The Last Bass Outpost

So.....despite the factory having been shut down by Fender a couple weeks ago and all the Hamer and Ovation and Guild staff getting pink slips....a few of the Hamer guys still managed to get into the factory to complete the last two custom orders than had been left.

Now THAT's dedication.

Anyway, here is a pic of the very last Hamer to come out of the New Hartford, CT factory.

IMO, it is rather fitting that it turned out to be a 12-string bass...one of the things Hamer created and left its mark on the music industry with. Also rather fitting it turned out to be a custom Jeff Ament Model B12A....since that model is painted with the black textured finish they use on the Ovation bowl back acoustics....and Ovation also was closed down by Fender.

So, the last Hamer also has a bit of Ovation in its DNA.

Also ironic the last instrument turned out to be a bass, since the very first instrument to carry a Hamer logo was a Flying Vee Bass that Joel Dantzig made for himself....and Hamer SN#001 was also a bass -- the Standard Explorer with the TBird pickups and bridge made for Martin Turner of Wishbone Ash.

So, it came full circle in the end. He'll, all three of those basses are even black!

One of the first, if not the first 4005...July 1965 SN. Restored a decade ago by Mark Arnquist, who was part of the Rickenbacker team back in the 70s that worked on McCartney's Ric Bass.
http://www.thecanteen.com/arnquist.html

This one was actually marked "4001-I" inside the control cavity, not "4005."  It also has factory original 4-knob controls, not the typical later 5-knob 4005 setup.

The collector who had it restored called in a favor and got John Hall to do a factory refin in Blue Boy back when it was still a Japan Market only color.  The factory replaced the original cracked pickguard with a new one and stuck on its "Made In the USA" sticker to give it their approval.

This is just TOO ridiculous to NOT post.


 Rapper Andre Johnson Cuts Off His Penis, Jumps Off Building in Alleged Suicide Attempt

http://www.eonline.com/news/532749/wu-tang-clan-rapper-cuts-off-his-penis-jumps-off-building-in-suicide-attempt


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My thoughts on the story....

The guy might go down as an international hero, if he triggered the trend that ended rap....and they ALL decided to imitate him and rip off their dicks and jump to their deaths!!


Rather fitting a rapper named Johnson would cut off his own Johnson ?


IF the guy had any marketing chops....he would immediately write a new song about the incident....call it something like "My Magic Johnson"....then release a music video for it that is a parody on the whole incident.


This guy went by the rap name "Christ Bearer" Maybe this was just his attempt to celebrate Easter and he was planning to rise from the dead Sunday but got the day wrong?

Had a tremendous haul of Mardi Gras beads and desirable painted coconuts from the ZULU parade floats. The ZULU coconuts are the Holy Grail of Mardi Gras throws. I've never caught one before but Tuesday, my GF and I walked away with THIRTY THREE of them!!  My bud who plays sax and marched in a dozen parades the last week saw our pile and just said "HOLY SH*T...Incredible!"

What happened was it was crazy cold for New Orleans. It came within a couple degrees of being the coldest Mardi Gras on record (which was in 1899) but ended up missing it. Plus by noon it was raining pretty hard. So, the crowds were not as heavy as usual. Plus we decided to stand in front of the infamous Iberville Projects, closed since hurricane Katrina but a murder hotspot? plus my GF and I are both over 6-ft and towered over anyone nearby.

So, a fun day....even a strange day. My GF was insistent on is stopping on to see her brother, who works at a gay bar in the French Quarter. In got to walk in wearing lots of beads and feathers, dripping wet with my hair down to my ass...and holding coconuts. To make it worse my GF ordered me a Southern Comfort, kalua and MILK.....a very "manly" drink to yell out.  HAHAHAHAHAHA.
And that wasn't even the strangest part of the day.

Pic of my haul with my New Orleans themed TBirds....

http://s1359.photobucket.com/user/mc2NYNO/media-full/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps0a5140ca.jpg.html

So....Jay Leno ended his 22 year stint as the host of the Tonight Show last Friday, as American media were doing a blitz on the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles landing in the U.S.

But only a guitar geek would spot an even cooler lining up of the planets.

Attached is a screen shot of the final moments of the Jay Leno farewell. Garth Brooks was behind the final curtain and played Jay out to his "Friends In Low Places."  Garth's bass player was wielding a Kubicki ExFactor, a rather odd bass for a country band.

Seeing the Kubicki reminded me that Phil Kubicki also made the Tele George Harrison used in The Beatles' final concert appearance as well.

Odd coincidence.

...just about a year since Phil passed away. Sure he woud've been stoked

Okay....since I just learned about old Ric Bass truss rods that I had no idea about in another post.

Here is another related question.

I played old Hagstrom 8-string basses back in the early 80s....full time for a few years, as hard as that might be to comprehend

I eventualy ended up with FIVE of them...two full-time on stage, one back-up and two for parts, as things broke on the main ones.
I tended to snap the tiny saddles at the point where the setscrew help them on the bridge...and also wore out tuners.

Anyway.....one day I stopped in mu local music store to have an electrical problem repaired on one. While the tech had it, I said to throw a new set of strings on it. He said come back to pick it up tomorrow....

When I showed up and took it out of the case to try out, the string action was like a half inch off the fretboard up at the body end. I flipped out and asked "WTF did you do to my bass?"  The store owner acted like it was a big surprise. He ended up telling me to leave the bass and his tech would look at it.

When I returned a couple days later, I was told they tried to adjust the truss rod with no luck. Then they tried to heat press the neck, again with no luck. They said it was a mystery and there was nothing they could do to repair it.

That bass was my main player or a few years. Custom trans blackburst finish..Billy Sheehan liked it so much he had the same shop make him a dupe!  I still have it, for sentimental reasons but it unplayable. Before this incident, they action was the lowest of any bass I had owned. Played incredible.  At one point I had put all new truss od nuts in all my Hag basses in the 80s. They were some mini metric slothead screws. I hunted down the correct size replacements but with hex heads because the slotheads tended to crack/strip. Those worked great for years,

Anyone ever have a similar problem with old Hagstrom Basses? I cannot imagine that huge aluminum T rod theyused int eh necks going bad, so the bass never got repaired. Sure would be great to finally make it playable again, just to pay it back for all the use I got out of it.

https://soundcloud.com/bobandtom/band-pecking-order-donnie?in=bobandtom/sets/the-bob-tom-free-laughs

What Gibson cases will fir a 1974 Les Paul Signature Bass?

One of mine is in one of those clunky Epi Cassady cases and I've been trying to find a correct case for ages.

I've seen them in both a form fit 70s case and a rectangular case...not sure which was the original.

Any leads?