The Last Bass Outpost

I'm a big fan of this girl called Madelief. She is a good friend, so I'm totally not objectively, haha! She records all her demos alone (drums, keys, bass, guitars, vocals, backing vocals) and for real recordings she uses her live drummer and sometimes a guitar player but again she does all keys bass, vocals..

Live, she sings and plays one of her three fretless five strings. Some things I can't. Last monday she graduated with very high marks from the Department of Popular Music at the Amsterdam Conservatory. This time she played a CP70 paino, but mostly her fretless 5-string while singing... ...and this time dancing with the dancers of this vid.

The bass starts quite late, but I hope you enjoy her music:



If you like it, here's a live song with some very nice bass playing:



And a more up tempo pop song, with some random friends of her 'playing' the instruments.

Well, not really NBD, cos it's still at Höfner's.

I'm quite good in the Höfner department. Besides a sold black HCT Club, I also got an HCT Verythin Bass.

And some Germans:

- A sunburst Macca 500/1 model
- An orange Gold Label 500/1 with the normal staple pickups in normal neck/bridge position
- A red matte Gold Label 500/1 with cavern spaced toaster pickups
- A Club Bass 500/2 in paisley with cavern spaced Diamond Pickups.

I love the looks and playability of the Club Bass and the sound of my red Gold Label with cavern spaced (close spacing) toasters (single coils). It's so much better than all my other Höfners. Less oomphhy, less wide and big, but more woody, tight, .. Love it. My fellow musicians ask me to use the red bass only, people borrow it for recordings. I guess that says enough.

So my 'dream' Höfner is a Club with those pickups and spacing and Höfner made a one of a kind for me. As far as I know there aren't any Club Basses with toasters around. There are some with cavern spacing, but with other pickups. I also like the KH logo tailpiece, because of Air I like natural Clubs and Höfner added a raised logo and a body logo. This is the result and I love it!

I have a question from a friend but I can't find the answer... ...yet. So you to the rescue?

On LPs and SGs you see pastic cover soapbar P90s. Cream on LP and black on SG mostly.
On LP Jr. and SG jr. you see plastic cover dogears.
On 330/Casino you see both black plastic covered P90s as metal covered ones. Was that a certain period? Or was it so they looked more luxurious?

I play mostly short scale the last couple of years and I love Competition Mustangs.

Last year I found a good deal on a '93/'94 MIJ Competition Mustang in Ocean Turquoise Metallic. That's a strange colour. It is an old Ford colour (not the Mustang though) and Fender offered it back in the days too.... ....but I think they tried to come up with a colour that looks like yellowed Lake Placid Blue (or Competition Blue as it was known, with the stripes). I found some pics of old yellowed blue ones and it's almost spot on.

Another nice thing: I always loved the band Air and I wanted a Höfner because of their bass player. Not because of Macca. And he has the same Ocean Turquoise reissue.

Here's mine. It has Labella flats on it and I installed pickups from my good friend Carey Nordstrand, which make the bass sound better. As if you plug into a slightly better amp.



My dear friend Madelief borrowed it to use in a Bowie project, but now she still has it, cos she uses it to record her new album. This shot was taken on holiday:



 
A week ago I found another very affordable one. It comes from an UK dealer who only sells Japanese Fenders. He got some instruments sold, cos I adviced people to look at his site, so I got a great discount. This one's stock and is '95/'96:



I almost use Souldier straps from Buchanan only, cos owner Jen is a friend (again, haha!). On the white you see a prototype of the Johnny Cash strap. Check the 'finger' pic of him and you see this pattern.

In love with this one. A pity about the Jazz Pickups, but still:

https://eastwoodcustoms.com/projects/backlund-100-bass/?utm_campaign=EWCS%2014th%20FEB%202019%20%28KMUgW3%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=BACKLUND%20BUYERS&_ke=eyJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJjaHJpcy1kZWtrZXJAaG90bWFpbC5jb20iLCAia2xfY29tcGFueV9pZCI6ICJNVGJROUUifQ%3D%3D

And they'll make a Mustang inspired bass.

At the airplane to LA for the NAMM show i watched Bad Times At The El Royale. Great movie!!! Tarantino-ish.

In one of the scenes the bass player plays a JCS - you see the € at the pickguard - but it's in the sixties, so an error.

A secret until next week. Fender wanted to announce a new series at the NAMM, but it's ready, so it will be available soon. I can't say much yet, but it will be the cheapest US series with some offsets and a P, J, and Mustang Bass. The Mustang might be PJ. Figuring that out now.