FCC Update

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ceased debate and announced an end date to the music industry’s use of the 700 MHz broadcast band. The FCC reorganized the UHF television spectrum ‘white spaces’ used by many wireless microphones, 2-way headsets, in-ear monitor systems, wireless guitar devices, etc.

Pressure to use the 700 MHz spectrum by computer related mobile devices in a rapidly expanding industry and by a public hungry for rich content streaming was sufficient to help drive the FCC decision making process.

The FCC has ordered all wireless equipment operating within the 700 MHz bandwidth (698 to 806 MHz) to cease operations by June 12th, 2010.  No other bandwidth is affected.  The cease and desist applies to all wireless systems users even if they currently have a valid FCC license.

What Happens to the Existing Equipment that’s still out there:

Shure has offered its customers an option:  If they purchase new Shure wireless equipment (that complies with the new FCC regulations), the Shure company will rebate some portion of the value of the noncompliant equipment, if it is returned to Shure.  Their offer appears to extend to other companies equipment as well.  This appears to be a clever business move to get some new customers. See the Shure website for details.

AKG rolled out a rebate program shortly after the FCC announcement. The program was aimed at existing AKG product users and expired during May 2009. They claim to have alerted their suppliers and distributers. The problem is, the suppliers and distributers did not have an effective way to educate and communicate with their retailers, so the information seldom reached the end-users. In most cases, retailers are still unaware of the FCC ruling. To solve the concerns of their customers, AKG decided to simply lower the cost of their systems to reflect the values of the rebate program. For example, their WMS450 system that retailed for approximately $550, now costs $370 to $450.

According to the Samson website, their Airline Guitar products are still available despite their specifications indicating the use the spectrum between 801 and 805 MHz. There is a consumer alert in small print at the bottom of the web page with a link to the FCC website.  There is no clear indication of rebates, exchange or new compliant equipment. If you contact Samson, they will tell you that they do have an exchange and rebate program and will send you the information in PDF format. The jist is: recently purchased units (within the past 6 months +/-) will be replaced with new compliant versions. Older units will get a rebate if you purchase new Samson first. The rebates are in the range of $15 to $25 per unit. Contact Samson for details.

We have no details for Nady, AudioTechnica, Telex or other wireless equipment.

L Wyeth
March 9th, 2010

The Issue:

Wireless microphones and wireless guitar devices are going to begin competing for the same bandwidth as digital television and unlicensed wireless devices like portable phones, mobile PDAs and gaming devices. All these new devices need to be able to send and receive information through the airwaves and to be able to do it securely.  Not only are there many more devices demanding to use bandwidth but they have increasing needs for dense use.  In other words: your iPhone is capable of streaming audio and video over the airwaves. That takes up a lot of airwave ‘space’.  This is only one example of many different types of devices.

Broadcast bandwidth is finite: there is a definable amount.  Traditionally, the available bandwidth has been sliced up and allocated to specific uses. Television used the most and therefore got the lion’s share of available space.  The rest was split between AM radio, FM stereo radio, police, fire, air traffic and emergency frequencies and a large chunk for military use.  Some was set aside for public use for radio operated toys and similar devices.

Technology marches on – as always.  Houses started to use remote phones, cellular technology caught on and grew like wildfire, bluetooth, hand-held communicators, and so on.

The music industry settled on something known as the ‘white spaces’ between UHF and VHF television allocations.  This space has been successfully and dependably used for wireless microphones, headsets, guitar devices, etc.  Full frequency broadcast of sound is reasonable dense – it requires a fair amount of clean airspace.  The available ‘white spaces’ have worked well for decades.

Major productions like large concerts have a large number of wireless microphones, headsets and instrument devices all operating simultaneously and separately (without interfering with each other).  Not only are there performers onstage but the stage crews also operate with 2-way wireless communication devices in order to be able to coordinate the show.  Every one of these devices needs to work dependably without interfering with any other device.  Needless to say, all the devices need to operate without picking up any other air-born signals (TV, FM or AM radio, police, fire, emergency, air traffic control, military, sport, etc.).

