The Last Bass Outpost

I started on guitar due to Buffalo Springfield, CSNY, as my first attraction.  Then Cream, Clapton, ABB, Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna, Ten Years After, and Hendrix.  At the same time I dug into the real blues these muscians learned from so I was real into Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, The King Family (Albert, BB, and Freddie).   My favorite bassists at that time were Jack Bruce, Jack Cassady, and Berry Oakley.  So, when I started playing bass, those were my guide posts.  And early on (around 1973) I discovered Bonnie Raitt and her incomprable bassist Freebo.

Funny thing is that I was playing in a country band at the time so I was playing stuff like "Good Hearted Woman", "Mama Tried", a bunch of Creedence stuff, and who knows what else.   When they told me I played too many notes, I couldn't understand, coming from litenting to Cassady and Bruce!

But then I got into a band with a GOOD drummer, and things started changing.  We did a lot of Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstad stuff (this was around 1977) so I was drawn to Emory Gordy, Leland Sklar, Bob Glaub, Tim Drummond, Kenny Edwards, etc.

I saw Fleetwood Mac right after Buckingham/Nicks joined the band (I think goat woman still had black hair then) and was mesmerized by how cool John McVie was.  

Then I got serious about playing and a local prodigy buddy of mine (Curt played with the local university Jazz band while he was still a junior in high-school 'cause he was the only one in town who could read the parts, swing, and still play the Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea charts convincingly- he got bored with Yes after "Fragile" because he found Squire's parts "a bit to predictable")  gave me some great advice.  He dropped by a gig and we talked for a while.  He gave me a couple of pointers about my connection with the drummer, but he also handed me a nakpin on which he'd written "Heavy Weather by Weather Report" and "Jaco Pastorious".  My life changed the next day...

The guy who owned the drum shop next door to the guitar store I managed loaned me "Gradually Going Tornado" and "Feels Good To Me" by Bill Bruford with Jeff Berlin on bass.   At the same time I was getting more and more drawn to Stax, Motown, Aretha et. al.   And over the years I've been a voracious reader of Guitar Player, Bass Player, Rolling Stone (before it became Time Magazine for Old Hippies), Guitar World, and the only really good music magazine ever, Musician.   Reading a Tommy Shannon interview (though I think of SRV as the blues equivalen of Kenny G), I was reminded of Wilie Weeks so I hunted up a copy of the live Donnie Hathaway album.   And I saw Bela Fleck with New Grass Revival on TV, so a few years later when Austin City Limits was going to have "Bele Fleck & The Flecktones" on, I made a point of watching it- and didn't expect what I heard!  


So, my influneces?   Jack Bruce, Carl Radle, Nathan East, Willie Weeks, Freebo, Jack Casady, Berry Oakley, James Jamerson, Carol Kaye, Joe Osborne, Duck Dunn, Emory Gordy, Leland Sklar, Jaco, Tim Drummond, Chris Hillman, Jerry Jemmott, Chuck Rainey, Bee Spears, Family Man, Larry Graham, Louis Johnson, Tommy Cogbill, Leo Lyons, Timothy B. Schmidt, Jeff Berlin, Pino Pallidino, Victor Wooten, David Hood, Peter Cetera, Jim Fielder, and Kenny Edwards.

The ones I consciously think about and think "what would [instert name here] do here?" are still Jack Bruce, Jaco, Duck, Leland, Freebo, Nathan, Emory, Pino, and Willie.

And I gotta mention four who influenced my approach to LEARNING music too- Carol Kaye for all those monthly columns in Guitar Player Magazine I went back to when I started playing bass.  I didn't wind up using a pick, but all she taught about music is still the foundation of my learning.  Jeff Berlin for his absolute no BS, it's a lot of work wiithout secrets approach to education.   Darryl Jones inspires me with EVERY interview of him I've ever read.  He did one for Bass Player maybe 10 years ago where he talked about repeating the same riff over and over until one gets past the mechanics and finds the music- like a trance or something.  I did that with "I'll Take You There" and learned so much about focus, locking into the groove, and being THE BASS PLAYER.  And I find Vicotor Wooten's words to be a bigger influence on me than his music.

jte

I started reading Berlin's educational columns when he was wrtining for a long-dead magazine called "International Musician & Recording World".  I followed his columns in Guitar Player Magazine too, because I love his no BS approach to education.   The whole thing about music rather than the bass being the primary focus still rings true.  And I went to a Jeff Berlin seminar a local store had.  I found him much more entertaining in person than his written personae- funny, engaging, and smart.  He explained his anti-metronome stance.  He's right as far as it goes, but I still disagree with him on that one.  And I personally challenged his TBL assertion that all fretless bassists sound like Jaco.  He agreed that not ALL do (Jack Bruce, Boz Burrell, Freebo, and Rick Danko for example), but asserted that the Jaco influence is pervasive enough to make most post-Jaco fretless players have difficulty NOT sounding like Jaco.

