It was 40 years ago today…ALMOST

Lee Brenkman

Lee Brenkman

Junior
Jan 13, 2011
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Oakland California USA
Okay, I'll admit it. "Throwback Thursday" on Facebook has driven me to dig out long undisturbed boxes of photographs and negatives.

I thought some of you might like to see what "Grampa" looked like nearly 40 years ago.

In this picture taken by Guitar Player Magazine's staff photographer Jon Sievert. Since he is very protective of the rights to the pictures he has taken of musicians I checked if it was okay to post this one here.

It was taken, I believe after the sound check and certainly on the day of the performance of guitarists Stefan Grossman, Dale Miller and Duck Baker at the Great American Music Hall on June 1, 1975.

Please note that this image is © Jon Sievert 1975 - all rights reserved

With the legal stuff out of the way, can you identify all of the "antique" audio gear in the photograph.

There are five items visible.

BTW my taste in beer has improved since then.

Cheers,
Gramps
 

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Re: It was 40 years ago today…ALMOST

Lets see. Is that a Soundcraft Series 1 or 1S? Koss headphones. Bose 800? I admit I'm at a loss for the rest. Love the Bellbottoms too. Did they have acoustic properties as well?
Raul Suarez
 
Re: It was 40 years ago today…ALMOST

Right on all three guesses. It's a Soundcraft 1S. I bought the demo from that year's AES show to replace the Shure SR101 we had then.

Those are actually "Chi Pants". Remember them?

The other two pieces are cassette decks. One is a well known "breakthrough" product, the other one is really rare and unusual.
 
Re: It was 40 years ago today…ALMOST

I don't see much in the picture that I recognize but based on the time frame, I would guess Nachamichi for one SOTA cassette deck, and for the exotic perhaps an early digital to video cassette recorder?

JR
 
Re: It was 40 years ago today…ALMOST

I think the whole picture is a hoax. Based on the contemporary Miller High Life beer bottle.
 
Re: It was 40 years ago today…ALMOST

I have some folding chairs that look like that that I use for back yard parties. Mine are a green vinyl, and came from the local ward house.
 
Re: It was 40 years ago today…ALMOST

Jack

The bottle is "contemporary" with the rest of the gear, and me in 1975. They recently revived that shape and label.

The Samsonite chair was blue and had cloth upholstery. It was part of a broken set from a thrift store. And it traveled with me on the road and from job to job for years.

It had many nice adjustments to change leg height and seat angle. It finally disappeared at a hotel ballroom gig in 1979. Whether by theft or by being collected with the house chairs, I never was able to find out.
 
Re: It was 40 years ago today…ALMOST

We have completed the quiz!

Actually both cassette machines are Wollensaks under the hood. The one on top of the Bose 800 Speaker in its case is an Advent 201, the breakthrough cassette deck with Dolby and bias switching for CrO2 tape formulations. The transport was the same machinery as the white and aluminum reel to reel machines I wrangled as a High School A/V nerd.

The one in back is a rare EARLY Advent branded playback only machine, again with Dolby and "high bias" capability. This one was in a stand alone plastic case. The same basic machine was sold with a 3M logo, no Dolby and built into an integral case. I don't remember the model number Advent hung on it and I can't find a picture of one anywhere.

But here's what the 3M version looked like
 

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