What Happened:

On November 4th, 2008, the FCC voted 5-0 to approve new uses for white spaces.  Their intention is to provide more bandwidth for Wi-Fi and other technologies and to increase their reliability.  This is supported by the many Wi-Fi device manufacturers and users.  Unfortunately, this is the space used by music industry devices.  The new challenge is for music industry wireless device makers is figure out a way to keep the millions of Blackberries, iPhones, and Wi-Fi routers from disrupting wireless users.

It will probably be at least two years before any of these new wireless internet devices are deployed, giving music industry wireless users time to prepare.  Mark Brunner, senior director of public and government relations at Shure has said: “The FCC has been receptive to many of our suggestions.  We have also seen nothing to suggest that wireless users won’t still have access to the entire UHF spectrum. Existing systems will continue to function.”

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin stressed that precautions would be taken to head off potential problems.  He said: “We have been cautious in our approach.  Significantly, the Commission embarked on extraordinary testing.  For months, both proponents and opponents of opening the white spaces participated in laboratory and field testing conducted by our engineers.”  He also noted that all “unlicensed” white space devices must include “geolocation capability” and “spectrum sensing technology” that will “tell the device what spectrum may be used at that location.”  This is a neat idea but it may not work well in the ‘real world’.

The change-over date is February 17th, 2009 for changes to digital television broadcast in the core TV spectrum.  The FCC ruling means that all the other digital devices can begin using  the white space spectrum at that time.

One of the key issues to be decided in the coming months is the certification process for geolocation capability and spectrum sensing technology.  A coalition of several hundred artists, running the gamut from Miley Cyrus to Megadeth, have made their concerns clear, noting, “This solution (geolocation and spectrum sensing) is wholly insufficient for live performance productions.  Shows in 60,000-seat stadiums or even 250-seat nightclubs would be brought to a screeching halt every time one of these new unlicensed devices requires a sensing patch or when the device owner decided to modify his or her device with an aftermarket power booster.”  William Wrightson, Guitar Center’s vice president of merchandising, presented similar concerns to the FCC, writing: “We believe parties who support the introduction of new TV-based devices have the burden to demonstrate that the new devices will not interfere with existing use of this spectrum.” The Sports Technology Alliance, which includes the NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, the NHL, and the NBA, was even more critical, writing, “The FCC’s own engineers and data fail to demonstrate that the technology works better than 50% of the time in a real-world environment, and in many cases failed miserably.  We therefore request that the Commission not authorize the demonstrably unreliable technology of spectrum sensing as a basis for permitting the production of potentially millions of interference-generating devices.”  Others who have joined in requesting that the FCC delay allowing unlicensed devices access to the TV spectrum include Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, NY), Pastor Rick Warren, Dolly Parton, Guns N’ Roses, the Grand Ole Opry, the Shubert Theater Organization, Harrah’s Entertainment, the American Federation of Musicians, the Country Music Association, and The Recording Academy.

Shure engineers are exploring a variety of alternative wireless technologies. It would appear that technological solutions can be found but they may be at the expense of the owners of the current devices (that may no longer work dependably). There is a monetary incentive for wireless device manufacturers to come up with new solutions since that will require replacement of all  existing equipment.  The existing systems are not cheap but may soon be obsolete.

Information assembled from numerous news articles and industry white papers.
Special note of credit to musictrades.com – The Music Trades Online
Ⓒ 2008, Leonard Wyeth

I had to have a Les Paul.  I mean, all the Great Players had one; Jimmy Page, Michael Bloomfield, Eric Clapton, and even Jeff Beck had one by the end of the Yardbirds. I cursed my 1951 Telecaster (yes I know, I’m an idiot) and resented every note it played (not knowing most of the songs I admired by Bloomfield in the Butterfield Blues Band and Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin’s first LP were played on a Telecaster).  What mattered to me was every picture I saw had my heroes playing a Les Paul. The only problem was that Gibson had stopped making them and there were none to be found. I called Manny’s in New York and got on a ‘want list’ for a used one.

