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What exactly is "that seventies thing"?
- Thread starter Chris 'Wighat' Jordan
- Start date
Maybe it has to do with the EQ.... a "smile" (bass-and-treble-boost, mid-cut) EQ? Depending on the genre, adding T-wah and an occasional synth sound?
The 70s were good for me getting plenty of playing time. Seemed like most of players out here at the time wanted the glory of being guitarists and drummers. I got to play in several bands at once early on in various styles. It helped my learning curve.If you weren't there, don't knock it... plenty of good tunes there... it was what it was... but don't get me started about disco...
I'm not a real bassist but here's how I'd interpret it:
The "60s thing" is the sound recorded and played live from Ampeg B-15's and B-18's. The woofer has no treble at all, already rolling off by 2-3kHz. The amp is only 25-30W so the tubes are pretty cooking. You might be playing at 15W typical so even a slap or other really loud note only has another 10-15W headroom to play with, which in psycho-acoustic terms only sounds one notch louder that 15W. (Doubling power only sounds "1 louder".) Besides the tubes, the transformer and rectifier are also near maxed out just in normal-volume playing so playing harder doesn't give much more volume: it's very compressed. The tubes are working hard even on typical notes, so there's a fair amount of tube warmth as well as that compression. In summary: warm, compressed, little highs.
The "70s thing" is much higher wattage, like 150W+, and 8x10 cabinets. The 10" give more treble--but still roll off around 4kHz. The higher wattage means far less compression. You might still be recording at 15W, but when you play a super loud note, the amp now has a huge amount of headroom. If you play 3 notches louder, it can output 3 notches louder. Finally the tubes are in a very linear portion of their operating range so little warming to speak of. In summary, not as warm, not as compressed, and starting to get some highs.
I'd say the "80s-90s thing" is the class-D amps, which instead of 100W are now suddenly 500W. FAAAR more headroom yet. And not tube so zero warming at all. Summary: no warm, more headroom, same highs as 70s.
Then the "21st century thing" is tweeters in the cabs bringing the top end easily to 14kHz, 18kHz, 20kHz. And that's just the +-2dB point, and 2dB is almost inaudible difference, so even a 14kHz-rated tweeter-loaded cab will in practice be putting out sound up to 20kHz, the top of human hearing. Power's now up to 800W-1200W, so you've got headroom for days. Meanwhile many of the amps now try to have features to warm just a bit, or add a bit of dirt. Summary: warm is as the player desires, so all over the map. Headroom is unlimited: the louder you accent, the louder the output, almost without limit. But now the frequencies up to the top of hearing are crystal clear.
Of course, you can get old-skool sound with new-skool gear: turn off the tweeter on your Eden or Glockenklang or what have you, or dial down the LPF, and you get get the tone of the 80s. On the other hand, to really get the 60s compression and warming, you need to be running tubes, transformer and rectifier hard. That could be like an Ampeg PF-20T on 7. Or it could be a PF-50T on 7 but run through a Marshall Power Brake to get it back down to a friendly recording volume. (Or using the aux out of the PF-50T and just tracking with headphones.)
The "60s thing" is the sound recorded and played live from Ampeg B-15's and B-18's. The woofer has no treble at all, already rolling off by 2-3kHz. The amp is only 25-30W so the tubes are pretty cooking. You might be playing at 15W typical so even a slap or other really loud note only has another 10-15W headroom to play with, which in psycho-acoustic terms only sounds one notch louder that 15W. (Doubling power only sounds "1 louder".) Besides the tubes, the transformer and rectifier are also near maxed out just in normal-volume playing so playing harder doesn't give much more volume: it's very compressed. The tubes are working hard even on typical notes, so there's a fair amount of tube warmth as well as that compression. In summary: warm, compressed, little highs.
The "70s thing" is much higher wattage, like 150W+, and 8x10 cabinets. The 10" give more treble--but still roll off around 4kHz. The higher wattage means far less compression. You might still be recording at 15W, but when you play a super loud note, the amp now has a huge amount of headroom. If you play 3 notches louder, it can output 3 notches louder. Finally the tubes are in a very linear portion of their operating range so little warming to speak of. In summary, not as warm, not as compressed, and starting to get some highs.
I'd say the "80s-90s thing" is the class-D amps, which instead of 100W are now suddenly 500W. FAAAR more headroom yet. And not tube so zero warming at all. Summary: no warm, more headroom, same highs as 70s.
Then the "21st century thing" is tweeters in the cabs bringing the top end easily to 14kHz, 18kHz, 20kHz. And that's just the +-2dB point, and 2dB is almost inaudible difference, so even a 14kHz-rated tweeter-loaded cab will in practice be putting out sound up to 20kHz, the top of human hearing. Power's now up to 800W-1200W, so you've got headroom for days. Meanwhile many of the amps now try to have features to warm just a bit, or add a bit of dirt. Summary: warm is as the player desires, so all over the map. Headroom is unlimited: the louder you accent, the louder the output, almost without limit. But now the frequencies up to the top of hearing are crystal clear.
Of course, you can get old-skool sound with new-skool gear: turn off the tweeter on your Eden or Glockenklang or what have you, or dial down the LPF, and you get get the tone of the 80s. On the other hand, to really get the 60s compression and warming, you need to be running tubes, transformer and rectifier hard. That could be like an Ampeg PF-20T on 7. Or it could be a PF-50T on 7 but run through a Marshall Power Brake to get it back down to a friendly recording volume. (Or using the aux out of the PF-50T and just tracking with headphones.)
I lived that 'seventies thing'. Lots of travel, gigs, a heavy P-Bass, a heavy valve amp, a heavy W cab. The 70's head and cab thing = backache!
Once it was time to purchase a real rig, my band mate's input was and remains "that 70's thing"; it was a recipe:
-the heaviest, sickest looking axe in the shoppe
-cabs that moved more air than their own mass
-enough power so that the PA never saw a note from the bass player
It was many sounds throughout the 70's, I had my favorites; John Deacon, Michael Anthony and let's not forget Gene, you know, "The Demon".
Sweet Emotion, Sweet Leaf and F-n Detroit Rock City.
Subjective, personal but not to be forgotten or undermined. I stood on JBL 18" subs with an EV 15" shield; wether a whisper, a pulse or making that floor bounce, if the bassist's emotion couldn't be "felt", it sure as heck wasn't the fault of their gear.
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-the heaviest, sickest looking axe in the shoppe
-cabs that moved more air than their own mass
-enough power so that the PA never saw a note from the bass player
It was many sounds throughout the 70's, I had my favorites; John Deacon, Michael Anthony and let's not forget Gene, you know, "The Demon".
Sweet Emotion, Sweet Leaf and F-n Detroit Rock City.
Subjective, personal but not to be forgotten or undermined. I stood on JBL 18" subs with an EV 15" shield; wether a whisper, a pulse or making that floor bounce, if the bassist's emotion couldn't be "felt", it sure as heck wasn't the fault of their gear.
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I wish I had gone to a Who concert in the 70's. With John Entwistle on a wall of Sunns, Pete Townshend on three Hiwatt double stacks.. The Moon wailing away on drums.... those were magical times....I love 70s music. Many of my favourite acts (the Who, Queen, Rush for example) had some highlight in the 70s. And -- firesuit ready -- I actually like that dead 70s drum tone.
Kind of like when I saw Humble Pie in 1971, and Steve and Peter each had three full Marshall stacks, and Greg had four Acoustic 360/361 rigs.