The problem I see wtih Jeff's public image is that there's not much nuance in his writing- and lack of nuance is the enemy of truth.  When I got a chance to talk with him one-on-one about fretless players, I found that in most ways we agreed, but his defensive responses in The Bottom Line to the question were just about as reactionary as most of the responses to HIS posts.   The guy who said he'd never heard any Jaco, but learned fretless from Pino and therefore didn't sound like Jaco was one of the more ludicrious ones- just because you got it second-hand doesn't mean it ain't there!   

And as for his playing?  Well, if you only listen to solo wanking then that's the impression you'll have of him.   But if you listen to his work with Bill Bruford ("Gradually Going Tornado" was my introduction to his playing) and his more recent jazz work especially wtih Rick Drexler you'll find a great musician.

He's also got bad-ass skills on learning stuff fast- one of his arguments for being a well-rounded musician rather than just a bass player.  He got a call to sub for Chris Squire at the last minute years ago.  They called him one day, and sent recordings of the songs.  He was transcribing them on the flight to England, did a day of rehearsals, and played the tour.  He was able to do it because he'd spent time transcribing everything that sounded good to him, and doing it without an instrument in his hands.  He's a huge fan of Cannonball Adderley's sax playing and that's a big influence on his soloing.

jte

As I remember the short-lived Fender Duck Dunn Signature was MIJ, one-peice maple neck, only came in CAR, and had the anodized guard.  I do recall an interview with Duck (probably in Bassics Mag.) around that time where he nicely voiced some dissapointment with FMIC for resisting what he really wanted, but I don't recall the details.   Shortly after that his friend Bob Glaub introduced him to Laklands.  I saw Duck with CSNY in 2000, and he had two Lakland Bob Glaubs (a gold one he played all night and a red one in the rack) as well as his famous P bass (the 'burst maple neck with the anodized guard the little sticker of a duck on it) in the rack too.  He only played the gold one, even though his tech took all three out of the rack during the intermission and retuned them all.

jte

"Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" Derek & The Dominoes- Carl driving Eric & Duane... 
"Live at The Fillmore East" Allman Bros. Band- Duane Allman is the only rock oriented guitarist who can play a 10 minute unaccompanied guitar solo and be interesting through it all.
"Live Dates" Wishbone Ash-  Ya like counterpoint?  Ya like unusual notes in the bass?  Mr. Turner and Mr. Powell extract GREAT tones from those guitars too.
"Electric Ladyland" Jimi Hendrix.  The only Hendrix album that really shows HIS vision.
"Wheels of Fire" Cream-  shows their collective improvisation and deconstruction/reconstruction live and their conscise and focused studio side.  Besides, it's got both "White Room" and "Crossroads!"

What all of these double albums have in common for me is that they all come from the days when albums were cohesive works of art, instead of merely a collection of songs- what Keith Richards described as "the hit single and ten tracks of XXXX (feces)".


jte

I hate that finish- It reminds me of the absolute worst Fender instrument I ever had contact with- an Antigua Jazz Bass that was so bad, that when thieves broke into our store and stole a bunch of stuff, the Antigua Jazz bass was left in the lot behind the store.  It was so bad no one would even STEAL it!!

However, I'm a big fan of Clapton.  I quite admire how he consciusly moved away from being a "guitar god" to being a musician.  And he still puts out those "make the audience cry with one note" solos, even on bad songs.  I saw a "Saturday Night Live" performance of "Wondeful Tonight" where the solo was just exquisite.

He did have a long period of artistic confusion, caused as much by his management, as by his substance abuse (he was an alcoholic for a LONG time after he gave up smack).   But the critical factor is that he is NOT (even though many of his fans are) trapped in 1967.   Compare LZ' reunion with Cream's.  Cream came out and didn't attempt to recreate the early days- they came out to play music with old friends for the same reasons they got together (before fame and adulation ruined the music) in the first place.

