Keyboards in the days before great PA?

[Mr. Nightime]

Back in the day I would carry a CP70B, both sections, and a 147 Leslie up stairs by myself. I would get tired of waiting for help.

 

Now, I don't want to schlep anything heavier than an SK2

 

[Reezekeys]

Back in the day I would carry a CP70B, both sections, and a 147 Leslie up stairs by myself. I would get tired of waiting for help.

 

Now, I don't want to schlep anything heavier than an SK2

You win, but not by much â the Leslie def puts you over the top, but I'm probably a close second. I used to move both sections of a CP70 and a Rhodes up a flight of stairs when I lived in a loft building in Manhattan. Then, go out and drive around for up to an hour looking for legal on-street parking (which usually wound up being 5 - 10 blocks from where I lived). If I was lucky I'd have to move my car by 11AM the next day, otherwise 8AM (that's New York's "alternate side" parking regs for ya).

 

Now you know why I carry a single 61-note 10lb controller keyboard!

[Mr. Nightime]

Back in the day I would carry a CP70B, both sections, and a 147 Leslie up stairs by myself. I would get tired of waiting for help.

 

Now, I don't want to schlep anything heavier than an SK2

You win, but not by much â the Leslie def puts you over the top, but I'm probably a close second. I used to move both sections of a CP70 and a Rhodes up a flight of stairs when I lived in a loft building in Manhattan. Then, go out and drive around for up to an hour looking for legal on-street parking (which usually wound up being 5 - 10 blocks from where I lived). If I was lucky I'd have to move my car by 11AM the next day, otherwise 8AM (that's New York's "alternate side" parking regs for ya).

 

Now you know why I carry a single 61-note 10lb controller keyboard!

 

I don't know. The 147 is really not all that heavy, as there is a lot of empty space. And I had a really good hand truck to move it with.

 

A Rhodes, on the other hand.....

 

I never had the parking issue. Even now, I can back right up to my garage to unload. My gigs the next two weeks I can almost go straight from my truck bed to the stage. In fact, I can set up completely without even walking onto the stage

 

I have one gig with stairs now, and I have a tough enough time just schlepping myself up the stairs, let alone my gear. I get all the help I can.

 

[Reezekeys]

Ok then I win! I have no idea how much Leslies weigh since I was never a Hammond player. I assumed they were very heavy just by looking at the amount of wood involved â but yea, a Rhodes could have weighed more, I guess.

 

Moving out of New York City was the best thing I could do for my back (and overall sanity)! I've lived in regular houses with yards, driveways and garages since then. My studio spaces have all been either on the ground floor, or stocked with gear that rarely moved. By the time I got into doing weddings and shlepping into the city from my suburban digs, I had gotten my "one-trip rig" together â it started out with a DX7 and a Roland Keyboard Cube!

[jazzpiano88]

Rhodes 73 Suitcase amp/speakers was enough for me for a while with a Juno 106 inserted into the preamp.

 

Whenever I played in shorts it was amazing how the back-facing suitcase speakers would perturb my leg hairs at low frequencies .

 

I wish I still had that Rhodes! Ironically, I sold it to buy another amp for the rest of the synths when it was unwieldy for gigging.

[Morrissey]

Love this thread! We're so spoiled these days with affordable and portable amplification options.

[AnotherScott]

In the old days, I had a Leslie 122 when I was using the Hammond, but other than that, I don't think I gigged with any amps. We had big side-fill monitors (Electro-Voice Eliminators), and the my keys were fed back to me that way.

[bill bosco]

i remember our piano player's rhodes 88 being considerably heavier than my 147 , which was just under 150 lbs . it was even heavier than the top half the chopped L-102 i was lugging around at the time .

hard to believe we moved so much equipment up and down so many flights of stairs and at all times of the night .

[GRollins]

Just for comparison, my Ampeg SVT 8 x 10" cabinet was 160# by itself. The head was another 90#. I also carried an Acoustic 371 rig (played stereo), but don't remember the weight; lighter than the Ampeg, though. I don't remember ever getting help moving the stuff. Like the posters showing how many groupies the various members of the band got--with bass players getting zero--bass players are also at the bottom of the totem pole for help with gear.

