Author: chris

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1980 (via Music Emporium)

Download 25pp of excerpts from the 1980 ‘Music Emporium’ mail-order catalog: synthesizers, keyboards; effects pedals; pro audio equipment:

DOWNLOAD SYNTHS:Music_Emp_Keys_1980

DOWNLOAD EFFECTS PEDALS: Music_Emp_FX_1980

DOWNLOAD PRO AUDIO: Music_Emp_audio_1980

Keyboard instruments covered, with photos, text, and (often) pricing, include: ARP Axxe, Odyssey, Quadra, Quartet, Omni II, and 2600 keyboards, Moog Micro Moog, Mini-Moog, Polymoog, and Multi-Moog, Korg MS-10 and MS-20; Oberheim OB-1, two-voice, OB-X, and four and eight-voice systems; Roland RS-09 and RS-505 string machines; Roland MP-600 electronic piano; mechanical keyboards from Hohner (pianet and clavinet) and Wurlitzer (200); Leslie 820, 860, 147, 760, and 815 rotating speaker systems.

Effects pedals include full lines from MXR (many…), Morley (VOL, SVO, PWO, WVO, PWB, PWF, PWA, PFA, and PRL), Mutron (III, Phasor II, Vol-Wah, Octave Divider, and Bi-Phase), and DOD (250, 280, 401, 640); plus interesting oddities like the Gizmotron, eBow, Altair PW-5, and the original Pignose amplifier.

Audio includes a wide range of mics from Shure, Sennheiser, Beyer, Sony, plus some predictable selections from the AKG and Electrovoice lines; Teac tape machines; Technics 1500 and RS-M85; the Tangent 3216 mixing console; time delay effects including Loft 440, Lexicon Prime Time model 93, MXR digital delay and flanger-doubler; Roland space echos, Tapco 4400 and Furman RV-1 reverbs; compressors including MXR mini, Ashly SC55 and SC-50. Biamp Quad Compressor, Ureil LA4, and DBX compressors 163, 160, 162, 165; plus a host of mainly graphic EQs including Biamp EQ210, EQ270A and EQ110R, MXR Dual 15 abd 31, Tapco C-201, Ashly SC-63 and SC-66, and Ureil 537 and 545 parametric filter set.

DOD effects pedals circa 1980

The Gizmotron, which is sort of the mechanical equivalent of an e-Bow; it was invented by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley of band 10CC; I have never come across one of these but wow would I love this for studio work.  Check out some amazing sound clips here.

The Korg MS-20.  This is our house monosynth at Gold Coast Recorders and lord do these things sound great.  Pitch to CV conversion built in!

Loft 440 Time Delay effects.  Loft was a Connecticut maker of Pro Audio kit in the 70s/80s.  Much previous Loft coverage on PS dot com; maybe start here…

I just got a new MacBook Pro and guess what.  My Protools LE 8 does not work on it.  Big surprise.  Everytime this happens (which means everytime a new Mac comes into my life…) I inch closer to replacing the PT LE system that I use for demos at home with one of these 70s four-track reel systems.  Of course, an Mbox and Laptop weigh about 100lbs less and take up 1/10th the desk space.   Is anyone out there making demos (or album masters) on a Teac/Tascam 1/4″ reel system? Drop us a line and let us know…

Technics RS-M85 cassette deck.  Beautiful looking machine.  Working example on eBay right now for $138…

The Urei LA4 was the compressor that I learned on at school.  The studio had a pair and they sounded great. Simple and effective… 

I don’t know how accurate it was to have ever called the Beyer M69 a popular microphone, but they do have a good sound.  We have a pair at GCR and they are a good alternative to the SM58 as a handheld dynamic.  To my ears they sound less boxy; seem to have less proximity effect. 

For previous Music Emporium coverage on PS dot com (incredible as it may sound….), visit here…

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French Jazz Magazines circa 1960

Some highlights from “JAZZ” and JAZZ HOT,” French-language jazz musician/enthusiast magazines circa 1960.  I can picture Michel thumbing thru these while waiting for Patricia to come back from her classes at Uni.

The RV guitar amplifier, as distributed by Conn.  Beautiful little amp; it has a sort of a Carr vibe to it.

Anyone have any information on these lil fellas?  Schematics?

Benny Goodman with an RCA 77 (and some sort of horn-type instrument?)

Billy Holiday about to make you weep via an EV 636.  I have had a few of these and they can sound pretty cool.  Good cheap vintage mic.

 Studio scene circa ’60

When tracking overdubs I generally get by with a Royer (into some tube preamp/DBX comp) and a u87 (into an API/Purple comp) out on the floor.   If it don’t sound good on one, it’ll sound good on the other (or both).   Same thing but with a 77 and a U47?  Yes please.

Seems like Stimmer was a guitar (and other) pickup maker.  But what is that guitar?

