Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Never seen this one before. Wonder where it is!

I have always wondered why they shared a microphone? It's not like they had any problem getting the gear they needed.

Thanks for sharing Nick. This is a new picture to me also.

could be a throwback to when one mic per person was a real luxury. Also could be an intentional thing to get the combo vocal effect.... especially in the early days when they didn't have a proper mixer and all the other stuff that we take for granted nowadays.

Possibly because it looks really cool?

Seriously, I think it has something to do with being able to hear each other well during harmonies. During the Ed Sullivan show, there's two mikes on stage, but they all crowd around one...

Also, during the Sept 12, 1965 Sullivan show, when they do Ticket To Ride, John walks over to Paul's mic so they can sing together. Same with Shea Stadium and all that stuff. Baby's In Black, too...the list goes on.

I think they did it so they could hear themselves doing a harmony! I've read a lot of the time that they couldn't hear themselves onstage at all.

I dig doubling up on a mic.

You've obviously never been in a band with my former rhythm guitarist Hal... Hal I. Tosis?

No monitors?

I believe that this photo was taken in Sweden during the Beatles' 1963 Tour in October of that year. The possible venue would be Borashallen, Boras.

No monitors. And if you look at the pics from Shea Stadium, you'll see the stage ringed with what amounts to Shure columns. I can only assume that they patched at least some of the sound through to a bigger system that isn't in the pictures -- but no one played stadiums back then, so who would've thought of that? Monitors at that time were virtually unheard of -- so were the vocals onstage .

In 1965 when I started playing bass, my band had one --yes, one -- speaker that sat at center stage pointing out at the audience and a Radio Shack minimixer that put three mics into a 35 watt Bogen "PA" amp. Later, when I joined a group that actually gigged in clubs, we graduated to two Shure columns run by a Shure head (100 watts?) that handled six mics if needed. We played so softly onstage that if we set the columns far enough away from the stage and angled them inward, we could hear the vocals with no problem. The first band I saw with "monitors" was a local group that hung a Shure 6x10 column from the ceiling of the club and pointed it at the stage. First real monitors my band had in the early '70s were JBL 1x12's with a horn. Two monitors run by a 200 watt Crown amp. No ability to mix a separate vocal send. Still couln't hear because we were so loud.

In 1968 I saw The Association play my college fieldhouse with six Shure columns and three Shure minimixers that the sound tech ran from ... the front row of the seats. And they sounded great. Don't recall seeing even one monitor. Amps were a Dual Showman for bass and three Twin Reverbs -- one each -- for the guitars. Keyboards were also A Dual Showman. NOT miked through the PA, nor were the drums.

I've read that CSN&Y was the first band to pioneer having a flying PA rig with honest-to-god monitors. Saw them in 1969 in Pittsburgh and the stage was a solid wall of tweed Fender Bassman amps for guitars and an Acoustic 360 for bass. Clair Bros. Sound in Pennsylvania was one of the first outfits to supply big systems to the pros.

So, next time you're unhappy with your in-ear monitor mix, be glad it ain't 1964.

Arrows point to the columns I referenced above.

I heard at Shea they were also piped thru the stadium's PA that they used for the announcer for baseball games. Not exactly hi-fi...

More hi than fi, methinks.

And and and and and
now now now now now ...
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Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles ....

I think there is something to the "being able to hear their own harmony" thing.

.... and also the fact that it looks cool.... Especially with a lefty-righty combination. There are early pix of the Beatles that show that they hadn't yet realized the guitar symetry of that.

Dave I still have a tube Shure PA Amp/Mixer from that era in storage. It is in fact a 50 watt amp. Strangely enough we also used a Bogen 35 watt in the early days (1966). We ran four Traynor column speakers. Two behind us as on stage monitors. We had to be able to hear ourselves because of our requirement to have our harmonies so tight. We also had a sound man.

Later on in 1975 my band used the rental services of National Sound out of Nashville (I believe)as our sound personnel, roadies and gear supplier on a per concert basis. My memory is growing dim on the details. LOL

This of course was due to the fact we were playing very large venues. We had onstage monitors then and two mixing boards, one of which was place outboard in the audience.

Drums, bass and guitars were miked through the PA system. We still had a battery of amps on stage just for the cool effect. The truth is with that PA system we could have played through 15 Watt amps and achieved the same coverage and sound quality. LOL