European City / Epiphone Rivoli / mystery solved

[EvilLordJuju]

I found a VERY intriguing postcard under a mudbucker in an old Epiphone Rivoli. I've got an interesting story to tell!

But first, before I tell all, can anyone tell me where this is? France? Holland?

[exiledarchangel]

Looks more Holland than France to me!

[sniper]

water table level says Holland, make of cars says France ... darn sure ain't Texas!

[Chris P.]

Houses could be Dutch, but the flags on the bridge are more like they do in Belgium, France or Germany. I'm very curious.

My first guess would be The Hague...

[Chris P.]

My first guess was the Hague. It looks like the houses of parliament in The Hague. The water is called 'Hofvijver.'. I googled Hofvijver Den Haag and got this. I think we have a match:

[Chris P.]

Another angles, first one with the flags, second one with the zebra crossing:





So if it's from The Hague it has to have a link with the Golden Earring and Rinus Gerritsen??

[Basvarken]

Here's another one from a similar angle

[EvilLordJuju]

OK thanks, the Hague it is.

So, I bought this a couple years back



An Epiphone Rivoli cut down to violin shape, and the sides filled in with mahogany (just an edge about 1cm wide). I'm not a great fan of Violin basses, but it was going cheap. Rather it was relisted a few times on ebay; a little cheaper each time. It had some original parts, and I thought about restoring it, but in the end I just thought i'd use the parts.

Anyway, a few nights back I decided i'd take the pickup out and put it in another Rivoli that has a Dimarzio model 1 in at the moment.

Started unscrewing and found 8 pieces of card underneath - used to adjust the height.

I reassembled the pic (that I assumed to be Holland, and as we now know is the Hague)

And a short message on the back became clear

America September, October, John Mayall

Tony

[EvilLordJuju]

It was addressed to a lady in New York, but unstamped and unsent. So to me, this was a postcard from the bass player in John Mayalls bluesbreakers telling someone in the US when they were coming over.

15 mins on google confirms this.

The bassplayer was Tony Reeves who was in John Mayalls Bluesbreakers from April to Aug '68. The Bluesbreakers did go to the US in September, but before this time Tony Reeves left (with John Hiseman, and Dick Heckstall-Smith to form Colosseum)

According to http://www.nzentgraf.de/books/mt/taylor68.htm they were in Holland between June 21st and June 23rd 1968.

So, Tony Reeves bought the postcard on one of them three days, and used it to adjust pickup height rather than send it.

Now, this was a great line up for John Mayalls Bluesbreakers - the guitarist was Mick Taylor. I now know Tony recorded the 1968 Bare Wires album with this Epiphone, and I have seen several live shots of him using it with Colosseum too (not sure whether he recorded with it again - he certainly used an EB3 quite a lot)

Check this pic

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jean-paul-margnac/361726029/

[uwe]

So that is his old Rivoli?  Seems like you won't be parting it out now after all, right?

[EvilLordJuju]

By The way, I contacted Tony, and he confirms that it was his bass. Plus he's gonna do a Fly Guitars interview (I need to finish Dennis Dunaway first)

So, check these clips.

This is the Epiphone with John Mayalls Bluesbreakers

Tony commented on this in youtube "The Epiphone Rivioli sounds very plastic, and a bit loud" - I think it sounds great though

This is the Epiphone with Colosseum


Colosseums best known track (and a great example of Tonys playing) might be the Kettle
- not sure what bass this was

Tony went on to be in Curved Air, Greenslade and many more - he now runs MTR Audio

[Chris P.]

Wow, that's one cool story!!!!!

[EvilLordJuju]

I've often wondered what my basses were up to in the 40 years before I got them. It's great to now find out about one of them.

So, now I need opinions from you guys.

What to do with the bass?

I've always liked Colosseum, and John Mayalls Bluesbreakers; so bearing this in mind i'm certainly now going to keep it. I was going to remove the neck and pickup at one point, but not now...

I'd love to restore it - but obviously this will never be a Rivoli again. So any real restoration is out of the question. So if this was your bass, what would you do? Refin? if so how? or keep it as original as possible?

[uwe]

If he played it the way it is, I wouldn't put it behind glass and never touch it, but keep restoration to the minimum of what you need to make it fully playable for you. I think everyone here will agree on that.

It's a British Blues Invasion artefact.

Or sell it for amazing bucks to Tony Reeves!

[Basvarken]

Wow, what a cool, story!
It would be cool to put this in our Dutch bass-magazine De Bassist, don't you think Chris?




In that Mayall video the bass sounds like an upright bass.
Not sure what he means with plastic sounding. I really like it anyway.