Transistorized portable turntable

 

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Guitar Equipment

Circa ’75

Download a twenty-three-page excerpt of the 1975 catalog from Music Emporium of Bethesda, Maryland (h.f. ‘ME’):

DOWNLOAD: Music_Emporium_1975_Catalog

Products covered, with vague text, no specs (or prices), and moody photography/impressionistic illustration, include: 1975 Martin D-18, D-28, D-35, etc; Gibson Les Paul bass, Triumph, Signature, ES-335TD-SV, ES-345TD, among others; Gibson J-200, Blue Ridge 12, and J-55; Dobro 60D, 33, 90, and 35 resonator guitars; Guild F-50, F-40, D-50, F-212XL, among others; Fender Telecaster, Telecaster Deluxe, Thinline, Precision, Jazz, and Telecaster Basses; the Bradley line of directly-imported MIJ ‘Lawsuit’ guitars, including the Doubleneck, FV-60, ES-775, TE350, JB60-W, ST50-N, LP65-N, and LP54; Amplifiers and PA from Acoustic, Ampeg, DB Sound (look similar to Heil, which is also represented), Gollehon PA from Grand Rapids, MI, including their 8218/M, 8218/A, MR-90 Horn, 8220/M and /A models; AKG, Shure, and Maruni Mics; ARP and Moog synthesizers; and a pile of guitar effects pedals that no one can afford anymore.

ME was the catalog division of the family-owned Veneman instrument retail-store business.  Veneman was purchased by Guitar Center in 2004.  Check out these sepia-tinted photos for a second.  Veneman could easily have opted to re-print the images that manufacturers supply through their distributors, but they really went the extra mile; the mood of these images, combined with the glaring lack of any sort of pricing or specifications, seems impossible today as a sales strategy for guitars: ME was selling you an attitude and a vibe first; the particular instruments were secondary.  Consider another interesting fact about the images in the catalog: apart from the High Priestess on the cover, there are no almost no photographic image of people in the catalog.   Instead we get some beautiful line-illustration work.  While this could have been a talent compensation/rights issue, I feel like it’s more of a deliberate move that allows the musician/customer to more easily insert themselves into these instrument-scenarios.  I mean, who wants to buy a Les Paul that you see slung around the neck of some bro in a (insert yr least favorite sartorial signifier) shirt?

 

A possible overall explanation?  It’s the Whole Earth Catalog Effect.  If yr not familiar with the Whole Earth Catalog (h.f. WEC), and you have any interest whatsoever in American culture of the 1970s, get a copy of an early edition and check it out.  It is one of the most seminal documents of the era, as well as being an early precursor of the peer-to-peer information exchange style that we now experience in the form of….yup…  the internet.  There were about a billion (or googleplex…) copies printed and you can find if for a few bucks at most community book sales or used book shops.  Anyhow,  WEC was such a powerful and ubiquitous presence among the more liberal and artistic elements of American Society in the 70s that we start to see its editorial and visual style reflected in actual catalogs of the era that were directed at a similar demographic.  For another example of this phenomenon, check this…

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The only really interesting bit as far as the equipment offered is the BRADLEY line of guitars.  Bradley was apparently the house-brand of directly-imported Japanese-made guitars which ME exclusively sold.

These sure look like Ibanez to me.  Anyone own a 70’s Bradley?  Tell us your thoughts.  Read some discussion online here.

Categories
Guitar Equipment

UPDATED: Schaller Guitar Amplifiers and Effects Units of the 1970s

Download the complete 1974 Schaller musical electronic catalog (with price-list) (in German):

DOWNLOAD:Schaller_1974catalog

Products covered, with text, specs, and photos, include: Schaller Piccolo amplifier; KV 10 amp; KV 25 amp; and KV 40 amp.  Schaller amp heads Solo, Selection G II, Selection B1, and GS100 PA head; Hallgerat reverb unit, Rotor-Sound leslie emulator, and Echo-Reverb-Machine 2000; Schaller What-Wha, Tonverzerrer, Fuzz-Sustainer, Tremolo Tr., and Treble-Bass-Boost.  Also featured: Schaller SG 50, SG 100, and SG 75 PA cabinets; SU 60, SU 120, SJ 40, SJ 150, and SB 100 musical instrument speakers; plus a range of parts and accessories (e.g.., lautsprechers).

I can vaguely remember the Schaller Tremolo Pedal as being a cult-ish item in the US; the other units here don’t ring a bell. Schaller is mostly known in the US as the manufacturer of high-quality tuning pegs for guitars, a role they have filled since the 1970s.  You can still to-this-day find many otherwise flawless vintage electric guitars with amateurishly-applied Schaller tuners.

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Update: a reader from the Netherlands sent in some pics of his recently-acquired  Schaller KV25; an earlier vintage with top-mounted controls.  Hope you fire it up and play some Shocking Blue riffs thru it Frans.