Then it happened: Gibson started manufacturing the Les Paul again in 1968.  I think it cost me $395.  I bought a Goldtop reissue because of the famous Black & White picture of Bloomfield with his 1950’s Goldtop. Bloomfield held it so close to his face, I bet he got spit on it.  I made payments and by the time it was paid-off, I had traded it for something else.  The guitar weighed a ton and a half.  I was a skinny kid and did not enjoy the pain in my shoulder at the end of a three-hour high school dance gig. I put up with it for a while and then traded it off.  I actually cannot remember exactly what I traded it for. I think I traded it at Goldie & Libro in New Haven CT for a used 360-12 Mapleglo Rickenbacker.  (I vaguely recall trading a Rickenbacker 450-12 trying to pay off the Goldtop).

This might have been the end of my Les Paul lust had it not been for Woodstock.  Everyone has a Woodstock story. I chose not to go because the thought of three days without a real toilet was more than I could bear. The Woodstock image that has stuck in my mind to this day is the full-page picture of Leslie West in Time magazines Woodstock Special: he was holding a Les Paul Junior.  I had never seen one before and this guitar seemed to be a guitar of absolute beauty and simplicity.  I had to find one (Imagine that!).

Almost a year after Woodstock, I met Ed Cherry. He was a very good guitar player and collector from Woodbridge (see my blog, My First Telecaster).  He had a mid 1950’s single cutaway Les Paul Junior and was willing to trade for what was left of my 1951 Telecaster.  We made the trade and I kept the Les Paul Junior until I found a 1952 Goldtop.  I was born in 1952 – It had to be a 1952 Goldtop. Unfortunately, I was never able to get used to the way the strings went under the bridge. At some point, I sold it and replaced it with a refinished Goldtop from 1954 that had it’s two P-90’s swapped out for PAF’s.  Now THAT was a guitar! I have to admit I miss that guitar greatly.  It played like butter and was not too heavy.  You would think I would keep it…

I traded the 1954 Goldtop for a pre-war Martin 000-21 during one of my acoustic phases (which seem to dominate my life.  Anyway, back to my Les Pauls). My next Les Paul was a red double cutaway from 1959 with a neck like two baseball bats.  I kept this guitar for a very long time, adding Les Paul Juniors and TV Models to my stash.  At one time, I had 2 cherry double cutaways, one TV double cutaway, one sunburst single cutaway and a cherry SG LP Junior.  Slowly, one by one, I sold them off as I moved farther and farther away from electric guitar.  I miss some of those instruments…

I now have a 1956 TV Junior with an added patent sticker humbucker in the neck position and a refinished 1960 double Junior.  While neither have great collectible value I love them both. In moments of weakness I lust after a 1952 Les Paul; built the year I was born.  I’d like to find one with issues that I would not mind re-setting the neck and adding a stop tailpiece to, yeah that’s it dream I hang on to.

In the beginning, I wasn’t a big fan of Fender guitars.  My second guitar was a 1965 Fender Mustang. It wasn’t my first choice. I bought it based on how much money my grandmother was willing to give me for a guitar.  It was my mom’s mother who was always there for such things but she did have her limits; and a Mustang was it.

The thing that got me thinking about a Fender was my newest obsession: The Yardbirds.  I bought their LP, “Having A Rave Up’ and set about learning all the songs on the live side.  My band started playing extended versions of “Smoke Stack Lightning’ & ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’.  It was at that point I started staring at the cover with Jeff Beck holding a maple board Telecaster (Actually, it turned out was an Esquire; but his hand was over the neck pickup…). 

I did the research, saved some money and was ready to buy my first Fender Telecaster.  Once again my dad and I went to Caruso Music in New London CT.  The problem was: all the Telecasters that were in-stock had rosewood fingerboards.  I wanted no part of that.  The guy at he shop said he would make some calls and get back to me. A week or so later I got a call saying that I could custom order one with a maple fingerboard but that I would have to put $100 down first. 

