) and the limelight. The passion is gone.

I'll always be thankful with your generation for that.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

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?

Did we really? I’m not about to write off all music developed after 1/1/2000. I’ll agree we old-timers maybmay have a broader sense of music due to the fact that for the most part, we played a lot more.

As for equipment, until 2011, I had zero inclination and or knowledge how to properly EQ a bass, and I’ve been playing bass since the mid 60s. How in the world could I possibly known what sounded good or not to the audience. But played on we did.

 

[GretschWretch]

No disparagement intended. I was born in ‘55 and I’m genuinely curious. By ‘68 it was Cream, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, Spooky Tooth, Sly and the Family Stone, Taj Mahal, Procol Harum, The Who, CSNY, etc. etc. etc. where I was. We had dances (usually referred to as “mixers”) but we kept our shoes on.

I was just surprised to hear those terms in use in the late 60s and 70s. Like I said (I grew up in CT suburbia about 50 miles due east of NYC just off I-95) we weren’t on the cutting edge by any stretch where I lived. So I’ve got no cause to disparage anything or anybody. And I really was just curious.

I was born in 1949, and for us it really was sockhops at a neighborhood community center, complete with chaperones and a band from the local high school. We went through the post-Elvis crooner and girl group phase, followed by the great American folk scare, and cut our teeth on the first British invasion and the American response to it.

Ah, the glory days of am radio; where you could hear EVERYTHING, and all in the space of one hour.