The Last Bass Outpost

Hi guys.

Half a year ago I bought the wrong TRC for my BaCHBird. Last saturday I bought the right one at last. Today I finished her. She only needs strap buttons and strings. I'll do that tomorrow.

- She has a new pick guard with bird.
- She has NOS chrome covers.
- I painted her headstock black. Not that good, but good enough for a dark stage.
- She has a imitation Gibson TRC.
- Epiphone controls. The ones of a Gibson didn't fit.
- If I find a right finger rest, that'll be the last thing. Anyone?

Pics:

http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2011/09/05/gretsch-revamps-electromatic-junior-jet-basses/

A couple of years ago I bought a very cheap Epiphone Rivoli reissue. It was dead cheap because it had a fixed neck break (a good repair, but visible from the front) and underneath the chrome pickup cover was a Jazz Bass pickup mounted. They'd just sawn off the sides to make it fit.

I still had a Darkstar and a Duesenburg bass humbucker (in fact a six pole guitar humbucker) and a friend of mine mounted it in the bass. It now has two volumes and a pickup selector switch. I pick it up somewhere this week and I hope I like it:)

The idea was to give it a bit of a The Strokes feel: A natural bass with black/chrome pickups. Here it is:

Part of a Rotosound press release:
Dennis Dunaway, co writer of “School’s Out”, has used Rotosound RS 66LD 45-105 Swing Bass strings ever since. In fact the Fender Custom Shop will soon announce a limited edition of the Billion Dollar Bass, which is a remarkably detailed replica of Dennis’s original 1970 Fender Jazz Bass that he used on the majority of the Alice Cooper Group recordings. This was the first bass that he used Rotosound Strings on, to record "School's Out."

I don't have to repeat the story about Gibson wanting to be the RD the Entwistle sig. and JAE not liking it. On the Moon-equipment page of thewho.net I ran into this pic which is new for me. On JAE's side you see a Jazz and an RD.

http://www.brianmayguitars.co.uk/newsitems/view/83

I believe this wasn't posted yet?

I just had four great days in Mechelen (Mechlin) Belgium. We recorded drums and bass for the debut album of The La La Lies at the Motormusic studios. www.motormusic.be

Motormusic is home for all the big Belgian bands and we went there with our Dutch producer Huub. He did all kinds of big Dutch artists. It was so cool to record twelve songs in a top of the line studio! My first time in a big studio, my first time recording a complete album and my first time working with a good producer. We started preproduction in December and of course we added all kinds of little changes in the studio. It was also nice being away from the real world, for four days. We woke up at eight am, we had breakfast in Motormusic, then recording until one pm, lunch and recording again to seven pm. Then off to a restaurant, recording till ten pm and then of for too much Belgian beers:D So just four days of making music.

For the freaks:
I recorded six songs with the Gibson SG Reissue Bass, two with a review Warwick Star Bass, one with my 50s P, two with the reissue Danelectro Longhorn and for one song I used the Dano and the SG. Dano for heavy verses and SG for mellow chorus. It was recorded directly into a 48-track SSL sound board through Little Labs, Millennia and Avalon DIs (depending which bass). Afterwards we reamped it through amps. For the heavier tracks I used an overdriven 30W all-tube Ashdown Little Bastard through a Warwick Hellborg 2x12 and for the mellower tracks we used the Hellborg amp with 2x12. Both speakers were mic'd with an SM57 and an AKG D112. 

Everything was recorded in ProTools, but afterwards we recorded everything on tape (Otari tape desk) and back in ProTools again for tape compression and an even dirtier sound.

In July we'll finish recordings (guitars, vocals, keys) in Amsterdam at the cheaper studio of producer Huub. We hope to have it ready after the summer. In the mean time we will try to find a label. All recordings are payed by the band, btw. We hope to have a song out this year and the album out at the end of this year or at the beginning of 2012. Exciting times!!

I'm very, very happy with the bass sound. Can't wait to hear it back and to share it with you guys! In the last year the sound of The La La Lies changed a bit. We still have the rock songs, we still only have short songs, but some sound a bit more Raconteurs-like. A bit more rootsy/Americana. That wasn't a choice, but it developed that way and we like it.

Pics. A vid will follow soon.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150213337723855.314702.543603854&l=bd7c9c02f7