I arranged for my dad to drive me up the next day. It must have been a Thursday because they were open late.   My dad had to pick me up from my part time job.  It was a hot day and as we hit the road my dad suggested we get a soda at the next gas station.  The soda machine was on the side of the building and there was a window next to the machine.  I looked in the window and there it was the back of a Telecaster.  I walked into the gas station and there it was, a very beat maple board Fender Telecaster.  I asked the guy if it was for sale and he said no.  It seemed that when Interstate 95 was being cut through Connecticut someone abandoned their car on the unfinished highway.  The tow service at the gas station got the call to come remove the car.  After sitting on their lot for a few years, they decided to junk it.  Before towing the car away they popped the trunk and there was the Telecaster with no case, just lying there in the trunk.  The gas-guy thought it was a 1957, he said he enjoyed banging on it.  The guitar looked like the grease monkeys never bothered to clean their hands before playing it.  As I walked out the door he said, “yeah, I’d never sell it, I’d have to get at least $75 before I would even think of letting her go”.  Well you never saw someone pull out the money and run as fast as I did. When I got home my mother cleaned the guitar, she would not even let me touch it until she had gone over the whole guitar, even taking off the neck in the process and noting the 1951 date.

Now for the details as I remember them:  The guitar was pencil dated on the neck: 1951, the body was red with a white Bakelite pickguard, flat head screws, my guess was the guitar was sent back to Fender in the late 50’s for a custom finish and a new pickguard.   The guitar was in the trunk from sometime around 1960 and at the garage until I bought it in 1967. 

 I replaced the Fender Telecaster sometime in 1969 with a Gibson Goldtop reissue.  I sold it to a friend for $75 after a high school dance where we played.  I later got it back in a trade for a Vox Mark VI. Sadly the second time I owned it, all I got back was the body, neck, tuners, back pickup, output jack and bridge.  I wired the rear pickup straight to the output jack and played the guitar that way until I traded it for my first vintage Les Paul Junior.

By Brian Wolfe

I don’t recall when the notion of having an acoustic guitar first entered my mind but I think it may have been after hearing Bob Dylan. It might have been Donovan; but I’d rather think it was Dylan that encouraged me to start playing an acoustic guitar.  The first two songs I learned were ‘Masters of War’ and ‘Try For the Sun’ - so I’ll leave it at that.  My first acoustic was a Mosrite - kind of a mini-jumbo.  I think it had a zero fret and a metal nut like their electrics.  It had great action and a fast neck. It was 1968, the summer before my first year of high school and my two loves where: that Mosrite and my 1966 450-12 Rickenbacker.  The desire for the Rickenbacker was easy to remember: that unmistakable sound of Roger McGuinn playing ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ with the Byrds.

Both guitars were bought at Caruso Music in New London.  At some point during the next year I got it into my head that I needed a Martin guitar.  I was aware that Dylan and Donovan where both playing Gibsons. Dylan played a Gibson J-50 and later a modified Nick Lucas and Donovan a Gibson J-45. No one I knew played a Martin that I can recall, so I’m not sure who put the idea into my head.  I do remember my dad coming home one night and telling me about a guy he met at The Woodlawn, an upscale bar in Madison CT, that told him he had just received a Martin guitar he had been waiting two years to get. He said that if you had a Martin, you would never need another guitar.

In any event, by the middle of my second year of High School I had saved up $210 and I was ready to buy my first Martin. During the time spent saving money, I started meeting and talking to ‘folkies’ that told me to play as many Martins as I could before buying one because some were better than others.  It was not simple advice to follow since there were only two local shops that sold Martin guitars: Caruso Music in New London and Goldie Libro in New Haven.  Each store treated their Martin guitars as if they were solid gold and kept them stashed away out of reach. They would only take them out if they felt you had the money to actually buy one. They appeared to base this decision on how old you were and how you looked. Scruffy teenagers usually didn’t make the cut.  Even if you had the money and were ready to buy: they managed to make the process difficult and stressful by only letting you play one.  I did, however, end up leaving Goldie Libro with a 00-18 Martin guitar without a case. The case was extra and I just didn’t have the money. I did get a heavy duty plastic bag to carry it home in. It seems ironic that they treated the instrument with such respect and then let it leave in a glorified trash bag.

