Author Topic: Hiya, all!  (Read 1659 times)

Tim Armstrong

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Hiya, all!
« on: March 16, 2008, 10:12:05 AM »
Dave invited me over here a while back, but being the very (aging) poster child for ADD, I promptly forgot about it!  Fortunately, Dave is a forgiving soul, and mentioned the place again.  Thanks, Dave!

Looking over the members list, I see a few of y'all that I know from the TDPRI, who know about me from my relentless recycling of topics.  :D

For the rest, I'm a 48 year old beach town bar band bassist, playing in a band in Ocean City, Maryland called The Mood Swingers with my guitarist brother Mike and our drummer Bubba.  We play classic rock, blues, country, folk, and if the money is right we've done bluegrass, horn-driven blues (we have some guys we call) and zydeco.  One of the good things about living in a resort area: I made half of my modest income over the last few years as a musician!

I started playing bass and guitar back in high school in the mid-70s in Largo, Maryland, playing URB in the orchestra.  While I was in college, I played in a basement band with some buddies (as in we never left our drummer's basement for gigs!), using our guitarist's Gibson EB0:



I just erased the rest of my bass narrative, as it was achieving "War and Peace" dimensions, instead here's a timeline (note that I also was sometimes gigging as a guitarist, so there are some gaps):

1977- Gibson EB0 through whatever amp I could scrounge.
1982- Bradley (MIJ) Jazz Bass copy through same.
1985- Fender fretless P-Bass through 100-watt solid-state kit guitar head into 2x15 Fender cab.
1987- 60s Epiphone Wilshire Bass through same.
1988- 1988 Fender MIJ Jazz Bass through Peavey Mark IV head/2x15" Peavey Black Widow cab.
1992- late 60s MIJ Violin Bass (no brand name on it!) through 1968 Fender Bassman head into chopped Kustom cab (single 15" speaker).
1999- Crown MIJ P-Bass copy through Traynor YBA-1 Bassmaster head through 2x12 Carvin cab.
2002- Modded Tokai '57 P-Bass (Warmoth Tele Bass neck, Voodoo pickup) through Traynor YBA-1 into 60s 1x15" Guild bass cab.
2003- Same bass into SWR Workingmans 2004 head through Steel Sound 2x10 cab.
2004- Rogue Hofner copy through same.
2006- Mutant Fender Musicmaster Bass ('73 body, '73 neck, Hipshot Ultralite tuners, Kent Armstrong lipstick tube pickup) into same.
2007- Squier Vista Series (MIC) Musicmaster Bass with neck from above into same.
2008- Same bass with GFS twin-blade strat-sized humbucking pickup into same.

I should note that the SWR just died, so I've been gigging lately with my backup amp, a Crate PowerBlock, into the single 15" Guild cab, and I just bought an AMP Model BH 420 head (which Dave Funk based the Thunderfunk amp on), so will be gigging through that into the Steel Sound cab.

I also still have the '73 Fender Musicmaster body, and have acquired another '73 neck, and am having a luthier friend of mine refret the neck and paint the body, and I'm either going to get another of these GFS pickups (damn, it sounds GOOD) or put a Mustang pickup in it (I have one, along with the pickguard and control plate) and turn it into a Mustang.  Decisions, decisions...

Anyway, that's a little bit about me!  Here I am playing Pinky a few months ago:



Cheers, Tim

Dave W

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Re: Hiya, all!
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2008, 01:28:13 PM »
Hi Tim, thanks for joining up. Kinda slow here on weekends, but we're small yet.

I don't remember you posting the EB-0 pic at TDPRI. But it's in keeping with your (and my) tradition of mostly using single-pickup basses. Who needs bridge pickups anyway?  :P

Last year Tim was down here in south Texas and we hoisted a few here.

sflajimmy

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Re: Hiya, all!
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2008, 01:29:00 PM »
Good to see you onboard Tim! Pinky looks great. ;)

Barklessdog

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Re: Hiya, all!
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2008, 04:52:17 AM »
Welcome to the ranch!

Pull up a log!

PWV

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Re: Hiya, all!
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2008, 06:00:15 AM »
From one A.D.D. Poster Child to another - welcome aboard, Tim!   8)  (I'm digging Pinky too!  )

 8)

OldManC

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Re: Hiya, all!
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2008, 06:31:22 AM »
Hey Tim, glad to have you here!

Rhythm N. Bliss

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Re: Hiya, all!
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2008, 05:35:09 AM »
W E L C O M E TIM!