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Who else misses the 1980s?


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Reading the thread about the 1985 Marshall made me think, "Man, I miss the 1980s!"

What a great time to go to high school that was.  Back then, my only problem was that I couldn't afford a Hamer!  I used to drool over them at the local guitar store, though.

In the late 1980s, I had a Yamaha SE203M and a Fender Champ 12.  When I got enough money together, my first good guitar was a Fender Strat Plus, and me first real amp was a Mesa .50 Caliber.

yamaha se203m.JPG

fender champ 12.jpg

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Whoa, that's pretty close to my story.  I started electric with a Squire Strat (super nice guitar I didn't appreciate as much as I should have) and a Fender Sidekick 10.  This resulted in a terrible sound, so I put on a Floyd and replaced the pickups with SD Alnico Pro IIs.  Still bad until I saved to get a Boogie Studio .22+ in '86.  By then I was hooked.

 

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To be honest, I’m not missing anything. My life today is way better and richer than it were back then. Although, I had a great time in the 80s.

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The 80's were a mixed bag for me. Loved what was going on musically and with rock guitar. Still think back fondly on all the tail I got in the 80's as well. But like the OP, I couldn't afford all the super cool gear that came out then!

I bought a used '76 CBS Strat (with the gawd awful micro tilt neck) in '83 and then augmented that with a Kramer Focus 1000 because that was the epitome of entry level 80's rock guitar at that time. More importantly, it had a Floyd on it. :PI eventually sold the Kramer, used the $ to help pay for the mods to the Strat which I took to Dana Sutcliffe of the Alverez Scoop fame(?)  He hot-rodded it to do most of what the other super Strats could do- after he removed micro tilt mechanism and shimmed the neck,  he added a Floyd, HB in the bridge, coil tapped it, and flattened the neck radius from 7.25 to around 12" if memory serves. I managed to snag a few other decent axes in the late 80's- a purple BC Rich ST III with a maple board, a Charvel Model 2, a single p'up SG 😲 and a used red Ibby RG 560(?) that gave me a lot of good music.

I played thru a couple of different Peaveys- a Bandit and Deuce, finally arriving at a VTM 60 head on a matching 4 x 12 cab in the late 80's. In the early 90's I had one of the first 5150's. I wish I still had that thing. A good working condition first series is worth a small fortune!  I couldn't afford rack gear/effects so it was a Boss delay stomp box, a wah and sometimes, a Boss chorus.

Sadly, Hamer didn't come into the picture until the mid 90's in the form of a used MIK Cent as I couldn't afford even the used USAs at that time. By the mid 90's I got my first USA Diablo and the addiction was established.

But I do have fond recollections of the 80's even if it likely wasn't as magical as reminiscence might paint it. The music and guitars were larger than life and almost wholly out of my reach! :P

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, gorch said:

To be honest, I’m not missing anything. My life today is way better and richer than it were back then. Although, I had a great time in the 80s.

Yes.   Would agree.  Saw a lot of bands but I think maturity wise I was probably a late bloomer.  (Musician with sketchy jobs finally graduated college and grew up in 89). 90’s and onward much better.   

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No affiliation with this stuff, but since we're going down Memory Lane....

They still make Zubaz pants y'know, for those who miss (or missed) the late '80's and '90's, and/or who want to embarass the crap out of the grandkids:

https://zubaz.com/estore/bottoms/department/pants

I stumbled across these online recently, it's a surprisingly comprehensive lineup of figures, from Alex Lifeson to ZZ Top, fun for all ages and just the right size for stocking stuffers:

https://www.popinabox.us/funko/pop-vinyl/pop-rocks.list

Angus and Prince may or may not be life-size.  :rolleyes: ;)

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I miss the diversity of musical styles on the charts and the relative absence of songs with drum machine rhythm tracks and autotuned vocals. There seemed to be more actual human performances on records of all styles then. 

Guitars were a different story, as it was damn near impossible to get started with import gear that was of good quality for a modest price. My first rig was a plywood-bodied Kramer Striker with the Godawful pot metal non-locking Floyd Rose II and a squealing, unpotted "Powersound" humbucker into a Crate G-10. By the time I graduated high school, I'd saved enough scratch to upgrade to a G-60 and two Charvel Model 2. 

Today's market makes it possible to get into a nice rig with a relatively small investment--a vast improvement over the 1980s. But the current Top 40 (and top streaming/download lists) are full of processed dung...much more so than 30+ years ago.

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17 minutes ago, hamerhead said:

I had hair in the '80s, so I miss that.

Pffft- hair is overrated. Makes you do stupid stuff...  Oh wait, bald's not much better. ;)

 

AMVET V Close.png

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The 80’s was a great time for me, I was in my late 20’s early 30’s and making my living playing guitar. 
Played ton’s of Top 40’s music and I think every bar/club in the midwest. Made ok money, lived on the road constantly, partied constantly. It was the most fun time of my life!!! 
I played a used Strat then a Charvel Mdl 5, thru a Boogie Mark ll, started out with just the Boogie Foot switch. Ended up with a midi controlled rack of effects. Lot’s of development in guitar sounds and effects thru the 80’s!! 

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While I had a good time, I thought the 80s pretty much sucked, at least musically.  Thank god for punk rock, otherwise there was nothing to get excited about.  Or at least until I dropped acid at a dead show in 85, that at least gave me something to keep me entertained for the remainder of the decade. 

 

As for gear, I was strictly a drummer for the 1st half, and had a Ludwig kit with too many drums and no bottom hoops on any of the toms, Crap.  When I first got into guitars, they were of the cheap yamaha acoustic variety, and still managed to get stolen all the same.  Yup, the 80s sucked, not that 2020 is any better, but that is an entirely different matrix.

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Except for a 2 1/2-month spillover into the '90s, my entire high school and college careers occurred in the '80s. But the decade I truly miss was 1985 - 1995. Those were the salad days.

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2 hours ago, Ed Rechts said:

I was rocking same in 1983. Not a full blown Kentucky waterfall, mind you, but still liked showing my ears off I guess

 

Yep. Me, too. Of course, to get the full '80s effect, one had to rock a finely groomed mustache, as well.

 

Mullet.jpg

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