Getting Old

I remember the Jap guitar explosion of the Seventies 'cause I was there. We had bolt on neck Les Pauls by Columbus, Antoria, Csl, Avon, Grant, Saxon, Arbiter, Shaftesbury, Kimbara etc, and they were usually, but not always crap. (In most cases they did need a set up and pick up swap) We lusted after Real Gibsons and Fenders.

Now, I search Ebay and the like for the very items that caused me dissatisfaction all those years ago

We had teenage girlfriends but lusted after our mate's mothers.

Now, I search Ebay and the like for "teenage girl friend" - Oops only joking!!

In the Seventies, I knew a quality guitar because it weighed a ton.

Now, some of the nicest guitars I own are pretty damn featherweight.

In the Seventies - I knew what was what.

Now I know Jack Sh*t (just ask my 3 boys!!)

So - Am I getting old?

Yes

DuoFuzz wrote:Yes

Cheers Dan

I was pretty much asking for that. You quickly homed in on the rhetorical nature of the question didn't you? - You young upstart!!

Hoax

Here is another one for you.

In the seventies you had to have a Marshall, Sound City, Orange, Laney, Hiwatt valve amp of at the very least 50 watts output. Guitar pickups were so weak that you could not possibly overdrive the amps in your bedroom. So, when you tried to do Led Zep or Deep Purple, unless you had a fuzz box, you sounded like Hank Marvin on acid. This is in the days before master volume and overdrive features.

Now I have a 5 watt valve amp which is modded so that I get full overload regardless of volume. If anyone was stupid enough to ask for random notes to be played at high volume in public, i would now mike it up.

Hoax

- Yes , I am getting old.

Yes... grumpy old men!! I like that... the yoof of today can all f'cough!!

I know the feeling oh-so-well; here I have a little 4 watt, chinese built s/s amp, with FX loop and modelling features and a Boss ME3 which pretty much covers anything I want to do. At home, I have a full PA rig, with 100W combo amps with 4 x 12 cabs plugged into 'em, and they're miked up as well.

Why, then, do I look longingly at trade pages in magazines with the new Oranges, Soldanos and H&Ks - never was a Marshall boy!! -??

I have 18 guitars, all bar 4 Japanese made - 2 x Korean and 1 x American and 1 x New Zealand - ; I can only play one bloody thing at a time, so why, then, do I look adoringly at yet more instruments which whisk me back to my youth, when I couldn't really afford "real" gear, and had to "make do" with whatever scabby kit the NZ retailers had on their shelves?

We are a strange group of people.... even Barry.

None more so than Barry!!

I would never say that....

Neither grumpiness nor weirdness respect any boundaries of a man made, geographical or political nature. I feel that, in some strange way, this is exactly the metaphorical glue that binds this little community together.

Hoax

corsair wrote:We are a strange group of people.... even Barry.

hoax wrote:None more so than Barry!!

F*cough* ('Scuze me. Allergies.)
The 70's?!?!? I have undies older than that!
Amateur.

Hell no!

I started in the mid 70s with a no-name Jap-crap (because they were) acoustic box that my mum got with her Embassy coupons. I now feel incredibly guilty that my mum smoked herself half to death so that I could learn guitar.

My old man had a mate who played in a jazz combo. He had an old Burns Vistasonic (with the Tri-sonic P/ups that Brian May used in his Red Special) that I bought to learn electric. The neck was twisted and the frets worn down but I knew no better!

Plugged into a Wem Dominator, I caused the neighbours many a sleepless night. All sold to put a deposit on a house in the early 80s. I didn't give up, just had a long lay-off!

Fast forward about 30 years and I'm 50-odd going on 18. My lads despair of their dad, few quid in the bank so I can afford my hobbies. Marshall FX = everything I want in a little amp, play through headphones at night.

Barry wrote:

corsair wrote:We are a strange group of people.... even Barry.

hoax wrote:None more so than Barry!!

F*cough* ('Scuze me. Allergies.)
The 70's?!?!? I have undies older than that!
Amateur.

Bloody Hell - Old Father Weird has just woken up!!

Nice one Barry !!

Hoax

Thanks to my dads lasting influence, I've always felt older than I actually am!

He used sit me and my brother down and force us to listen to specific guitar parts within old rock & roll, blues, country and rock LP's to see if we could learn the tune and understand what we were hearing. I still remember him telling us things like "thats just a Strat straight into a valve amp, you'll never get that from a fancy distortion pedal..."

