Where Did The Good Ole' Days Go?

[Aberdumbie]

I have a unique perspective having been out of the music business since 1992 and recently returning. I marvel at all the modern equipment that seems to be prevalent with todays musicians. Got me to thinking about what we pieced together to make a working road band way back when;
Strap lock was a guitar pick split down the middle with a hole drilled with a dull pocket knife.
Stage lighting were big coffee cans painted black. Thankfully we knew a welder that made us primitive
trusses.
Very proud of the "snake" made from loads of "acquired" wiring. Hoping not to get shocked when I got
near the microphone.
Monitors were re-purposed stereo speakers.
The four big empty cabinets on stage to make us appear to have a "real" PA system.
Ohhhhh.... How I miss the old days (not).

 

[Torrente Cro]

The four big empty cabinets on stage to make us appear to have a "real" PA system.

I like this ;-)

 

[Joe Nerve]

Back in the 70s we had flash pots. Betcha don't even know what they are .

 

[Cap'n Redbeard]

I miss knowing nothing of impedance and daisy chaining six or eight crappy speakers to one poor, abused box mixer. Then scratching our head in wonder when it went up in smoke...

 

[two fingers]

Never mind that back then all you had to do was put on the billboard out front was "Live Music Tonight" and people came out of the woodwork to hear the band.
But, yeah, I did a few shows early on with a Peavey TKO lined into a Peavey TNT and another random Fender amp. It looked like a bass combo garage sale on stage.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

It looked like a bass combo garage sale on stage.

Didn't we all. I had a Dano and a Silvertone amp. Our "PA was a Premier 77 guitar amp setting on the front of the stage in the middle with an old Shure 55 plugged into it.

 

[Odinbass]

The internet. You can learn a lot and watch a lot of pornography.

 

[Aberdumbie]

Back in the 70s we had flash pots. Betcha don't even know what they are .

Oh yes I do. You were in one of those fancy bands if you had flash pots. LOL

 

[OldBassman]

Made a strobe light out of a box fan and a slide projector bulb (1967). Worked pretty good. Our stage lighting used to be somebody's landscape lighting. Sorry. Made fake speaker cabs to jump on and kick over. Wore Beatle wigs. OMG !!! Now nearly 50 years later I'm still at it and still having a great time. Thank you Lord for the gift of Music (and Beer)...

 

[Joe Nerve]

Oh yes I do. You were in one of those fancy bands if you had flash pots. LOL

Tin cans, model rocket fuses, gun powder, a Lionel train transformer... And burnt butts when things didn't go as planned.

 

[PaulJSmith]

Tin cans, model rocket fuses, gun powder, a Lionel train transformer... And burnt butts when things didn't go as planned.

We used coffee cans flared and screwed to a wood base. Inside the can were two more screws in the base with a cut lamp cord running to a switch mounted to a board (there were several of these). We would wind a strand of thin wire around the screws, then pour a small amount of black powder in a pile over the wire. Flip the switch, the wire burned, and POOOF!!! Flashpots!

We had a soundman back in the mid '80s who decided one Saturday afternoon while loading into a venue that he would burn off a small quantity of powder in the parking lot ... by hand ... with a Bic lighter. What he didn't plan was it also burning off the hair on his arm and his eyebrows. Good ol' days, indeed.

 

[bassbrad]

One thing I for one do not miss is getting a band in tune before affordable accurate tuners were available. Being the only person in the band that could really tune meant after getting everything set up tuning all the guitars, usually including at least one 12 string guitar, 4 or more other guitars, bass(es) and very often a keyboard or two all with a tuning fork clamped between my teeth. Then spending every break touching up the tuning. I still have the old Justina tuner as well as others purchased along the way.

 

[dbase]

Made a strobe light out of a box fan and a slide projector bulb (1967). Worked pretty good. Our stage lighting used to be somebody's landscape lighting. Sorry. Made fake speaker cabs to jump on and kick over. Wore Beatle wigs. OMG !!! Now nearly 50 years later I'm still at it and still having a great time. Thank you Lord for the gift of Music (and Beer)...

