The Last Bass Outpost

‘It's kind of an an odyssey, isn't it?

Yes it is, I guess if you live long enough it all becomes stories “o) There have been a few seasons when I didn’t play the bass, but those times were filled with guitar. I soon discovered that I understood the bass in a way I would never understand the guitar. It’s like the guitar is 90% what you do with your fingers where as the bass is more like 40% fingers and 60% corralling all the other instruments into a cohesive sound. It’s almost unexplainable.

Nice looking P, they are amazing instruments.

My old P-Special could stand a new coat of paint and polishing of all the brass hardware, but the miles and years of blood, sweat and tears, as well as magic would be erased from it’s story. I think I’ll let the next owner worry about that “o) I’m probably and inch shorter from playing that bass for so many years.

Mom and Dad gave me a 1969 Fender Bassman for my 16th birthday. It was huge. 50 watts and 2X12 cabinet. It was cool to finally have an amplifier. One of the other reasons I chose the Framus over the Hofner was it’s acoustic volume was better. It wasn’t until we moved back to the states that I needed an amp. In Germany our drummers father had a band and lent us equipment for gigs and rehearsal. It was stollen when my buddy and my house got broken into.

I purchased a Fender Bassman 410 a few years later when I got a gig in a blues band in Pittsburgh. I used this Bassman up until 1985. I was really happy getting these two amps, but it didn’t take long to realize how anemic they were for stage work.

Shortly after I got a real job, from which I retired 30 years later, I started looking for a real bass amp. There was a music store in Miami that had some great stuff, he had a new amp deigned by Steve W. Rabe “SWR” named the Studio 220, the SWR labeled speaker cabinet was loaded with 4 David Eden speakers. This was a great amp, I still have it and use it at the rehearsal studio. It developed a problem early on and I had to use my guitarists Acoustic amp head. Steve was very supportive, I loved the amp, he sent me the schematics that allowed me to run the problem down. It was intermittent but it made the amp unreliable. It took some time but eventually I found a cold solder. Never a problem since. I consider this my first true bass amp.

The SWR covered everything I needed, the XLR out handled the big events like the out door River Walk Blues Festival in Ft. Lauderdale.

I was hanging out at a buddies guitar shop and saw this petite little amp and asked him about it. He told me he initially bought it because it was a great amp but it was just sitting around gathering dust. He thought it would sale immediately. He offered it to me at his cost. It had way more head room than I would likely ever need but man was it light, like 4lbs and like the SWR it had a tube pre-amp. This was the Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0, 500 watts into 8 ohms 900 into 4 ohms, Crazy. I use If for gigs along with the SWR Golight 2 by 10” neodymium speakers rated at 400 watts, total weight 42 lbs, amp and speaker. If I ever need the head room of 900 watts I could pair it with the 4X10, the 2X10 or the Hartke 15. It’s nice to have options.

The only venue I didn’t have satisfactorily covered was off grid bass amplification. I purchased A used Roland MICRO CUBE BASS RX on the recommendations of other bassists but never bonded with it. I don’t like the way it sounds, it kind of sucks the tone right out of the instrument. Might be OK for a guitar or harmonic but it’s an amp of last resort for me. I’ve recently added the Phil Jones Double Four battery powered amp and I have to say it covers all acoustic opportunities and low volume rehearsals really well. I’ve used this with the reasonably priced Ibanez PNB14E Parlor Acoustic, 24.75 scale, Bass Guitar with very satisfactory results. Many times when I pack up, I get comments from others that they had no idea I was using an amplifier. I keep the volume just in the mix, so as to not stand out. I also use a wireless link between the bass and the amp. A very natural sound. Even acoustically this Ibanez has better projection than my Guild B50 fretless. Thank D’Adderio for the strings developed for the Taylor GS Mini-e Bass. This new bass string technology is making ABGs viable.

5/143 Atlantik-Bass With Fender headstock

I had been playing the bass for less than a year when we moved to Wiesbaden Germany. At the time I had a couple of years on the violin, then bass. Being an elementary school orchestra I was playing a concert bass.

