Reading the post where Alec and Walter talk about old speakers and amps made me think of the old stuff I have and some I got rid of. Like the Systec phase shifter and Boss distortion unit I found in a box in my den closet that I had forgotten I had. Those I loaned to a young fellow from church that made his own guitar. Then there was the Danelectro Reverb unit from the early 60's that I sold at a garage sale a few years back. The young guitar player that bought it was amazed that any still existed, then amazed that I would sell it for just a few dollars. Made his day! Those huge reverb units were so powerful they could make your ears hurt, and it sounded like you were playing a guitar at the bottom of a well. And the old Kay guitar I almost gave away when I bought my Mosrite guitar;those are relics from long ago. Does anyone even remember the Epiphone line of Gibson guitars? I know this is a keyboard forum, but some of us old guys got our musical start with other instruments and mention of something old can trigger fond memories. I have tried to recreate the Danelectro reverb on one of the gospel styles I'm working on, but couldn't quite get it deep enough. Oh well. I guess some things are better left in the attic.

Is the Danelectro reverb unit one of those 'spring line' units? I recall that reverb used to be produced using a spring mounted inside a box, with a transponder at one end and a pick-up attached to a loop in the spring near the opposite end. I believe reverb could be adjusted by selecting different pickups attached to different loops. Made a racket if you dropped the unit while it was connected! Better leave it in the attic.

Mike

Hi Bud
Good to hear about your nostalgic thoughts. The Moserite guitar had maybe been a rarity now. We should never sold such things. I still have my old Strat from the 60:s, and also some soundpedals. Heard about Electro-Harmonix? I have one from the late 60:s, same kind of pedal were used by Jimi Hendrix.

So we maybe should keep our old Technics keyboards? The first playabel synth I´ve heard, was a Davioli, from 1972. The sound was very like barbed wire. 1975 I had an ARP synth, not polyphonic, but very good sound. But I really missing my old Fender Tremolux Amp from 1962. However, the good old days never comes back, but it´s nice to talk and remember this days.
Well, have a nice day in ´Hendersonville...
Lindoz

Hi Bud, Mike, and Lindoz,

Yes! It is neat to reminisce, especially about musical instruments and accessories. I think it is quite appropriate, Bud, to raise the subject of old instruments and memories on this forum. Lindoz, you mentioned the Electro-Harmonix line of accessories. I had the Small Stone phaser and Electric Mistress in addition to others, the names of which I have forgotten. Also had MXR flanger and analog delay units. I still have an ARP Quartet polyphonic synth (8-note polyphonic. Also have a Fender Precision Bass guitar and an Ibanez electric (Les Paul copy) guitar. Do any of you remember the TEAC Portastudio 144/244 multi-track cassette format tape recorders. I sold my 144, but still have the 244. Speaking of reverb units, Bud, I still have a Roland reverb that also has echo, and a sound on sound feature using a built-in tape unit. I have a few other "old" bits and pieces. All of the equipment is stored in cases or boxes. I guess the electronic stuff still works. Haven't plugged them in for many years. I, for one, do remember the Epiphone line of guitars. Mike, you are right about spring reverbs making a racket when dropped. I had a guitar amp with a spring reverb and sometimes I would stumble over it amid all the cables and kits and it would make a heck of a racket! Great memories!!! Incidentally, I gave all my Electro-Harmonix and MXR affects units to a young guitar player and he was tickled to death to have them. I can still hear the Electric Mistress because I used it when I recorded the Bee Gee tune "The Air That I Breathe" using the TEAC Portastudio. I wouldn't part with that tape. Guess I've rambled on long enough guys. It was nice to get up this morning and find this subject on our forum. Thanks, Bud.

Chuck

Hi Bud,
the Gibson Epiphones are still going strong, and are a popular range of guitars here. I don't know what your Danelectro sound was like, but just recently I went mad with one reverb:

initialise
select guitar / bright solid guitar
switch r1/r2 octave to -1
press and hold reverb, page 2, select live stage
take total depth to 110
press detail edit
reverb time 60
high damp 24
volume 100
volume (v) 120
there's still room to manouvre left, but it can get unplayable!

When I could not afford the spring reverb units, I made one. The transistors were relatively cheap, the main expense was getting the spring box. These were made in various sizes, the bigger the better, and I could only afford the smallest 8 inch one. It worked, but don't ask me what the quality was like!
Yes, Mike, the springs and units had to be mounted on rubber decoupling mounts, and if you tapped or kicked it by mistake your speaker cones could go flying across the room

Lindoz, we had an ARP synth that belonged to the university, in the acoustics department. It was the maximum of cool, and was guarded jealously.
Don't mention cassettes, Chuck, I always hated them, there was just no way to improve the quality no matter how many dolbys or dbxs you tried. Now my old Revox, that was a recording machine...
I was stunned with my first DAT machine just how good it was compared to analogue recording.