 

On the plus side, both cabs had wheels and were pretty easy to deal with on level, hard surfaces. May the gods have mercy on you, though, if you had a gravel parking lot to deal with. Might as well be quicksand.

 

24" doors were a bitch. You had to turn the cabinets sideways and unch them through before getting to use the wheels again. And, yes, my old enemy...stairs. (Quoting Po the panda, there.)

 

Grey

[Bill H.]

I used to move my CP80 by myself. I'd even lift the harp section and click it into the action box solo. I was pretty buff back then...

 

I often didn't have much choice. This was back in my piano bar days, and most of the time it was just me. I'd use it if the room didn't have a decent piano, and most of the time these gigs would go for weeks or months at a time - so it wasn't like a regular thing.

 

Compared to that, moving my 21H Leslie was a snap. The louvers worked for handles.

[Mr. Nightime]

I used to move my CP80 by myself. I'd even lift the harp section and click it into the action box solo. I was pretty buff back then...

 

I often didn't have much choice. This was back in my piano bar days, and most of the time it was just me. I'd use it if the room didn't have a decent piano, and most of the time these gigs would go for weeks or months at a time - so it wasn't like a regular thing.

 

Compared to that, moving my 21H Leslie was a snap. The louvers worked for handles.

 

I would lift the harp of the CP70B onto the hinges myself as well. Not as heavy as the CP80, but at 154 lbs, still plenty heavy.

 

Now, I might have to lift my SK2 above my head to place it on the top tier. or my QSC k10 and my Mackie thumps onto pole stands.

 

My heaviest piece now is my cable trunk

 

My guitar player has the right idea. He has ramps that he brings with him so he can just roll the heavy gear into place. He also has a hand truck with a hydraulic lift.

 

 

 

[Reezekeys]

Count me as another solo CP70 shlepper/setter-upper. And as I said previously, the shlep involved a flight of stairs. I lived in a Manhattan commercial loft building with a freight elevator â and an actual human operator! At 5PM he went home and locked it up. It's a wonder I never needed spinal surgery. Not yet, anyway.

 

[bill bosco]

we had a bass player who got by for years tumbling his bass cab end over end up and down stairs , said it was a snap ! of course , the cab was a ragged mess

[ChiefDanG]

As far as amplification, this is what remember....

First amp (circa1968) was an Epiphone with 2 10s and maybe 30 watts. Was playing a Farfisa Compact Duo, later a Wutlie. Did not go into PA.

Next, an amp that came with a Gibson organ. Hated it. Went back to using my Farfisa with -

Acoustic bass head with homemade cabinet.

Got a Leslie and my world changed. Farfisa never sounded better. My 'piano' went to a Univox thing into the Acoustic setup, which now had a gigantic cabinet we named 'Kronos' - after the bad horror flick.

Now into the early 70s, got a B3 and a proper Leslie. Got a Kustom PA for myself. FOH was not a thing. The band had a Standell PA - vocals only. I would mic my Leslie and put my Univox into the Kustom head, then put the columns on either side of the drummer (my brother). I thought it sounded great.

@1973 me & my brother put together our own band. Still B3/Leslie, but got my 2nd Wurlie now. Still the Kustom for stage sound. That band didn"t play out much.

Couple years later, I entered the world of DIs / Voice-of-the-Theater / sound men.....more professional bands. @1977-80 was the last of my giant amplification days. Two Gauss 15s in one cab; two Gauss 10s in another. Rack with mixer/eq/crossover and Crown power. By now I was using B3/Leslie, Yammi CP30, Yammi CS60, ARP Oddysey, Elka string machine.

Entering the 80s, everything got more reasonable as far as loudness & weight. But I was in my glory days 77-80 !! What a sound! What great music! What damage to my ears!

