Music Blogs (1,258)

In 1951 Leo Fender's musical instrument company released an electric bass guitar. He wasn't the first, as electric bass guitars and bass amplifiers were around at least 12 years before. What Fender did was mass market guitars that were manufactured by using ready-made components that could be assembled. This technique was different and Fender held a US Patent for the design. Prior to that, they were individually hand made... a slower more expensive process.

To go along with his bass guitars, Fender released a bass amplifier in 1952 called the Bassman. It wasn't the first, as other companies like Ampeg and Audiovox were already on the market with bass amplifiers. Again, it was marketing skills where the Fender amplifiers were good sales.
The first generation Bassman had one model had a single 15" speaker in an open back cabinet. In 1954 Fender redesigned the Bassman model with four 10" speakers, also with an open back cabinet. Problems with an open back cabinet is half the sound gets lost behind the speaker.

The 1960's brought more changes for the Bassman to be a closed back cabinet with two 12" speakers, followed by a Showman model with two 15" speakers in a closed back cabinet. The Showman was impressive, but wasted lots of space with the size and difficult in transporting to the gigs. That design was called infinite baffle.
By that time, there were lots of bass amplifiers available from different companies usually using 15" speakers in smaller enclosures. Ampeg who started before Fender had a model using an 18" speaker in a compact cabinet called Portaflex that could easily be transported. Good for recording studios, night clubs and small venues, most musicians needed something larger to project the sound to the audience.
Nearing the late 60's Acoustic had a model 360 with one 18" speaker in a large cabinet. The design was called a 'folded horn' and more efficient than anything before it.

Marshall in England was producing cabinets with four 12" speakers that for some has been a standard. Available with speakers suitable for guitar and speakers suitable for bass guitar. If you've been to a rock concert or seen videos, stacks of Marshall speaker cabinets show the audience you are rock royalty.

Everything has limits and speakers in the 50's and 60's could only handle power of 20 or 30 watts. Too high of power would burn out the voice coils. The more expensive ones were less than 50 watts, giving greater output of sound.

So the theory was more speakers were needed for higher wattage.
Speaker designs improved and manufacturers were making models capable of handling 300 watts each.
That started a different set of problems. While the speaker could handle more watts... the paper cones were failing at the flex points around the edges. More research came up with rubber edge allowing for more movement.
They were loud and didn't break apart.

Size wise the industry had 18" woofers for deep bass, 15" for bass and guitar, 12" for bass and guitar, 10" for bass and guitar.

Years ago, Ampeg created a new standard that many rock bassists continue to use. Eight 10" speakers in one cabinet. The theory is, it handles 1,600 watts of power and the 8 speakers are coupled to move more air than any other design.

In 55 years of playing bass, I've tried lots of different combinations... 10's, 12's, 15's, 18's and my favorite speaker size was probably 15" because it develops a nice bass sound even at low volume. I've been shopping for a practice amp loud enough for a small venue and I'm finding most of the 200-400 watt amplifiers available have a pair of 10" speakers.
That combination gets the most wattage, most sound in the smallest package.

So, maybe size doesn't matter.

My ex-wife wanted to get her niece interested in music, so she bought her a cheap violin and paid for lessons. I contributed a music book and a folding music stand. The whole episode only lasted a few weeks before everyone realized she had no musical talent. The lessons stopped and violin was put to the side. At the beginning of this musical venture, my ex bought herself a cello thinking there would be a musical duet in the making. It was a really cheap one... looked real, but the tuning pegs wouldn't stay tight. I tried some liquid specifically designed to make the pegs hold... failure.

Both instruments came under my roof and were stored in a closet.

When I got around to preparing my house for sale, I had to unload these instruments. Before that, I thought I'd give them a try. I'm left-handed and they were right handed. Shouldn't be a problem... The violin was horrible. I couldn't get a clear tone from it... that's probably why my niece lost interest. It created scratchy tones that made my neighbor's dog howl!

Okay.. back in the case you go.

The cello was unplayable. My daughter listed both instruments on Craigslist and away they went.

There was an Asian market near me that sold clothing, beauty aids, books and medicines. The TV in the front was always playing a video of the 12 girls band. They are a musical group playing Western music with traditional Chinese instruments. The 2-string Chinese fiddle called Erhu caught my attention. On my travels to China 10 years ago, I visited a music store to get to see an Erhu, close up. With the rate of exchange, about $100US could get a student instrument, but I'd have to bring it back through the airport and most likely have to check it as baggage. I found an online seller based in the US who could ship to my door, but a few YouTube videos revealed, the sound they make in a beginner's hands to be 10 times worse than than a violin.

Currently, I've got a collection of guitars I don't play and think if I purchased an ERHU, there would be a 99% chance it would be in a case brought out only on holidays to show friends and family.

