That 70's Acoustic Sound

[Jaden]

The first LP record I heard back in the early 1970s was three great guitar players: Merle Travis, Doc Watson and Chet Atkins. No shimmering highs and no thunk that I remember but warm fundamentals most characteristic of mahogany.

An artist who I think could have been much better served on record during that decade was John Fahey. His Brazilian D-35 wasn’t very balanced on record due to prominence of high frequency overtones. Mahogany would have recorded better.

[Cypress Knee]

For me the '70's sound - and that includes electric - was about the licks and hooks done on the guitar:

Amie
Time in Bottle
Summer Breeze
Take Me Home Country Roads
Fire and Rain
Sundown
Dance With Me
Heart of Gold
Friend of the Devil
Vincent
Hotel California
Rhiannon
Moonshadow
Suite Judy Blue Eyes
Night Moves
House at Pooh Corner
More Than A Feeling
Kodachrome
Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
Maggie May
Stairway to Heaven
My Sweet Lord
Sister Golden Hair
If
Dust in the Wind

There is a twenty-five song set list right there, and if the audience was born in the mid-60's or earlier they will probably recognize each song within the first bar or two if played as recorded.

And no two artists are replicated - which means there are a lot of missed opportunities.

What is on your list?

CK

[HeyMikey]

There was also a lot more use of 12-strings back then, either as the primary guitar, or mixed in to round out the sound.

[Jaden]

Just to add: two major artists of the 1970s that I took for granted: James Taylor and John Denver.

About “Ol’ Neil” (Neil Young), I collected about 35 lps of his, have been a fan, but he has turned some useless stuff to gold (made money) too (he’s fallible) in my opinion.

[IndyHD28]

Originally Posted by maxtheaxe

Steven Stills, and I still kind of hear that high-end Martin in the hands of Stills as the iconic acoustic sound from the 70's.

This plus Neil Young for me. LOL, my first born is named Stephen, always spelled with a ‘ph’.

[AndrewG]

Originally Posted by wguitar

AndrewG -- my first guitar (which I still have) is an early 1970's Yamaha FG-110. To this day it sounds great (sure, it's no powerhouse, but has a decent sound).

I recently rediscovered the 1970's Stephen Bishop song "Save it for a
Rainy Day" --- WOW, GREAT song and Fun to Play !! Ah, memories !

Mine was the FG180 I bought in 1969. I wonder if I would like it as much now as I did then.

[mcduffnw]

Originally Posted by Rockysdad

Recordings, at that time period were generally *mixed for optimum* sound of what were usually listened to by the general public, such as transistor radios and car stereo systems, which, were somewhat limited in reproduction capabilities.

YES!!!...this IS true!!! Leo Kottke talked about this once back in the mid/late 70's in a magazine interview I read. He said that music was mixed down to sound good coming out of .59 cent car speakers.

Also...I think that the quality of acoustic guitar strings in the 70's was nowhere even remotely good as it is today. I remember buying all kinds of different brands of acoustic strings...Musicians Supply Co. mail order was my go to source... and having them sound great out of the pack for a week, but then settling into that more thuddy sound for the rest of their lives.

And...all of the "BIG 3" factory made acoustic guitars, Martin, Gibson, Guild of that era were very heavily..."over"...built. Of the three, I think Guild really did the best job by far of building the heavier built guitar and still having it sound pretty darn good, though Martin was not far behind. Gibson...ugh...not so much, but a lot of folks love that super thuddy Gibson tone from that era, so , their ya go...

duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

[mcduffnw]

Originally Posted by fitness1

There were quite a few Ovations in there too.....

Oh boy yeah...THIS^^^...way, way more than people know, as they were really used heavily in the studios...recording engineers LOVED em...plug em right into the mixing board...no fussing around with mic positions, what mic to use, just plug and play, and they sounded really good...for the times...on stage as well, and the player wasn't glued 6 to 12 inches from the mic the whole show.

duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

[fuman]

Originally Posted by lukegard22

Yep, I think you're on to something. While people give bad reviews to 70's built guitars, they did have "a sound."



Thunky Town, Thunk You Up - all viable options. Might be close to some copyright infringement.