LZ tried to be like they were when they were young and vital, but they weren't.

jte

What kind of shallow silliness associates a particular brand of bass with a style of music?   Pointy shred-shaped Jacksons et. al., maybe, but but Warwick?  Having never paid attention to anything metal at all excpet a bit of Metallica and Ozzy, I think of Jack Bruce when I think of Warwick.  And the guy who used to play for Shania Twain, and some British neo-funk kind of band (Jamaroqui maybe?).

No, basses with "bad reputations" to me would be like Gibson's long-scale EB-3, most Peavey basses.  Those instrumens are good, but they have a reputation for not being good.  OK, the Peavey T-40 weighed a ton and was an oversized gutiar isntead of a bass design.  But the original Fury, Foundations, the great Jeff Berlin Palladium, and the Cirrus basses are very good basses.  So were the RJ-4, the Dyna Bass, and the Unity Series basses.   

But they ain't hip, some of them didn't look very attractive, and the "Peavey" name on them made/makes people dismiss them for reasons other than their sound, utility, quality of construction, etc.

jte

The October issue of Bass Player magazine (it arrived at home yesterday- has Justin Medal Johnsen on the cover with a very cool lookin' Fender P bass BTW) has an overview of a bunch of hand-held digital recorders.   I haven't read it, but it inludes some pretty detailed specs on each unit and brief review by the BP staff.  Check it out, it might be a big help for you.

jte

Hmm... a toss up between this one...



and this one...



and the sunburst one second from the right here...




Yeah, that's more than one.   But I have a T-shirt that nails it.  It says "Love one woman, many basses".

jte

The fretless P bass first showed up in Fender's 1969 or 1970 catalog, available with either a rosewood or maple fingerboard, neither with any lines. 

jte

Nah, he kept the Starfire PUP in there all the time.   His son has the bass now, and Fender made a Custom Chop replica of it years ago.  Berry just moved the neck PUP to back by the bridge when he put the bidg Hagstrom single-coil (that's who supplied those Guild PUPs) in the bass.  Under his right hand you can see both Jazz PUPs.

There may be two of the modified Jazzes too.  The one Fender copied is a natural finish, but it looks like a re-fin so it may be the same bass stripped and finished in clear.

jte

Uwe,

The serial number on Fenders was not inteneded to track production dates.  It was simply an inventory and invoicing tool.   The serial number plates were purchased in bulk, and distributed to the work benches as needed.  Some workers took the plates off the back of the box, some off the front of the box.  And V000X1 could be on a  '57 Strat reproduction, while V000X2 could be used months later on a '62 Jazz bass.   The only way to establish a good production date on a Fender is to use the neck and body dates (if there are any) stamped or written on the neck heel and the neck pocket of th body.  Combine that with looking at the features, (i.e. logo, decal placement, body shape details, etc.) and the production codes on the pots.

There's a plethora of information on various websites around, and some really knowledgeable folks hanging out here and on the FDP.   George Edmonston who recently joined here knows a LOT about the details of Fender's Fullerton era Vintage Series basses.


BTW, I carefully call them "Vintage Series" instead of generic "reissue".  That's because FMIC did use the term "Reissue Series" for a specific series.  The "Reissue Series" was made in Japan in the late '80s or early '90s.  They were NOT the same as the Japanese Vintage Series however.  The "Reissues Series" were essentially the same as the same era's "Standard Series" except for vintage-style hardware, yellow tinged finishes, and other cosmetic details.  They had the same basswood bodies, cheap switches, crappy miniature pots, bar-magnet PUPs, etc. as the "Standard Series" instruments.   They were an early and not as well done attempt at what the current "Classic Series" is.   While discussing US made "reissues" may not be confusing, once one starrt to mention the Japanese "reissues" we run into the problem of confusing a Japanese Vintage Series with a Japanese Reissue Series.

jte

George!

Cool to see you here too!   A great resource for data 'bout old Fenders!

jte

Hmm..   '80s Reissues (well to be correct, Vintage Series) had thin necks due to the prevailing tastes at the time?  I don't know about that.  My Vintage Series '62 P neck is still as stable now as it was the day I bought her in April 1983.   It's very wide side-to-side, but very narrow front-to-back, and that's perfect. It was a much different feel from most basses at the time which tended more towards being very big front-to-back and varying quite a bit side-to-side.

But nonetheless, it's a beautiful bass you have there!   Fiesta Red, as posted earlier, is a pretty rare color for the early Fullerton Vintage Series basses.  I was a dealer then and only saw two, both '57 Ps.

jte