It was my opinion at the time, and still is, that the bass was the most powerful, elegant and magical of all instruments. If played right it fused all the other instruments into a cohesive force, the actual foundation of music. Although in those early years I couldn’t have explained it.

After a failure at building my own bass, I was 11 years old. Dad told me I’d be getting a bass for Christmas, a few months away. I guess after all the work I put into this failure and my attempt to start another he figured I’d stick with it.

I had two choices at the Post Exchange, the Hofner or the Framus. The Hofner wasn’t designed to hang by a guitar strap, it took a good portion of energy just to hold up the headstock and it didn’t feel that well designed, plus the Motown cool dude, who played at the teen dances, had the Framus. It felt better, it’s what I wanted. I got it for Christmas 1965, by New Year’s Eve I was in a band with the base commanders son, and a drummer. Our good friend who was hanging out with us started singing Wilson Pickett’s Midnight Hour at a rehearsal and he sounded great, we had a singer.

That was my only bass until 1981 when I purchased the Fender Precision Special. About 5 or 6 years ago, and having built a few instruments, I decided to put the old Framus on the bench, clean it, tweak it and set it up. All those years I had been playing it with the bridge 3/4 of an inch too far back. I had to bend the strings for correct intonation. I slapped myself in the head for being such a dunderbrain. If it wasn’t for that 3/4” I may of never purchased another bass.

 Naw it would of happened anyways “o)

I get that it can be kind of cool to create a certain atmosphere for the audience but I’d rather all the ware and dings be my story.

Thanks, it actually sounds better than it should.

 I had a doctor that wouldn’t leave me alone about building one for his son, who was playing with my good friend Albert Castiglia at the time. I gave him a “go away don’t bother me kid” price of $800.00, he still wanted it. I still tried to put him off, he wanted it by October, three months away, for his son’s birthday, I said I’d try. He came back from the bar with a bottle of water for me, I took it and a check for the 800 bucks was wrapped around it. He wouldn’t take it back.

 Good friends of mine, she wanted me to build one for her husband for Christmas, He played mine when they were down for the Key West Poker run. I told her it was too expensive, I explained to her I had already charged a guy $800, I didn’t think it was appropriate to change the price, it would have been unfair to the doctor.  She didn’t care, she wanted me to build it and the money was not an object. I included some cool custom MOP inlay on his to try and make up for the high cost.

Thank God no one else wanted one. I really don’t want to get into building stuff for others. I’m retired and I plan on staying that way.

I’ll still do custom leather work for others, now and then, I don’t encourage it but a lot of people know I do decent work. Back in the 90s Chopped Motorcycles became a thing, a lot of people wanted to pay big money for a hacked up custom motorcycle. I was part of the motorcycle culture. My close friend and mechanic got me doing some custom work. A friend had me make a leather cigar holder for Billy Lane of Choppers Inc. He had me go with him when he gave it to Billy, I had tooled Billy’s image on it. He had me do a custom tooled seat for a build he did for this guy in Miami, Paul Cox was swamped with work at the time, I guess. So I got into that for a short period of time. I’ll still rebuild/cover a seat but it will be for a friend and only for a vintage motorcycle.

I guess an example would be appropriate. A hand bag I did, tooled leather, kangaroo liner and lacing.

I agree. Trying to wrangle them all into harmony can be an adventure. The worst is when you get a wolf tone from a single note. Usually a neck problem, and the dead spots. Doesn’t often happen but it can and it sucks.

Interesting thread, I wasn’t aware that anyone cared either way. I use a pick rarely, but I always have one with me. I make them out of rawhide, sometimes ebony, even vintage tortoise shell.

I knew of a guy in Gainesville back in the 70s that was missing his right hand just above the wrist, he was a good bassist, he had a leather prosthetic with a pick installed. He had to play from the elbow.

I paralyzed my right arm by 50% when I broke my neck in an automotive accident, previously I had crushed the radial head in my right arm elbow the doc fused it. Three times in my life I had to re-learn how to play. The good news is it’s been 27 years since I’ve used alcohol or other intoxicants “o) and better than I ever was on bass or guitar.

Any tool it takes to service the song is appropriate. I ain’t you, you ain’t me and there is nothing wrong with that.