To this day I'm still listening to the same sort of music my dad loved, there is a few modern rock bands I'm into but just like him, I have no idea who or what is in the music charts these days. Pop, dance, rap and R&B (which has nothing to do with rhythm or blues!) just seems like a collosal waste of air time to me.

I actually own some old guitars from Jedson, Audition, Avon and Satellite, all crafted from the finest plywood trees. I even have a 70's solid state Sound City 5 watt amp and a load of old dusty FX pedals that only work a three day week!

I'm off to sit in my rocking chair and shake my fist and shout at the X Factor, "kids today, they don't know they've been born, back in my day......"

DAN.

The 70's??? You talkin' the Bay City Rollers, Crocodile Rock and Thunder Island??

I was not much more than a punk @$$ kid back then. Let me know when you are steppin' into the 80's and I might have something for y'all.

DuoFuzz wrote:...I have no idea who or what is in the music charts these days...just seems like a collosal waste of air time to me...I'm off to sit in my rocking chair and shake my fist and shout at the X Factor...

A big +1!

I turned 23 last week. I'm all ears for stories from way back when! I will agree that I just ignore modern radio, though.

Iceman wrote:The 70's??? You talkin' the Bay City Rollers, Crocodile Rock and Thunder Island??

I was not much more than a punk @$$ kid back then. Let me know when you are steppin' into the 80's and I might have something for y'all.

Yup, the 80's were our time indeed. I like this thread, you guys are making me feel young for once! Except Warn of course.

80's was my start with an 84 Strat and a Roland JC-20 which I worked very hard to get the money for. Added a Boss OD and an Ibanez twin cam chorus and boy, did I believe I really I played and sounded just like Alex Lifeson. That is until a few years ago when I converted my old 4 track recording to MP3s and heard how bad I sounded. Wow did I use too much chorus back then - and realized how old am I'm getting.

But even though I'm older, I'm more comfortable, which means I can get the guitars I couldn't afford back then. Jut not all at once

I'm certain you lost that soul you remember when you converted it from analog to digital..... our that should be your story and you're sticking to it!!

Late 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's,0's. Still going, must have good batteries. After years of abuse.

Always gets me when my son gets in my car and wants to change the radio. Some of the crap they listen to. I hate rap.

Westbone wrote:Late 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's,0's. Still going, must have good batteries. After years of abuse.

Always gets me when my son gets in my car and wants to change the radio. Some of the crap they listen to. I hate rap.

Yeah, my boy is 12 and all him and his friends listen to is rap. Same with most 20 somethings, maybe the 80's were the last generation of rockers. When i was that age all i listened to was AC/DC and Zeppelin.

...I dunno, some of the old skool stuff, Run DMC and the like, wasn't the same kinda trash they rhyme today.

When it became cool to disrespect women and shoot cops is where they lost me...

I can remember Grandmaster Flash giving us "The Message" and thinking that it was a fine piece of music/social commentary; still is, really! Truly edgy stuff, not the faux shock/horror that seems to assault my ears under the banner of "rap" these days.... I thought Mathers was alright, too.....

The "genre" I have trouble with is death metal, or black metal; if I can't hear the lyrics, how can I understand the song?!

I continue to take weekly guitar lessons. My instructor is only two years younger than me so we grew up on the same stuff. Many of his teenage students are enamored with the hair metal of the '80s. That stuff is hard to play. Those guys were good.

Others are into the nu-metal. While I'm not really into the cookie monster vocals, and the drop-B tunings, I do respect their musicianship.

You know why Slash got the (undeserved) guitar god reputation? Because in a decade of shredders he was a blues player. He sounded different.

In the '90s the musicianship seemed to go out the window. But shred is back. While I can't really do it, it is quite difficult, and I respect it.

Having said that - I played through various small solid state amps in the '80s and '90s. But today I have a 100 watt three-channel dual rectifier with a 4x12 recto cabinet.

colt933 wrote:Icookie monster vocals.

Ha - great way to describe that particular vocal style

sarcaster wrote:

colt933 wrote:Icookie monster vocals.

Ha - great way to describe that particular vocal style

They do sound like cookie monster!

Interesting to note that at the music studio where my son takes lessons (and I emcee concerts twice a year) the majority of guitar players are happily playing 60's & 70's classic rock stuff, ZZ top, and even (lord help me) Ozzie Osbourne! Never hear any head banging or shredding going on, and I think that's simply 'cuz there was actual musicality there.

