The Last Bass Outpost

Every now and then, I do miss the '62 EB-3 I had, with the chrome pinated bakelite pickup cover, and chrome painted bridge pickup surround. Certainly a very specific sound, and the neck on it was a gem. Plus, they look damned cool.

The store has some neat stuff, but Norm? He's a real a$$**le. Less than stellar customer service, to say the least.

I like the mosaic patterns, especially on the Explorer, though I think it'd be better with covered humbuckers, or at least not with the pattern on the 'buckers. The "psychedelic" LP though...that's just a bit too much, it needs to be broken up with normal, non-patterned appointments, fretboard, and headstock...

And finally for the Wild Turkey period, my favorite, the Inverness Green NR II. Here is the photo from a prior post that has a dead link. You can see the Orange cab mentioned above and some of the speaker shadows.


Another early shot, sticker just barely visible:


And an early stage of modification, before the pickup change, but with the Vibrola added, stickers on the headstock, and some sort of change to the trussrod cover:


And a drawing someone made of the NR II in the early stages of mods (Vibrola, stickers on headstock):




And last for now, an addition during the Paris period, a Rickenbacker 3000 (two knobs, smaller gap between bridge and pickguard, short scale):

And now for some Fenders, first the natural Precision seen earlier in the thread.


A natural Jazz Bass, with what appears to be the Natural Precision's neck (or at least a maple Precision neck, black dots instead of blocks and binding that would have been available on Jazzes at the time)



A natural Jazz with a rosewood bound and block neck. Note the date, at the last Wild Turkey gig. So maybe this is the jazz pictured above, with its original neck back on? Or a different one, as the above has a white guard and this one has a tort.


A heavily modified Mustang. A bit hard to make out, but it appears to have the Guild humbucker in the middle, and a Thunderbird humbucker in the bridge position, with some sort of surround.

And now the Wild Turkey period.

Later appearance of the Reverse II, now with a sticker covering the Neil Clark hot stamp on the pickguard.




Early photo of Wild Turkey, with the Reverse II. I also mentioned in an earlier post, the massive Orange cab, which can be seen clearly here. Since that original post and my conjecture as to what it was, I've seen photos of both original Orange 6x12 and 4x15 cabs. A bit hard to say which it is, but in another photo you can make out the shadow of some of the speakers, and I'm leaning towards a 6x12





The Rickenbacker 4001

I know it's an old thread, but wanted to update seeing as some of the old photo links are dead and I've seen some new ones as well.

From his very early days, a white Precision with tort guard, and what looks like black tape on the headstock



Same Precision, now with either a painted or anodized guard



And a Hofner 500/1 with Cavern spacing. Note annotation, the first photo Glenn had of himself as a musician.

Quote from: uwe on February 27, 2024, 05:01:58 PM
There is also continuous drain on the battery, so even if you don't use the fuzz, the batteries give up after a few months. Very steampunk.

True! I suppose you could rig up a battery disconnect using a stereo jack on the instrument or potentiometer with an off click. And it takes AA! So that's fun and goofy.

Quote from: Alanko on February 27, 2024, 11:50:02 AM
Damn. I assumed it would be six components and a battery. Presumably some obsolete transistors are involved?

It is a simple circuit, less than 20 components including the pots, values and transistor types varying by version (FZ-1, FZ-1A, etc, FZ-1S being quite different). The original transistor type can still be bought, though they are obsolete, and newer ones might not sound quite like the old ones, but you can still build the circuit very cheaply and use other transistors with similar specs. That said, having not seen the layout inside the control cavity, no idea how easy or difficult it would be to work on the original circuit.

Quote from: uwe on February 03, 2024, 07:23:58 AM
All they do is get in the way.

So you'd think there'd be more of them about with people getting rid of them! Got any sitting around unused in your collection? 
I actually like them, use them to rest my palm on while playing with a pick near the neck, and sometimes rest my thumb there when playing behind the pickup finger style. I keep the covers on my Rickenbackers (well, Grecos), as well. And Fenders. Plus they just look right.

Quote from: Dave W on February 03, 2024, 12:53:06 AM
I don't know if these fit yours but the dimensions are shown.

https://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/thunderbird-bass/

Thanks Dave, but unfortunately I'm looking for the Ashtray covers, not covers for the pickup. Like this:

Does anyone out there have a lead on where to get neck pickup covers these days? I used to have a set from Scott, but sadly I took it off to do some maintenance at a studio last summer and it wandered off. The bridge covers can be found still, but I'm not sure if anyone is making the neck pickup covers. My 'birds feel incomplete without them! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Quote from: BklynKen on January 17, 2024, 05:15:15 PM
NR = New Release?

Non-Reverse

I remember when he said he was working on a NR with Epiphone. Alas...

That's Clark! I've built him a pedal, he's a fantastic bass player, he's been over a couple times and tried out my old Tele bass before I sold it thru my big Sunn rigs. Great guy, love seeing him giving the basses a proper play thru at Norm's.