People dog guitars from the 70s because the major brand guitars were, relatively speaking, pretty terrible in the 70s. I can almost guarantee you those great-sounding records in the 70's were played on 40s-early 60s Martins and Gibsons. I think the exception was Guild, which didn't go into a decline when they moved to Westerly. (I love 70s Guilds). Now maybe there are a bunch of great Martin and Gibson acoustics that got handed down as heirlooms, burned up in fires, destroyed by Stephen Stills or whatnot. But the ones you actually find and play aren't that great and some of them are just weird.

[bufflehead]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

+And finally the playing styles were seemingly of greater vigor back then. Some players strumming methods was heavy, hard and fast. Greater force was used in some cases and thus created larger dynamics.

Agreed. While the movement toward fingerstyle has added a dynamic or two to the performance of acoustic guitars, it has also lost some of the vigor that we had in the 70s. I played a lot of coffehouses back then where my voice was miked but my guitar was completely unamplified. In a crowded room you needed a dreadnaught, and you needed to play it in such a way that it would be heard. This was especially true of some of the protest and folk music back then, where the audience would often sing along.

[drumstrummer]

Originally Posted by HeyMikey

There was also a lot more use of 12-strings back then, either as the primary guitar, or mixed in to round out the sound.

True. Plus great vocals. Case in point exemplifying the sound we're talking about: Dave Mason
https://youtu.be/p8_FOQ7-P30

[SoCalSurf]

Great thread.

I was born in 1971, so I was alive during most of the music referenced here. My memories about the music are less about the "quality" of the music and much more about what I remember about when that music was played, such as riding in the back of my parents' station wagon in the bench seat facing the rear window. Or road trips going camping listening to AM radio.

John Denver. Gordon Lightfoot. America. Simon and Garfunkel. So many great memories with this music in the background.

As an adult I am reverting back to these years. I have an original 1964 Magnavox record player console and a tremendous vinyl collection starting with my mother's original Beatles collection. Most of the music I listen to at home is on records from the 1970s (and some 1980s if for some crazy reason I want to reminisce about high school).

My guitar tastes have changed in this regard, too. I find myself gravitating towards playing my Gibson SJ200, as it nicely captures the music of this era, more so than my other guitars do. I have been infatuated with playing Cat Stevens on this Gibson, as well as America and John Denver.

There is something very peaceful about this music for me, even though the time in which it was played was anything but peaceful in the U.S. or the world. That's what's so great about music, and about our ability to recreate this music with our wonderful guitars.

[DesertTwang]

Being a kid of the 80s, I never really got into most of the music at that time. Besides contemporary bluegrass and Americana, I listen to records from the 70s almost exclusively. That said, I don't think I ever noticed any particular acoustic guitar sound that seems specific to that era. If anything, I would chalk it up to different playing styles that were popular then, maybe different choices in songwriting and performance, but probably more than anything, recording techniques and equipment settings. I can't imagine why an acoustic guitar from the 70s would sound any different from an acoustic guitar from today, unless we're talking specs and builds that were only used at a certain time, obviously.

[Shortfinger]

So my '72 D-18 is just trash, and I might as well throw it in the dumpster, because absolutely every Martin used to record all the tunes from the mid 60s to mid 70s were prewar or older?

And all those artists back then in the Age of Aquarius wouldn't touch a new D-18?

[lukegard22]

Originally Posted by Shortfinger

So my '72 D-18 is just trash, and I might as well throw it in the dumpster, because absolutely every Martin used to record all the tunes from the mid 60s to mid 70s were prewar or older?

As previously mentioned, the 70's sound was likely from pre-60's Gibbys or Martins.
Put your 70's Martin in the trash? Maybe a collector or appraiser would, yes.
BUT we are not collectors or appraisers. We are players! Your Martin likely has "the sound" that we are discussing.
I remember playing a square shouldered early 70's Gibson J-45. Worth maybe $400 to a collector. But I loved the sound! Really dry, opened up when you strummed, but the sound mellowed out with fingerpicking.
(Should have bought it, but we were moving and didn't have room for another guitar.)