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Connecticut Audio History Guitar Equipment

Most Tragic Bands of All Time, part 1.

Badfinger endorse the Connecticut-made Ovation acoustic/electric guitar

What is it about Ovation guitars that repulses me so?  They don’t sound awful.  They were made in Connecticut.  They are very very circa ’71.  I once even saw a video of Thom Yorke in the studio cutting “Exit Music…,” a not-awful song from a not-awful album,  with a black Ovation something-or-other.  And yet.  Faced with the prospect of a playable $40 70’s Ovation at the flea market last week, I passed.  God only knows where that $40 went.  Just kinda feel like those things are cursed.

Also cursed: Badfinger!  So you’re a band.  Shit, you’re a great band.  The Beatles sign you to their new record label.  Paul writes one of his best-songs-ever for you, and produces the MFkkr.  You even go so far as to to pen ‘I can’t live if livin’ is “Without You,”‘ which becomes the defining song of one of the definitive vocalists of the (soon-to-be-over?) era of commercially-sold-recorded-musical-performances.   By the end of the decade, two of you have killed themselves and somehow you lost (like, literally, shit, i can’t find it) one million dollars.  You are Badfinger.

One of the best rock bands ever.

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Uncategorized

PA systems of the Seventies

Gibson GPA-100 PA system circa ’73

Seems like ‘100 watts’ was the likely answer to all yr PA system needs in the seventies.  I can’t imagine how folks were using SVTs and Twin Reverbs side-by-side with 100 watts for vocal reinforcement but i guess you use whatcha got!  Old guitars amps, keyboards, pedals, guitars…  they all seem to become ‘collectible’ or ‘vintage’ eventually.  Old PA systems… not so much.

Shure Vocal Master.  Goddamn they made a lot of these things.  Some are still in use.

Ovation IC One Hundred PA System

Randall RPA-6 PA system. 

The Yamaha Ensemble Mixing system.  Model is EM-90 I believe.  I bought one of these for $100 at a guitar shop in Hollywood about a decade ago.  It’s a powered mixer/PA head with a built-in analog beatbox and a great-sounding reverb tank.  The high-impedance instrument inputs also distort pretty nicely.  AKA the-KILLS-in-a-box.

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Some 70s electronic oddities

The Computone Lyricon is an analog synthesizer with a wind controller interface.  The horn-controller responded to three input parameters: the keys (‘valves’) themselves, lip pressure, and wind force pressure.  It sounds beautiful.  Listening to this thing, I can’t help but think of the infamous Charles Napier ‘space hippies’ episode of Star Trek.

Other things that come to mind: Steve Douglas’ “Music of Cheops”;

(image source)

…and Quicksilver Messenger Service’ “Just For Love” LP. 

Kinda makes me want to get a CV wind controller for my MS20…

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“Maestro will travel anywhere for new sounds.” Indeed.  Maestro was the effects-device division of CMI in the 60s/70s. CMI was best known as the parent of Gibson Guitars in this era.  When I was growing up (late 80s/early 90s), Maestro effects were considered fairly shite by professional musicians and we could still readily find these things for a few bucks at yard sales and pawn shops.  M. has collected many of these units, so I’ve been able to use a lot of these things on recordings through the years.  Missing from this family photo is the epic ‘Universal Synthesizer,’ which is not a synth at all, but rather a very early (the first?) multi-effect unit for guitar ETC.  Synth or not, this device can make some fantastic synth-esque sounds with just about any input signal.

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The Ampli-Tek Phaser AT-10, circa 1973.  An early Leslie rotating-speaker emulator with a charming cottage-industry aspect.  This piece is truly lost to time.  Anyone?

 

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Connecticut Audio History Synthesizers

Electronic Music Labs, INC, of Vernon CT

Electronic Music Laboratories, INC, was based in Vernon CT from 1968 through 1984.  The company’s founders included Dale Blake, Norman Millard, Dennis Daugherty, Fred Locke, and Jeff Murray.   Apparently EML synths used op-amps rather than transistors in certain circuits, which improved reliability relative to Moog and ARP designs of the period.  Above, the EML 101.  Below, the EML model 500.   Anyone using one of these in their work?  Drop a line and let us know…

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Early Electronic Music

Vladamir Ussachevsky, electronic music pioneer and educator

“Does this qualify me for a prophet? Well, perhaps partially.”

Imagine if this dude had been your college music professor.  Read a 4-page essay by Mongolian-born composer Vladamir Ussachevsky as printed in the 1/17/74 issue of DOWNBEAT magazine.  Ussachevsky was one of the founders of the legendary Columbia-Princeton electronic music studio, and one of the folks who bridged the tape-manipulation and synthesizer eras of early electronic music.  It’s almost impossible for us to grasp the conceptual leaps that these early pioneers had to make in order to arrive the formulation of audio-manipulation-as-music; for many of us working as musicians in the past few decades, it’s hard to even separate music and audio, so intertwined is audio technology with music, so thoroughly has the studio become-an-instrument.