There's nothing wrong with shredding... as long as it's tasteful and fits the song/tune. and it's as hard as all hell to do well, consistently. I listen to Paul Gilbert a bit, because he seems to be a down to earth sort of fellow with a sense of humour, but my goodness, can he play that guitar....I can only dream of playing that fast, that accurately with that sort of musicality...

I watched a docco on Duane Eddy last night ... now there was an innovator, and the buggers still touring!! Go, you good thing!! I didn't realise until last night that the first 2 bars of Peter Gunn were played using the wang bar; always thought it was Drop D....

Barry wrote:Interesting to note that at the music studio where my son takes lessons (and I emcee concerts twice a year) the majority of guitar players are happily playing 60's & 70's classic rock stuff, ZZ top, and even (lord help me) Ozzie Osbourne! Never hear any head banging or shredding going on, and I think that's simply 'cuz there was actual musicality there.

Thats OZZY . I taught at a local store a couple of years ago and all of the kids wanted to learn the stuff i grew up on. It was pretty cool, shredding is back for sure. I was hard into the heavy stuff when thrash was big, and the shredders as well. A big fan of the Shrapnel recording artists, Tony MacAlpine, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman.....etc. Lets not forget the great find by Fank Zappa, Mr. Steve Vai. I agree with John, shredding can be fun at times, but in a tasteful way. Especially if you have a bar full of drunk people - they love it! Oh by the way, i've got love for lots of early rap. RunDMC, Public Ememy, Tupac has lots of positive messages as well if you find the right stuff. There isn't much music i don't like, except maybe new Country. There are some kids listening to rock thesedays i guess, just not the majority like the old days.

There IS good hip hop out there still, it's just really hard to find. Abdominal is a lot of fun and has none of the "gangsta" crap from what I've heard. He's about the only one I listen to. On the other hand, Eminem (or Mathers as John called him) has some very fun songs as well, though there's also plenty of gangsta garbage.

Must have done something right. My kids 14 and 16 absolutely detest the whole x-factor manufactured shrink wrapped dross. They would rather listen to something like the stone roses. (btw anybody got any tickets they don't want for the resurrection gigs. - just kidding).

westcoaster wrote:They would rather listen to something like the stone roses. (btw anybody got any tickets they don't want for the resurrection gigs. - just kidding).

The Stone Roses are one of the reasons I picked up a bass all those years ago, I taught myself to play bass by playing along with the debut album, I went to the Spike Island gig.. I was really into the "Baggy / Madchester" and other Indie bands of the day....great days, great memories... not too interested with the Stone Roses reunion to be honest I'd rather have a cup of tea and noodle on my Westone Rainbow. (I must be getting old)

Ozzy (Sabbath) and Kiss are who first inspired me to sing while I was a young teenager. That was in the late 80's/early 90's, and that was old music then! Around 16 yrs old I got into "current" bands of that day which further inspired me, such as Bloodgood, Petra, and Whitecross.

I'm a Youth Pastor at church, so I hang out with teens more than anyone. It's funny, the 80's is roaring back with a vengence!!! My youth girls are wearing all sorts of 80's clothes (thinking that it's the "new" style) and some of the guys are becoming attracted to the rock/metal of days gone by. It makes me feel old watching them discover this "ancient history", that I grew up in!

My influences in guitar are the heavily from the past, 80's on up. My influences vocally are largely from the past as well. And thinking about vocalists... what great vocalists do we have coming up in today's music scene?! Are there any Les Carlsen's, Ronnie James Dio's, Michael Sweet's, David Coverdale's, Chris Cornell's?! Nope. I'm a singer mainly, so I'm pretty passionate about this subject.

And lastly, the guitars that I'm into are largely from that by-gone era, though not entirely. Odd how it happens. It's inevitable. You will be "dated" at some point. To not become dated, you need to strive to not be, which is unnatural. So just go with it. Gently that is.

Having turned 50 this year, I am officially old. Or so I am told.

The youngest child asked "What's it like, Dad?" Response: I think the same way. My body is creaky and much weaker.

I had "Castles made of Sand" followed up by something from Ten Years After on the car stereo when I picked up my son from practice this morning. He changed that up in a hurry - flipped in his Pantera disc "Cowboys from Hell" (which actually has some really tasty riffs courtesy of Dimebag). The lad is seriously into 80's metal - Maiden, Megadeth, etc...

We share a dislike of screamo eg, anything with cookie monster singing.

Oh, and we both like blues. He is a John Lee Hooker fan - which is interesting, I hadn't listened to that stuff much.

