The Steel Guitar Forum

NBC, NYC 1928 Joe Green (on xylo)

Hi Andy,

Nice Pic.

The Only Indication That This Is An Old Photo Is The "Sepia Tone" Picture & The Old Style Microphones.

BTW: Is That A Bass Banjo On The Right Or A Banjo
Style Bass?

Roger

Looks like a "Timpani Bajo".

Found this on the internet, evidently Gibson made some of these instruments. I'll bet they're hard to locate now.
Keith.

Are those mics set up for the "Blumlein" Effect ?

I wonder if that is Andy Sannella on Hawaiian guitar? I know they worked together.

What do you think?

Michael Kienhofer wrote:Are those mics set up for the "Blumlein" Effect ?

I'm no historian but if this is 1928 then stereophonic sound is in it's very very baby stages. If this were being broadcast, I think it'd probably be done in mono, where problems of phase cancellation are exacerbated. The closely spaced sets, I think, are more likely positioned as such to reduce phase cancellation, rather than produce a wide stereo image. Willing to stand corrected of course.

No stereo. Just multiple microphones to allow
for wider coverage. The microphones could have been mixed or just alternated. Announcer on one,
Soloist on the other.
The two microphones on each stand were most likely
connected in parallel.
That looks like a publicity photo. The placement of the microphones in the actual broadcast was probably quite different.

Andy S. is a good bet. That's his era and his location. He looks a bit more portly there but that's not a history detective deal breaker.

Andy S. is a good bet. That's his era and his location. He looks a bit more portly there but that's not a history detective deal breaker.

Thanks Adam and Blake !

Here's how this type of band might have sounded. Steel solo at about 1:35 ...

https://archive.org/details/AndySannell ... adAboutYou

Wonderful clip! Thanks

Microphone placement was critical back in those days. It was an art. A good engineer knew how far (or how close) each instrument and vocalist should be from the mic, where they should stand in the room, etc. For recording sessions the entire band played the entire song start to finish, any mistakes... play the whole song over again. I've heard of bands doing 20 or more takes of a song in a session!