discreet Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 No electric instruments at my school, either. But as this was before electricity had reached Cheltenham, it's hardly surprising. There was a burgeoning music scene there at the time, though. That Holst! He was a right tearaway. Go, Gustav!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1383213876' post='2261541'] Actually, as I've said before, IMO the acceptance of pop and rock (particularly within schools music lessons) has contributed to the music becoming bland and impotent. [/quote] Quite. How can you rebel against the establishment if it has appropriated 'your' music? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 We had a beaten up old Burns which we all hated - how little we knew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTractor Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Ours was a viola da gamba (bass viola much like a cello). Happily I was allowed to take it home to practise, and so could ditch the bow, hold it horizontally sitting on my lap, and pluck it as if it was a real instrument. Also, it helped with a microphone into a mixer and that signal fed into a Small Stone (IMS) and certainly a Big Muff Pi. Great days! BTW, music teacher was not too convinced about my progress with bow playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthurhenry Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Sold a Squier Bullet to the son of a school teacher 23 years ago. Attended school open evening last week and there it was hanging on the wall in the music dept (fully equipped practice rooms and studios). It was in great condition and there were at least five other basses present. A far cry from my day, when there were no electric guitars in the school and my band had to beg teachers to let us rehearse in the needlework room or under the stage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Apple Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 We had a Westone Spectrum. I thought that was pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 (edited) IIRC, my school had an old Grant Jazz copy and a generic cheapy brand P copy. They weren't great, but they worked. I always wished they would get a double bass, as I really wanted to play double bass at the time but my family could never afford one. There was also one of those wretched Carlsbro Stingray combos with the push buttons which I used to use with the school big band. The thing which used to really break my heart was the stack of interesting but unused older equipment in a corner, which included a couple of valve amps (one was a Selmer T&B ), a Logan String machine keyboard and worst of all, a Rhodes Suitcase piano, which they never took the lid off in the whole six years I was there... Edited October 31, 2013 by Beer of the Bass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Burrito Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Our school bought keyboards and I remember a room full of 12yr olds trying to play popular TV themes. It was hell. No bass or guitars at my school, we were all fully embracing the 1980s! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 [quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1383216042' post='2261595'] IIRC, my school had an old Grant Jazz copy and a generic cheapy brand P copy. They weren't great, but they worked. I always wished they would get a double bass, as I really wanted to play double bass at the time but my family could never afford one. There was also one of those wretched Carlsbro Stingray combos with the push buttons which I used to use with the school big band. The thing which used to really break my heart was the stack of interesting but unused older equipment in a corner, which included a couple of valve amps (one was a Selmer T&B ), a Logan String machine keyboard and worst of all, a Rhodes Suitcase piano, which they never took the lid off in the whole six years I was there... [/quote] Pretty sure we had a couple of valve amps that would get people all a quiver nowadays! Some huge cabs as well, no idea now what they were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 [quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1383215037' post='2261570'] We had a Westone Spectrum. I thought that was pretty cool. [/quote] I had a ZX Spectrum - that WAS cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 [quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1383217560' post='2261624'] I had a ZX Spectrum - that WAS cool! [/quote] Off-topic. Our school had a computer in the early 70s. It was made of many full-height rack cabinets of stuff including reels of tape that spun forwards and backwards as it did things. It occupied a whole classroom in the maths block and looked like the sort of computers you saw in a Bond villain's secret lair. IIRC is cost the grand sum of £10 (which was the cost of transporting it from the local company that donated it to the school). Since there was no air-conditioning in those days it would overheat and stop working during the summer. Programming was done by typing code on a teletyper which produced a roll of punched tape. Make a typo and you had to start all over again. The tape reader made weird noises as it read your "program" and so it wasn't long before someone worked out the hole combinations for producing recognisable notes. The final result was a tape which when read would produce a string of notes vaguely reminiscent of the "William Tell Overture". Probably the first bit of "computer music" I ever heard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbayne Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 They never had a bass at my school, anyway, they had a drumkit and I wanted to be a drummer!..,(Did I just say that in public?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamPodmore Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 (edited) [quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1383217560' post='2261624'] I had a ZX Spectrum - that WAS cool! [/quote] I've still got a working one! Mine was a rather dire p bass copy that had a broken jack socket and antique strings. The school i worked in just after i left school had a couple of Squier Affinity P Basses that they used, and an early 80's Japanese Fender fretless jazz bass that sat stored away, missing strings and never touched. I tried to get 'em to let me have it but it didn't work. Liam Edited October 31, 2013 by LiamPodmore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandelion Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Broken tamborines, Woodblocks, Triangles, Claves, Saucer sized cymbals, Horrible plastic recorders, Xylophones, Chime bars, Ex-hippie Teachers whom we used to throw beater heads at. But no Basses... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Ours was a Columbus P bass copy, with flat strings and stupendously high action. I thought it was incredible. I remember the amp too - a 1x15 combo branded 'Cougar', who I have never heard of since. I remember most of the knobs and sliders didn't do much to the sound but I loved feeling the air moving when I turned it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamdenRob Posted October 31, 2013 Author Share Posted October 31, 2013 [quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1383223139' post='2261719'] ...I remember the amp too - a 1x15 combo branded 'Cougar', who I have never heard of since. I remember most of the knobs and sliders didn't do much to the sound but I loved feeling the air moving when I turned it up. [/quote] oh we didn't have an amp... the plank was played acoustically, it was inaduibly quiet when playing with any other instruments... probably for the best in hindsight... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandelion Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COUGAR-CBX100-BASS-Mosfet-SYSTEM-Very-Heavy-OLD-SCHOOL-repairs-spears-/261316624280 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 We had an Encore J in black I seem to recall... with a 50w laney. Lucky to have one by what I'm reading here... Mind you, one of the teachers who taught trombone was a sh1t hot bass player. 5 string Wal hanging up in his office with a Peterson combo... for those moments when he fancied a dabble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigman Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 We had every instrument from the orchestra available to try but none of those newfangled electric instruments Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 [quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1383223840' post='2261739'] We had an Encore J in black I seem to recall... with a 50w laney. Lucky to have one by what I'm reading here... Mind you, one of the teachers who taught trombone was a sh1t hot bass player. 5 string Wal hanging up in his office with a Peterson combo... for those moments when he fancied a dabble. [/quote] You went to the posh school though! We had nothing unless you took your own in other than a very sad looking double bass tuned to good knows what. I had an ibanez guitar back then, failed guitarist you see.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeystrange Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 My school had a white/white/rosewood Squier Affinity Precision. It didn't play very well and there was a missive chunk missing from the scratch plate, around the controls. At one point the cavity was filled with Wotsits. Then it packed up altogether. I started taking my own after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myke Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 We had about 4 Encore jazz basses with about 2 strings between them. Oh and about 2 broken bass amps.. Seems I was quite lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 [quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1383224355' post='2261752'] You went to the posh school though! We had nothing unless you took your own in other than a very sad looking double bass tuned to good knows what. I had an ibanez guitar back then, failed guitarist you see.... [/quote] Yeah, we all smoked behind the bike sheds using £50 notes as Rizla* *this is a complete lie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 [quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1383227634' post='2261812'] *this is a complete lie. [/quote] Why would we have bike sheds when we all had drivers darling? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 [quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1383227681' post='2261813'] Why would we have bike sheds when we all had drivers darling? [/quote] Botherations. One is now talking to oneself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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