Also, we caught a Motorhead concert last year. Holy blasted ears!!! Good thing for a pocketful of foam earplugs.

EDIT: Chad, did you think much of Ian Gillan? Crazy wide vocal range...

...or the Ian Gillian update known as Geoff Tate ???

anaerobe wrote:EDIT: Chad, did you think much of Ian Gillan? Crazy wide vocal range...

Gillian is without doubt one of the greats! He's got all the things that people look for in a singer, even though most people don't know how to identify them. Here's what they are; dynamics, emotion, control, ownership, power, and passion. Any singer who nails these traits, as long as the style appeals to you, they are going to be one of your favorite vocalists. If you think about it, this applies to any craft. Guitar included, yeah?

Ice: Never really got into Tate's voice! Probably because I never really "got" Tate. He's a little out there, IMO. Seems a little too self absorbed, like his passion flows for himself. Like it's not so much for the crowd or anything else but him. That's the impression I get anyhow. And that immediately turns me off.

I love Ian Gillian, saw him whan he was with Black Sabbath when i was living in Holland in the mid-early 80's. Saw Dio and met him and the band (he was super cool and SHORT, Vivian Campbell was drunk with a bottle of liquor in hand). Qeensryche opened that Dio show, talk about 2 powerful vocalists! I always loved Bruce Dickinson and Maiden the best, Rob Halford can wail as well.

I saw Gillan in 1974 in Christchurch, NZ with the Mk 2 Purps... Eyes really only for Ritchie, but OMG... Gill an was a real screamer even then.....

hobster wrote:....Rob Halford can wail as well.

At one time he could put any of them to shame (afaiac) when it came to the ultra-high registers. My first Priest album was Sad Wings of Destiny and OH MY MY could that dude scream it.

Scream.... your dead right there Ice.

Vocalist does not = singer.

Anyway for all you "getting old" ...euthanasia

Euthanasia?

<opening visual: A one-horse cart bumping down a filthy medieval back-lane. Cart is piled high with dead folks.>

Cart-driver: "Bring out your dead!"

Dead guy: "I'm getting better!"

Young Relative: "No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment."

Gets me every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs

One of my favorite movies of all time

" The violence inherit in the system, the violence inherit in the system, i'm being repressed!"

Ohhh, he'll do you a treat, mate...

anaerobe wrote:Euthanasia?

<opening visual: A one-horse cart bumping down a filthy medieval back-lane. Cart is piled high with dead folks.>

Cart-driver: "Bring out your dead!"

Dead guy: "I'm getting better!"

Young Relative: "No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment."

Gets me every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs

The GRRRRRAIL!!!! My favorite part is... "there are some who call me... TIM?!" Classic favorite, man I like that movie!

Halford and Dickinson are excellent screamers. Believe it or not, that's kinda hard to do, actually, screaming convincingly like that ain't easy. I was trained for years in vocal performance, took lessons from some big names in the vocal training industry, and none of them knew how to train someone to pull off those screams! One of my instructors had also trained Eddie Vedder and the guy from Pantera, both of them can scream gruff, but she couldn't train anyone to scream clean. So I respect those guys. The purest scream has got to be Michael Sweet from Stryper, who IMO is also the most athletic vocalist out there. Listen to "To Hell with the Devil", or better yet watch one of thier live performances on Youtube. He sings and screams, better than most any out there.

This is a cool Stryper clip, it's from a recent tour of their's. This vid for some reason focuses on Michael, so you get to hear his vocals and really his rythm guitar (shaky at times, but it's live). Click on the link below.
To Hell With The Devil

For screamers, gotta love Chris Cornell. And while not really known for screaming, Tool singer Maynard James Keenan has an incredible voice and lets out the occasional long-winded blood-curdling scream.

And let's not forget about Roger Daltrey!

Daltrey - of course....

I'm starting a new thread for this, it's a good topic.

The Chad wrote:I'm starting a new thread for this, it's a good topic.

Good idea. We've wandered way off topic methinks.

or Robert Plant..it..

OIY!

Take it over to the new thread, geezer...

Oops, time for my Geritol. Gotta run.

I dunno, young kids of today

I was there when they were ripping out the seats at the Odeon New Street Birmingham,
to make room to rock to Bill Haley & his Comets, Rock around the clock movie.

Not much changed there then

I had a diet of 1950's 78's, Little Richard, The King, Chubby Checker, Tommy Steel, Lonnie Donegan etc.

Even enjoyed my Dad's 78's of Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller etc.
ah those were the days

You young fellers dunno your born