Nice price on Les Paul Bass at Bass NW

[Dave W]

From the Reranch refinishing web site:  TV Yellow was developed by Gibson in the early '50s to allow a "white" guitar to be played under the intense light required for black and white TV without the color overpowering the camera. ...

Absolutely, totally false. The whole story got started because of an unconfirmed claim by some unnamed guy somewhere who said he once walked in on a live TV production in the 50s where everyone was wearing yellow to show up white. It may have happened once, but I can tell you from first hand observation that this was never a regular practice. Besides, NBC and CBS started broadcasting in color in 1954 even though there were almost no color sets.

As if Gibson would do this on their cheapest student model (3/4 scale only for the first couple of years) anyway. They never expected anyone to play it on TV.

[Barklessdog]

Rock music is steeped in its own lore, like the "brown note". These stories continue to live and be perpetuated, even though most of them are fallacies. When one digs to the very bowels of a story you usually come up empty handed.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Rock music is steeped in its own lore, like the "brown note". These stories continue to live and be perpetuated, even though most of them are fallacies. When one digs to the very bowels of a story you usually come up empty handed.

The brown note exists, though it's extremely unlikely any rock concert could ever get low enough and loud enough to cause it. The episode of Mythbusters where they "debunked" it was set up to do exactly that. Their "subwoofer chamber" had two speakers facing each other, thus in the middle where they placed the test subject, the amplitude of the low frequecies was nulled. France uses servo-driven subwoofers with directional waveguides mounted in vans to disperse riots. Guess what happens to the people it's aimed at? 

[drbassman]

 

[Dave W]

Remind me never to go to a street demonstration in Paris.

[Deathshead]

Absolutely, totally false. The whole story got started because of an unconfirmed claim by some unnamed guy somewhere who said he once walked in on a live TV production in the 50s where everyone was wearing yellow to show up white. It may have happened once, but I can tell you from first hand observation that this was never a regular practice. Besides, NBC and CBS started broadcasting in color in 1954 even though there were almost no color sets.

As if Gibson would do this on their cheapest student model (3/4 scale only for the first couple of years) anyway. They never expected anyone to play it on TV.

Im not trying to try to go on one side or the other on this argument at all, but watching alot of very early tv shows, those cameras seemed to have alot of issues with white, but not as bad as reflecting chrome, as we know was on allot of basses back then, man, that chrome would blow the whole picture out, lol

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Video cameras and videotape, as late as the mid 80's, had serious problems with luminance and chrominance saturation. Any extremely bright light or reflective color would overload the optic voltage convertors in cameras and they would "hang" momentarily. Video tape would overload and 'ghost trace' hot images.

 Tube cameras can actually be burned out by sustained bright light. That happened to NASA alot in the lunar missions where they were relying on remote-irised cameras. In the time it took the radio signal to reach the moon and iris down a camera that was too hot, it was already burnt out. To see what it does to video tape, watch anything shot "live" in the 70's. The original Dark Shadows is a prime example.

As to the veracity of the story behind "TV Yellow," most things in black and white days were shot to film, which has no problem with white.

[Dave W]

As a kid I had occasion to be in TV studios a dozen or more times during live broadcasts. Whatever problems cameras had, and I'm sure they did, I never once saw anyone wearing yellow as a substitute for white.

[Deathshead]

As a kid I had occasion to be in TV studios a dozen or more times during live broadcasts. Whatever problems cameras had, and I'm sure they did, I never once saw anyone wearing yellow as a substitute for white.

ya that sounds crazy to purposefully wear yellow, for any other reason other than liking the color, lol

[Psycho Bass Guy]

As a kid I had occasion to be in TV studios a dozen or more times during live broadcasts. Whatever problems cameras had, and I'm sure they did, I never once saw anyone wearing yellow as a substitute for white.

Yup. Just clarifying the facts behind the myth. It's bullshit.

[drbassman]

I still have a love affair with vintage white long scale LP basses.  The necks just don't appeal to me and my short fingers.  I've pretty much decided to build my own semi-hollow LP bass in the near future and it will be vintage white with a really skinny, jazz bass-like neck.

Or maybe I'll use that special TV yellow for all of my guest appearances on the telly.

[Dave W]

Just make sure it's a black and white broadcast. 

[drbassman]

Just make sure it's a black and white broadcast. 

Hey I live in rural NY, we have lots of B&W tellies!

[Highlander]

Colour television...? you have colour television...? wonders never cease... we have to make do with Pathe News...