[J_tour]

we had a bass player who got by for years tumbling his bass cab end over end up and down stairs , said it was a snap ! of course , the cab was a ragged mess

 

I gotta know, is that for real?

 

Because yeah, I've known people like that, as I'm sure we all have, but I....well....bassists....

 

Never mind.

 

First genuine laugh of the day. Not a mere chuckle: did that a bunch already on the day job today, but that is effing funny.

 

[Piktor]

we had a bass player who got by for years tumbling his bass cab end over end up and down stairs , said it was a snap ! of course , the cab was a ragged mess

 

I gotta know, is that for real?

 

Because yeah, I've known people like that, as I'm sure we all have, but I....well....bassists....

 

Never mind.

 

First genuine laugh of the day. Not a mere chuckle: did that a bunch already on the day job today, but that is effing funny.

Oh dear. Using that method was the only way that I was able to move my 147 out of my basement by myself. I know, I know, but them again, I could not give a crap about how pretty the Leslie was and I AM the guy who tried to start a thread here years ago titled 'Dig My Wreck'. You should see my clav and my car...ð

 

[bill bosco]

yea , for real , was a tall cabinet , and deep , he called it " the refrigerator "

[Threadslayer]

Oh dear. Using that method was the only way that I was able to move my 147 out of my basement by myself. I know, I know, but them again, I could not give a crap about how pretty the Leslie was and I AM the guy who tried to start a thread here years ago titled 'Dig My Wreck'. You should see my clav and my car...ð

My poor B3 was a real warhorse by the time I was done with it...

 

[Mr. Nightime]

I always had my 147 on a hand truck. That way I could pull it up the stairs one at a time.

 

Loading it in and out of my van was simple. On a hand truck, I just moved it right to the side step, pushed it at the top, and it slid right in. Unloading, I would slide it down, and it would reach the ground just before falling off the side step. Simplicity.

 

I did have a bit of an issue last gig. I turned my hand truck into a cart, and loaded everything on it so I could move it in with one trip. This particular place is a long schelp. No stairs going the long way around, just a ramp. Short route, 6 stairs. Like I said earlier, I have enough trouble schlepping myself up stairs.

 

Normally it's not that bad. But, one of the tires on the hand truck was flat. Very hard to push that way. Luckily the drummer had a brother-in-law with him that acted as a roady, so working together, we got it in there.

 

 

 

[Threadslayer]

I always had my 147 on a hand truck. That way I could pull it up the stairs one at a time.

 

Two words: Lower. Back.

[Piktor]

I always had my 147 on a hand truck. That way I could pull it up the stairs one at a time.

 

Two words: Lower. Back.

My thoughts exactly. I"m not exactly a weed, but I don"t have the physical build to use brute force and a hand truck. Leverage (and a set of wheels that I permanently screwed to the Leslie) was my friend. I probably should have avoided carrying my Rhodes Stage piano by myself through my twenties, though. I have a couple of disk protrusions to show for that.

 

I realize that I never addressed the OP"s question: in the late seventies and through the eighties I used an Acoustic 450 with a 405 speaker cab, later adding a Roland Echo to mix. In my impoverished university/student debt days the Space Echo performed double duty as an effects unit and a keyboard mixer for a Rhodes and a Multimoog, as the Acoustic was a single channel affair. The 405 had four twelves and a pair of harsh sounding horns that I finally switched off. I eventually sold the cabinet to a college music student for the grand sum of twenty bucks Canadian (about $1.95 American ð).

[jazzpiano88]

I wonder what drummers did before the...

 

never mind .

[Outkaster]

On a side note. I just had my piano delivered by two guys. One guy was a beast and I never saw an old 600 pound upright get moved that way. I was moving and used a new moving company for my furniture upon a recommendation new house. I was surprised by the technique these guy's used as it was efficient and accurate with one dolly. On the other hand the company I usually used moved a a B3 for me with three guys and they were clueless.

[Threadslayer]

A talented piano mover is a joy to behold. One small dolly and technique, technique, technique. Brute strength optional.