SAM_4117SAM_4118SAM_4119

…and here’s Frans entire Schaller collection:

Frans_VDB_Schallers

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Mullard 520 Power Amplifier c.1956

Download a four-page article from “Radio & Television News” 4/1956 regarding the Mullard 520 power amp:

DOWNLOAD: Mullard_520_amp

American industrial titan RCA offered schematics for a variety of tube-audio equipment in the back pages of their many “receiving tube manuals.”  Mullard, a prominent British maker of vacuum tubes, similarly published a book entitled “Mullard Tube Circuits For Audio Amplifiers”  (h.f. “MTCAA”). The designs are quite different from RCA’s, as Mullard promoted different tubes:  EL34 rather than 6L6/5881; EL84 rather than 6V6; GZ34 rather than 5U4; and EF86 rather than 5879.   The MTCAA also offered extensive plans for the fashioning of the actual sheet metal cabinet and transformer-cover.  The four-page article I am offering here is quite different from the one in MTCAA, but either will get you on yr way to building this unit.

This design promises 35 watts from a pair of cathode-biased EL34s.  It does require an ultralinear (IE, with screen taps) output transformer with a 16ohm winding for the negative feedback loop (such as this EDCOR model), but other than that it’s all very basic parts.  Now if I could find some good cheap EF86s…  Anyone try the new $17 Electro-harmonix EF86?

BTW, The Mullard book is still readily available as a reprint; well worth the $17 cover price IMO.  There is a circuit for a 3-stage ‘mixing preamp’ featuring EF86 pentode inputs with a 12Ax7 on the back end, the second triode of the 12ax7 wired as low-impedance cathode follower…  pretty tempted to try that one…  anyhow, you can buy ‘MTCAA’ at Amazon Dot Com or at Antique Electronics.

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Publications

Unusual Techniques In Sound Recording (1950)

Download a four-page article from ‘Radio Electronics’ magazine 5/1950 entitled “Unusual Techniques In Sound Recording” (Richard H. Dorf):

DOWNLOAD: Unusual_Techniques_Sound_Recording_Dorf_1950

The article is primarily concerned with studio-editing applications of the then-novel ‘magnetic tape recording’ technology, with some interesting bits regarding techniques for capturing greater dynamic range in disc-recording.  Article was researched at Reeves Sound Studios in NYC, a five-floor facility that seems to have been primarily a sound-for-picture studio but which hosted at least one commercially-released Coltrane session.  Reeves used Fairchild 30 ips tape machines which look very similar to the industry-standard Ampex 300s of the era.

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Antique Hi-Fi Archive

1957: A Few Bits From The End Of The Mono Age

From some 1957 issues of “Radio and TV News,” an electronic-serviceman’s publication, comes this collection of American Hif-Fi home audio kit of the era.  Notice the fact that…  it’s all mono. Commercial recordings released on stereo magnetic tapes were available as early as 1954, but it was the release of the first -ever stereo LP record in November 1957 forever turned the tide towards two-channel ‘Stereo’ recordings as the norm for recorded musical performances/productions.

Heathkit!  I have one of these A7s and damn it is a good-sounding little amp.  Anyone have a spare they wanna sell me (for stereo…. naturally…)?

I tend to think of Newcomb as more of an industrial-sound/PA sound company, but it looks like they made some home units too.  I have one of those huge glass-covered KX25 PA heads as shown here; it’s always been a little flakey but I can’t bring myself to part with it cos it came from a Catholic church and the knobs are labeled “Pulpit,” “Choir,” and “Sacrament Table.”  Take that, Kick/Ld Vox/ Bckng Vox.

Dude went to prison in 1974 for lying about the value of a music-collection that he donated to a university.  Tried to get Mancini and Bernstein to back him up and they would not.  Life is long….

Electro-voice home hi-fi drivers c. 1957

Eico home hi-fi amps and pre-amps circa 1957.  Eico was essentially the ‘other’ Heath(kit).  Eicos could be purchased either wired or as kits.  Here’s a two-page article on their flagship HF60, a beautiful amp with EL34 output tubes and an ultralinear Acrosound output transformer.

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Microphones

Broadcast Microphones of the early 1920s

Download a four-page article from the Summer 1987 issue of “The Antique Radio Gazette” which details the development of early broadcast microphones as made by the Westinghouse corporation for use in their own radio broadcast studios.  The article is written by microphone collector/expert Bob Paquette.

DOWNLOAD: Paquette_Microphones_of_the_1920s

In this early post on PS dot com, we looked at the early double-button carbon mic, so popular as a prop in music videos and other fashion-representation.   As primeval as the double-button carbon mic is, it was of course the offspring of even older technology.   Dig into Paquette’s article and go even deeper into the well; we are looking backwards, running through time into the past,  taking retro to its logical conclusion…

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Microphones

Bob Paquette’s Microphone Museum

From the Summer 1981 issue of “The Antique Radio Gazette” (TARG):  an early shout-out to Robert Paquette, microphone collector extraordinaire.  Anyone who has spent/wasted much time searching the web for information about old audio equipment has come across Paquette’s website.   Good lord what a collection.  I’ve never visited the museum, but finding these pics in TARG has reminded me that I should probably order a copy of Paquette’s book.

Follow down this page for the rest of the circa ’81 photos of Paquette’s collection from TARG.

 

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RCA PA systems of the 1950s

RCA PA system heads of the 50s/60s are one of the best values in antique tube equipment.  I’ve bought a few on eBay in the $100-range and with a little work you can have a really great studio amp for gtr or bass.  Sometimes they even come with the microphone input transformers…