Okay, so you paid $350 for a front row ticket to see your favorite singer. Does that give you the right to throw things on stage in an attempt to hit them?
Stories pop up weekly about things like this happening all around the world and It's getting worse. I used to think it faded away in the 70's with Rolling Stones concerts hired the Hell's Angels to do security.

One bizarre story was a (not too famous) group who played a small night club where the fans (loose word to describe the patrons) used spoons to heat pennies on the table candles. They would flick them to the band members onstage. A hot penny striking it's target and landing on your skin would cause 2nd degree burns. Now, that's paying your dues!

Maybe the best 'rough crowd' was from the movie The Blues Brothers where they had chicken wire between the stage and audience!

Name that tune started as a TV game show in the 1950's where contestants competed to correctly identify songs. It had gone through changes over the years, but the main part of the game had contestants stating the lowest number of notes to be played for them to identify the song. The host would then say "Name that tune."

In my travels this morning, I came to an exit on the highway where street beggars would usually stand on the corner holding signs usually stating they are homeless, some actually saying they were willing to work for food. Today, it was somewhat different. Technically, he was a beggar, but he came with a guitar and portable amplifier.

The thought came across my mind...is he a beggar or a street musician busking?
He was mumbling and I couldn't guess what song he was playing, but I considered his status as a busker and not a beggar.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a $5 bill, folded it and when the light changed to green, I was able to roll the window down, move up, and handed it to the guy.

Five bucks is enough for breakfast at McDonalds.

Fell out of bed... dragged a comb across my head.
Found my way downstairs after having a cup.
I noticed I was late.
Put the helicopters in my car... my friends know I'm sometimes late.
I'll use sunblock at the field... or my skin will peel.
It's lunch and a nap in the afternoon when I get back.


Many thanks to Lennon and McCartney for the songs that inspired generations of adoring music fans!

A Day in the Life, Track 13 from the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in 1967

Techno and Trance are not just some kind of electronic music styles , it is a life style and a love for music, beats and memories we made in our youth. Techno had been proven to increase mental health and positively influence anxiety and depression issues.

Noone can stop us :)

I wasn't interested in the 1960's folk music scene and too young for the coffee-house crowd. I knew who Bob Dylan was and knew he was an influence to the musicians I listened to, but I didn't listen to his music directly.

Dylan has been a major figure in the popular music culture for more than 70 years.
My friends used to make fun of his voice and how Tom Petty with a similar likeness, could have been his son. There was a funny skit on Saturday Night Live about that.

It wasn't until a generation ago that I started listening to some of Dylan's songs. Yes, never too late. He's 82 years old now and had gone through health issues, some related to drugs, financial trouble and he keeps on rolling along.

The video is one of my favorites. It's from a concert in Madison Square Garden with a stage full of musical greats.

My Back Pages by Bob Dylan.

The Foo Fighters are back in the studio and on the road with drummer Josh Freese.
In this rehearsal video, Josh blasts out some beats like he's been in the band for years.




Freese — a session and live drummer has performed with everyone from Guns N’ Roses and Nine Inch Nails to Paramore and Devo.

He replaces Taylor Hawkins, who died just over a year ago while on tour in Bogotá, Colombia.

I'm moving some things around tonight and came across a bunch of CD's that looks like archived music I transfered to another computer. On it was several tunes of Irish Uilleann pipes.

I'll have to do a time-line one day to see when I started to study pipes and when I actually gave them up. As best as I can recall it was shortly after a roommate came over with a VCR rental of the show Riverdance. I was blown away with the solo by Davy Spillane!
I checked the song credits and started doing research on the instrument. We were in the early days of internet and materials were hard to find.

Long story short. Irish bagpipes differ from Scottish and other bagpipes in that they are driven by dry air pumped into the bellows. The others are mouth blown and the reeds are wet. The main difference is more control over the sound with Uilleann pipes with tapping and note bending.

I located a music store in Maine who had pipes from different pipemakers. 2 from America and 1 from Canada. During that time I bought and sold several sets including some made in Australia by 2 of the best pipemakers in the country.

I had no background in traditional Irish music, but I bought some video tutorials and struggled to learn the instrument. A generation earlier, I studied oboe in the school symphony and stupidly abandoned the thought of a scholarship when I changed my journey to a decade of rock music. So, in my head, the pipes should have been easy. They weren't.

Anyway, it was Davy Spillane who toured in the first Riverdance show and listening to Irish pipes again tends to pull at my heartstrings...

Another music icon is gone. News today that she died peacefully after a long illness in her home near Zurich Switzerland.

One of my favorite Tina Tuner songs was from the movie THUNDERDOME.

We Don't Need Another Hero