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Old 01-20-2017, 10:54 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot Vibrato View Post
Slightly off-topic here, but I'm wondering if you could tell me a little more about drums and bass from that era. Were the basses all strung with gut strings back then? Was amplified bass even a thing back then? Calf or calf substitute heads? Where would one obtain those? The cymbals is the primary thing to my ears that makes the drums from those swing era recordings sound so much different from a modern kit. Are there modern offerings that can get that sound?
Speaking strictly from my own experience here - YMMV:
  • When I played standup bass in HS I used a '40s Kay that was still strung with the original gut strings; there are also copies of period ads online that allude to the use of gut strings as standard (or available) equipment
  • There were several attempts to make an amplified upright bass starting in the 1930's (including at least two solidbody instruments), but the first semi-successful realization was Everett Hull's circa-1950 "amplified peg," an endpin fitted with a microphone that went inside the body and was then plugged into an external amplifier; as suitable units did not exist at the time, Mr. Hull began to build his own "amp-peg" amplifiers - soon abbreviated to "Ampeg," and later to evolve into the legendary B-15 and SVT
  • Calfskin heads were standard fare until sometime in the mid-1950's, when Remo developed the first synthetic drum (and banjo) heads, and while calfskin heads are still available they're not only in low demand (due to tuning issues) but very expensive; if you're after a skin-head tone there are several options, the best-known being Remo's Renaissance and various Fiberskyn formulations
  • The construction techniques, and to a lesser extent the alloys, used in vintage cymbals give them their distinctive tone and response characteristics; although there are a (very) few custom makers who can/will duplicate older designs they come at a price, and most drummers I've known go with the Zildjian A Avedis Series in the name of both cost and ease of replacement - wonderful as it may sound, you don't want to crack (and they do crack, FYI) an authentic '40s cymbal any more than you'd want to do a Pete Townshend on that similarly-irreplaceable, dead-mint-with-tags '59 LP
Hope this helps...
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