Musically Speaking

When I was 13 or 14 my sister got this idea to record her kids while they were young. With this in mind she bought a Wollensak 1/4″ tape recorder. This was a great idea – only she had no clue how to operate it. But you need to realize it was a different world then – you didn’t just pusWollensakRevere3h the button. Being technically capable back then I learned how to use it and started recording all kinds of things. Being in bands I found the perfect thing to do with it. I remember carrying that thing from where I lived on Brian St down to Ridge Rd – to the 414 Club because there was a new group in town – The Show Stoppers. A great group, an instant hit in the area. I don’t remember all the members but at the time I recorded them Bat McGrath and Don Potter where in the group. So one night I drag it down to the 414, set it up on one of the tables and ran a plug over to the wall. It was such a new thing to do nobody questioned it – it was a curiosity thing. I would drag that thing everywhere.

It wasn’t a great machine compared to today I can take my iPad and get a better quality recording – but for the times it was way cool. At one point it developed a squeal – there was a felt pad that held the recording tape against the recording head. That developed a squeal that if you pressed on it it would go away for a bit. But, it always came back. So some of the recordings have that in there. I’ve tried filtering it out but it’s in the totally wrong frequency range. After music discoed out and the family started I was at Kodak and as luck would have it ended up running the Magnetics Lab working with tape of all kinds and sizes.

Some of the later records get a bit better but the majority are with the old Wollensak. A couple years ago when doing another “cleaning” of the garage I ran across my box of tapes. Hadn’t thought about them in years. I thought I check them out and see if they were any good. Talk about oldies but moldies – some of the tapes were actually moldy. During my divorces they spent a few years in my brother Mikes barn, then in various garages.

Gunthers Bus was formed in late 1967. We practiced at the at the Masonic Temple / Auditorium on Main St in Rochester. I don’t remember the practice being more than a few weeks before we had our first night out at Duffy’s Hotel which was in the triangular building at the corner of St. Paul, Bittner St and the ramps to the inner loop. I was using my Hammond Model A that I got from John Marshal High School and a C melody sax. Starting from the first night for a few week the place was packed. Actually for as long as I was with the group the place was full.

The first night of opening week we pulled up in Gunthers (owner of Duffy’s) actual bus – where the name Gunthers Bus came from. At that time the band included myself on organ and sax, Art Foti, Jerry Cummings, Tom Bittle and Joe Dasheneau, I think, memory of it shakey. I was only with them a couple months and then left when I got the offer to join The Fabulous Furys and one of the best band jobs ever – over 2 1/2 years in the same place ie: didn’t have to move my Hammond and Leslie. These were recorded with the old Wollensak.

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