Do you remember the Yamahas that could dump the memory data in real time onto cassette tape, like the first computers? I once did a magnum opus that lasted 10 minutes, and took 11 minutes to load the sequencer data from cassette!!! Even more helpful was when you had the inevitable data corruption 9 minutes into the tape, that used to make your entire day!
Then there was the Yamaha "mini disk" recorders, which used a floppy disk about half the size of the 3 1/2 inch floppy disks. You could only record one track at a time, so endlessly overdubbed, but with the 8 note polyphony available then, you did not do that much overdubbing! Another format which bombed without trace.
I then bought a KN800 with disk drive.

Then I needed a graphic equaliser for the music room, then a reverb unit for microphone input, then a noise gate for silence between tracks, then a compressor for making tapes. All these boxes now useless, redundant and worthless as each new keyboard had more and more features inside turning it more and more into a complete workstation. I suppose if I get a 7000 the USB soundcard will be redundant too. Well, I suppose that's progress, Folks

.... wow .... this thread has knocked some cobwebs off the memory banks .... spring reverbs!!! ..... I started out playing acordion (the popular portable keyboard of it's day) .... the accordion and amp (tube, of course) were made by SANO, in NJ, USA ...great sounding box.... the amp had a spring reverb, and you are all correct ... accidently bump it and it sounded like 'thunder' .... I've still got the amp and accordion, but the amp has not been plugged in in quite some time ... I also have an "echo-rec" machine... it was an echo effects machine that used a tape to record and playback instantly giving the 'echo' effect ..... while in high school I worked in a music studio that sold the Epiphone line ... went from accordion to codovox (which had some pretty neat sounds for the time) and then in the 70's I used a fender rhodes, which I 'enhanced' with a phase shifter ... for a while I also had the 'vox lying on top of the rhodes for organ and other sounds...
t.

Now we have the old timers thinking back!! I suppose some of the younger readers will wonder if our minds are wandering too far from reality, but if they're lucky, they too will have glorious memories to share one day. The Danelectro reverb unit had one tube and was very noisy, but it also had spring metal feet and wasn't as prone to accidental noise as was the Fender Twin Reverb amp my brother and I bought. Now, that unit would "boinggggg" your eardrums numb, and it still sits in my brother's basement. When the reverb part went out, we had to rewire around the unit just to be able to use the amp. That's back when amps actually came with schematics! I also bought a six string, short neck, bass guitar that I can't remember the brand name of, but someone else liked it more than I did and took it home with them. Haven't seen one since 1963. However, I still have the Kustom bass amp that loves to gather dust and is probably worth more than I would want to pay today. I would be willing to trade it for a kn7k, though! Still, it is worthwhile to pass some of these useless items on to budding musicians and watch them enjoy some of the "things" that enriched our lives at one time, and it also gives them some insight into how things used to be - before computerized components. Lindoz, I took my Mosrite guitar in for switch repairs and the fellow that owned the shop traded me a brand new Rickenbocker 610MG for it. The fast action neck on the Mosrite was so thin it was subject to serious warping and was hard to keep in tune, but it was fun to play! The thing weighed a ton, too. Once in a while I take the Ric out to look at it and sigh.

[This message has been edited by Bud Whipple (edited 04-10-2002).]

Hey Bud and All,
While thinking about that Fender twin reverb, it reminds me of when I used mine for the Hohner, Clavinet D6 which I still have and play. That goes back to the 60's.
I still have a Lowrey Genius Pcm Keyboard and its two stereo amps that came from Victor. It was the first arranger keyboard, I got it about mid 70's. It was $2600.00 then and the Amps with 5 EQ's were about $300.00 each. The software Cartridges that were the size of 8 track tapes were $75.00 each and had from 4 to 6 styles on each. I still have a dozen of those also. That was really living in those days and the envy of all amateur musicians. Of course then as now it was beneath the dignity of many professional musicians to even recognize them as a real keyboard. I use the amps now and then for a gig in a small room. I just had new volume pots put in them. They are really fine amps, and an ideal size to carry in the motorhome with us. The studio is also full of a lot of other stuff that never gets used anymore but they all work when I boot them up except one ensoniq keyboard SD1-32 voice needs a new battery that I have not yet installed.
My wife keeps asking me why I keep all this junk, (her term). That is just one more thing that she doesn't understand about me. haha
Best to all from
Bebop

Bebop, Lowrey was my first exposure to any type of keyboard. I tried a tiny chord organ and outgrew that in less than a month. I kept trading up in the Lowrey line and finished with a big console organ that came out just before the type you're talking about. I thought the tape addition was a brilliant idea, but the cost was just too high for me. It was a feature I never forgot, and when we moved south, I donated the big console to a church youth group and went looking for something in a keyboard that was somewhat better than a Casio I had bought. My daughter now has the Casio for her kids to bang on, and I discovered the Technics keyboards could do everything but practice scales for me. What fun!

I still remember the old upright piano that wouldn't fit in our small living room when I was a kid. It got a spot outside in the yard,in the weather, and us kids used to play at being piano players. I still do.