Follow the link to READ ON…

Continue reading “Vladamir Ussachevsky, electronic music pioneer and educator”
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Microphones Uncategorized

Shure Unisphere Microphone

Mick and Keith on a lone Unisphere

The Shure Unisphere was the predecessor to the ubiquitous SM-58.  It’s basically a dual-impedance SM-58 from what I can gather.  Check out these 40-year old adverts for the Unisphere and consider that despite all we’ve experienced in audio-technology in the past four decades, we’re all still basically using the same vocal mic on stage.  Pretty incredible…

Rod Stewart with the Shure Unisphere

The Fifth Dimension with Shure Unisphere

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Synthesizers

ARP Synthesizer Endorsers of the early 1970s

Stevie Wonder endorses the ARP 2600 in this early 70s advert

Billy Preston likes his ARP Pro-Soloist

Les McCann and the Arp Pro-Soloist

Edgar Winter apparently used the ARP 2600 on his cheerful Doobie-Bros-esque hit record ‘Free Ride’; those wind sounds in the breakdown, i’m guessing?

Several more examples after the jump…

Continue reading “ARP Synthesizer Endorsers of the early 1970s”

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Synthesizers

Univox-branded Synth+Drums

Billy Preston with a Univox Compac-Piano

Univox (brief company history here) was a US company that marketed a huge range of musical products in the late 60s and into the early 80s.    Most famous is their ‘Hi-Flier’ electric guitar, aka, not-an-actual-Mosrite, aka, one of the iconic Kurt Cobain guitars.

They also made tube amplifiers, some of which actually sound pretty great, and distributed several synth instruments and drum machines which are believed to have been built by KORG in Japan.  Their Compac-Piano (no resemblance to the sound of an actual piano) was apparently of Italian origin.  Here’s a few period adverts for these oddballs.  These were all sold in large numbers and are still fairly readily available for a reasonable price.

Edgar Winter with the Compac-Piano

Univox Mini-Korg analog preset synth

Univox Pace Ship Drum Machine

Categories
Guitar Equipment Publications

Selling Fender Kit In The Mid 1970s

Fender Stratocaster and Quad Reverb as characterized by Detroit-musician caricature ‘Bumpwell Blues’; note Strat-as-phallus reference.

The mid 1970s is the most maligned period of Fender’s history.  Musicians and collectors alike complain of such indignities as three-bolt necks on Stratocasters and Jazz/Telecaster basses, ‘high powered’ tube amplifiers which managed their impressive-on-paper ratings through the use of frequency-sucking suppressor caps, and of course the dreaded 70s heavy-guitar syndrome.

OK so how did Fender manage to sell so many of these instruments which we now regard as sub-par?  Could it be possible that the goofiest ad campaign in guitar history might have had something to do with it?  No disrespect intended to the illustrators/art-directors/copywriters who crafted these curiosities; I am sure that they were just doing what they were told, and the work is certainly of a consistent quality.  But really?  This was a good idea?

On a more serious note though: what does is mean exactly when a manufacturer creates an entire (expensive) ad campaign that does not show the actual products or even reference any concrete product specifications or claims?  Is this good marketing?  Hubris?  How do we feel about the products?  Does it make us more or less curious?  Do we accept that these products are in fact ‘icons’ by virtue of the fact that we are shown only icons that represent the products rather than seeing the products themselves?

Fender PA100

Fender Quad Reverb

Fender Stratocaster

Fender Twin Reverb Amplifier (presumably; this ad does not even reference a particular product)

Along similar lines…  ROGERS drums was the drum-division of Fender-Parent CBS musical instruments at the time.  Here’s an example of the very similar ROGERS campaign of the same era.  They chose a different illustrator (smart) and it seems like they used a different copywriter as well; we also see the actual product in a small window at the bottom, so there was probably a different marketing person responsible for this campaign. The overall effect is similar though.  Also consider the implicit statement that only males play drums.  Not surprising given the era; hell Dean Markley was still running sexist ads last week AFAIK. 

 

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Uncategorized

Found Photos part 1

Preservation Sound found photo #1: unknown rock band circa 1968.  In this stage setup:Fender Precision bass; Blonde Bandmaster head with Black Tolex 2.x15 cabinet; Shure SM56 above the drum kit;unknown Teisco/Guyatone-type electric guitar; Additional unknown Fender amps; Burns Bison guitar; striped stovepipe trousers and turtleneck sweater; scarf.

Today on PS dot com: a tribute to a tribute.  Have you seen The Hound Blog?  The Hound Blog is written by one James Marshall, owner of the Lakeside Lounge bar in Manhattan.   Marshall is also a music-writer and wow a real expert on early rocknroll.  His Lakeside Lounge bar looms large in my memory; when i first moved to NYC in 1998, I played in a country-rock band that often played at the Lakeside.  It was then (and probably still is) a very musician-friendly venue; small enough to fill with all your friends, decent amplifiers provided for your use, and a good atmosphere in general.   Several years later I remember meeting author/music-journalist Nick Tosches at the LL one night; I am a big fan of Tosches’ writing and he made a much bigger impression on me than many of the more famous faces I’ve crossed paths with over the years.  Thank you, JM, for running a great spot and running a great blog.

ANYways… a regular feature on the Hound Blog is their ‘Found Photo’ series (I think they are up to 66 at this point).  The series seems to focus on snapshots of individuals in the 50s/60s whose sartorial style and general attitude exude a certain rocknroll style that we are used to seeing in Hollywood representation of early rockers/mods/general bad-dudes but rarely do we see in ‘real-life’ images.  Today I offer the first two of what I hope to make a regular feature here as well: Preservation Sound found photos, selected based on… you guessed it… interesting old audio equipment.

Gibson SG; SUNN Spectre head and cabinet; Peavey practice amplifier perched on silverface Fender Deluxe (?); BOSS CE-2 Chorus pedal (on table next to ashtray).