I don’t recall what happened to the Mosrite. It didn’t matter once I had the     00-18.  That’s how fickle an instrument love affair can be. I took the Martin everywhere, even to school.  I never bothered to get a case.  I bought a very cool leather strap from a hippie leather shop in Ivoryton CT and carried that guitar on my back. It was a part of me.

Everything was fine. I was learning lots of Dylan songs and even writing my own and then one day one of my teachers said, “I have a 00-18 Martin just like yours”. He brought his Martin 00-18 to school for me to see. That day my life changed.  His guitar was nothing like mine!  First of all, his had a bright red pickguard and bindings.  His Martin’s tuners had beveled edges. My Martin  00-18 had a black pickguard and bindings with what now looked like cheap tuners.  His had Grover Sta-Tites; mine had Grover Slimlines.  I picked his guitar up and it seemed to be light as a feather, half the weight of mine. In that moment, I decided that light guitars ruled and heavy ones were… well: heavy and nowhere near as cool.  His Martin had much more projection than mine and seemed to be more open sounding.  I now know it was older: more played-in and had gained beautiful overtones with age.  As we sat there playing each other’s guitars I decided to offer an even trade: my brand new Martin for his older ‘more beat up’ one.  He said that it would not be right for a teacher to enter into a trade of this nature with one of his under-age students. I sat there thinking of how long it would take me to get to the principal’s office, quit school and get back and make the trade.  He said, “Besides, I like my like mine better”.

I think this is where my love for vintage guitars started.  The strange thing is: in reality, his Martin was only about eight years old at the time.  I didn’t figure this out right away.  There were no reference books and few knowledgeable vintage guitar dealers who had any interest in sharing their knowledge.

I modified my 00-18 in an effort to make it more vintage.  I pulled off its black pickguard and took some old ebony bridge pins from an old parlor guitar I had bought at an antique shop (I may have unknowingly destroyed an old Maurer parlor guitar).

On a trip to Jacksonville Florida I met a friend of my brother named Eddy Hart.  He introduced me to the possibilities of alternate tunings. He showed me Drop D, Double Drop D and G tuning.  When I got back to Connecticut, I bought a set of Grover Rotomatics and put them on my guitar in an effort to make tuning changes faster and easier.  I used this bastardized Martin guitar until in my junior year. I then found a late 1800’s 0-28 in an antique shop for about $40.  It had ivory fraction pegs for gut strings and in my complete lack of knowledge of the history of guitars I tried to put Martin Bronze strings on it.  To say it would not stay in tune would be a complete understatement.  Shortly after getting this guitar I saw an ad in the Village Voice for a shop in New York City that bought Martin and Gibson acoustic guitars.  I responded to the ad, which turned out to be a leather shop named The Lee Shop, run by Lee Erdburg. He was very interested in my little 0-28 guitar. 

At this point I had been visiting New York City on a regular basis: buying and selling electric guitars on west 48^th street, but I had never bought and sold acoustic guitars and this would be my first trip to Greenwich Village.  I got off the train in Grand Central Station and walked to Lee’s shop on Greenwich Ave.  He thought I was crazy.  He said no one in New York walks that far.  That’s why they built the subway.  I told him I grew up in Clinton CT and we walked three miles for a coke and thought it was fun.  After looking my little guitar over, he decided he wanted it and told me that it was a 0-28 Martin.  He had about twenty vintage Martins for sale in his shop and he gave me a quick lesson on the different models and which years were the best to buy.  I traded him for a pre-war 000-18 and was well on my way to becoming an obsessed collector of vintage Martin guitars.

I was born in April of 1952 and own a 1952 00-18 Martin made sometime around April of 52 as a tribute to my birth and my first Martin guitar. Over the course of the last forty years I have owned, played, dealt and traded more Martin guitars than I can count but I sometimes wonder where my first 00-18 Martin guitar is now.  If you see a late 60’s Martin 00-18 with a missing or replaced pickguard, poorly fitted Grover Rotomatics and miss matched vintage ebony bridge pins it may be my first Martin guitar.