Haaaaaa. you too? I made the first handmade strobe for my band in 1968 to use in clubs we played (psychedelic music).. Nobody seen them before. what a trip when you light them up on stage. I used an old record player box which was gutted. Drilled a hole in the side and mounted a 500 watt projector bulb inside with an erector set motor and a large wheel that spun on low gear with a hole in it. when the holes lined up, Bingo. The thing was hanging from the ceiling in front of the stage with a long cord to the stage so we could turn it on. I couldn't let it run too long the damn thing would catch on fire. We would do a freak out show and dump a pound of flour on the drummer and with the strobe running it looked like an atomic bomb went off in slow motion. People would be freaking out wondering what the hell was happening as we would turn all the amps up to feedback and trash the stage. what at sight. Those were the good ole' days. What was the name of your band, maybe we know one another. We were the Assorted Flavors.

 

[dbase]

I miss knowing nothing of impedance and daisy chaining six or eight crappy speakers to one poor, abused box mixer. Then scratching our head in wonder when it went up in smoke...

Yeah.. we used our guitar cables as speaker cables and visa versa when needed... never a problem.

 

[dbase]

We had a Farfisa organ plugged into a high boy Leslie.. couldn't afford a Hammond and couldn't carry it if we had one.

 

[OldBassman]

Haaaaaa. you too? I made the first handmade strobe for my band in 1968 to use in clubs we played (psychedelic music).. Nobody seen them before. what a trip when you light them up on stage. I used an old record player box which was gutted. Drilled a hole in the side and mounted a 500 watt projector bulb inside with an erector set motor and a large wheel that spun on low gear with a hole in it. when the holes lined up, Bingo. The thing was hanging from the ceiling in front of the stage with a long cord to the stage so we could turn it on. I couldn't let it run too long the damn thing would catch on fire. We would do a freak out show and dump a pound of flour on the drummer and with the strobe running it looked like an atomic bomb went off in slow motion. People would be freaking out wondering what the hell was happening as we would turn all the amps up to feedback and trash the stage. what at sight. Those were the good ole' days. What was the name of your band, maybe we know one another. We were the Assorted Flavors.

We were "Beloved"... active 1965-1967 out of Gainesville, Florida.

 

[Aberdumbie]

Haaaaaa. you too? I made the first handmade strobe for my band in 1968 to use in clubs we played (psychedelic music).. Nobody seen them before. what a trip when you light them up on stage. I used an old record player box which was gutted. Drilled a hole in the side and mounted a 500 watt projector bulb inside with an erector set motor and a large wheel that spun on low gear with a hole in it. when the holes lined up, Bingo. The thing was hanging from the ceiling in front of the stage with a long cord to the stage so we could turn it on. I couldn't let it run too long the damn thing would catch on fire. We would do a freak out show and dump a pound of flour on the drummer and with the strobe running it looked like an atomic bomb went off in slow motion. People would be freaking out wondering what the hell was happening as we would turn all the amps up to feedback and trash the stage. what at sight. Those were the good ole' days. What was the name of your band, maybe we know one another. We were the Assorted Flavors.

It warms my heart to know I wasn't the only poor guy creating music from mayhem. Good ole American ingenuity prevails!... I bet the flour/drummer thing looked cool under a strobe.

 

[Stdjazz4]

The internet. You can learn a lot and watch a lot of pornography.

We used to have to find porno in abandoned houses or trash dumpsters.

"Good old days??"

NOT!!

 

[EarnestTBass]

A friend of mine made his own Leslie cabinet by mounting a speaker under a turntable and fabricating a cardboard baffle to spin on top the platter. Put the whole thing in a box with a mic.
The speed control was either 33 1/3 or 45....otherwise it worked pretty well.

 

[Zebra]

I was just talking to an amp tech that noted he's likely to charge a higher fee on anything produced after 2007, and many techs don't even want to touch that stuff. Apparently that's when the switch to lead-free solder became mostly universal, and it's evidently tougher to work with. But basically, if it was made after then, if it breaks it generally goes in the trash. So there's not a lot of modern gear right now that has hotfixes or repairs. Just shiny new stuff or garbage.