The Last Bass Outpost

Nice looking bass. Now a days instead of screwing up my instruments I just slap one together, if I'm looking for something different.

I had to replace the active circuit when it crapped out on me sometime in the 90s. It's a great bass but a freakin' boat anchor. I have flats on it now but I may go back to roundwounds. I've got flats on my three fretless basses, all are home made. Who needs three freaking fretless' "o)

For the last couple of years I've been mostly using the Guild Starfire. These are the two I use when I've got any studio stuff going on. Between these two the sound guy can get what he's looking for.

'It's kind of an an odyssey, isn't it?

Yes it is, I guess if you live long enough it all becomes stories "o) There have been a few seasons when I didn't play the bass, but those times were filled with guitar. I soon discovered that I understood the bass in a way I would never understand the guitar. It's like the guitar is 90% what you do with your fingers where as the bass is more like 40% fingers and 60% corralling all the other instruments into a cohesive sound. It's almost unexplainable.

Nice looking P, they are amazing instruments.

My old P-Special could stand a new coat of paint and polishing of all the brass hardware, but the miles and years of blood, sweat and tears, as well as magic would be erased from it's story. I think I'll let the next owner worry about that "o) I'm probably and inch shorter from playing that bass for so many years.

Thanks, it's a cool old bass, the nut is 1 3/8th. It has a pretty wide palette of tone. I don't gig with it any more but I will take it to rehearsal occasionally.

Mom and Dad gave me a 1969 Fender Bassman for my 16th birthday. It was huge. 50 watts and 2X12 cabinet. It was cool to finally have an amplifier. One of the other reasons I chose the Framus over the Hofner was it's acoustic volume was better. It wasn't until we moved back to the states that I needed an amp. In Germany our drummers father had a band and lent us equipment for gigs and rehearsal. It was stollen when my buddy and my house got broken into.

I purchased a Fender Bassman 410 a few years later when I got a gig in a blues band in Pittsburgh. I used this Bassman up until 1985. I was really happy getting these two amps, but it didn't take long to realize how anemic they were for stage work.

Shortly after I got a real job, from which I retired 30 years later, I started looking for a real bass amp. There was a music store in Miami that had some great stuff, he had a new amp deigned by Steve W. Rabe "SWR" named the Studio 220, the SWR labeled speaker cabinet was loaded with 4 David Eden speakers. This was a great amp, I still have it and use it at the rehearsal studio. It developed a problem early on and I had to use my guitarists Acoustic amp head. Steve was very supportive, I loved the amp, he sent me the schematics that allowed me to run the problem down. It was intermittent but it made the amp unreliable. It took some time but eventually I found a cold solder. Never a problem since. I consider this my first true bass amp.

The SWR covered everything I needed, the XLR out handled the big events like the out door River Walk Blues Festival in Ft. Lauderdale.

I was hanging out at a buddies guitar shop and saw this petite little amp and asked him about it. He told me he initially bought it because it was a great amp but it was just sitting around gathering dust. He thought it would sale immediately. He offered it to me at his cost. It had way more head room than I would likely ever need but man was it light, like 4lbs and like the SWR it had a tube pre-amp. This was the Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0, 500 watts into 8 ohms 900 into 4 ohms, Crazy. I use If for gigs along with the SWR Golight 2 by 10" neodymium speakers rated at 400 watts, total weight 42 lbs, amp and speaker. If I ever need the head room of 900 watts I could pair it with the 4X10, the 2X10 or the Hartke 15. It's nice to have options.

The only venue I didn't have satisfactorily covered was off grid bass amplification. I purchased A used Roland MICRO CUBE BASS RX on the recommendations of other bassists but never bonded with it. I don't like the way it sounds, it kind of sucks the tone right out of the instrument. Might be OK for a guitar or harmonic but it's an amp of last resort for me. I've recently added the Phil Jones Double Four battery powered amp and I have to say it covers all acoustic opportunities and low volume rehearsals really well. I've used this with the reasonably priced Ibanez PNB14E Parlor Acoustic, 24.75 scale, Bass Guitar with very satisfactory results. Many times when I pack up, I get comments from others that they had no idea I was using an amplifier. I keep the volume just in the mix, so as to not stand out. I also use a wireless link between the bass and the amp. A very natural sound. Even acoustically this Ibanez has better projection than my Guild B50 fretless. Thank D'Adderio for the strings developed for the Taylor GS Mini-e Bass. This new bass string technology is making ABGs viable.

Kind of just a freak accident that I still have it. There was a time when I was trying to do the University thing after highschool. I wound up using my room mates bass. It was a really nice Guild from the early 60s and was superior to the Framus. The Framus wound up in a closet at my parents house, where it was safe until that part of my life settled down. Before I settled into the 40 hour work week, that went on forever, I was dragging around the Yamaha acoustic guitar. I was way to transient to be in a working band for about 6 years.

This was while living in Pittsburgh. It was tough getting any kind of gig in the burgh, not a transient town for the most part. Most people had been there for generations. Just before I moved back south I was in a blues band. We were still working on the set list when I moved back to south Florida. Couldn't handle the winters and snow, unemployed and heating oil was Expensive. I had to keep the thermostat at 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but I did own the mobile home I lived in.

As soon as I settled in I got back into a band, with the Framus and the old Fender Baseman 410. I was working two restaurants and playing gigs at night.

5/143 Atlantik-Bass With Fender headstock

I had been playing the bass for less than a year when we moved to Wiesbaden Germany. At the time I had a couple of years on the violin, then bass. Being an elementary school orchestra I was playing a concert bass.

It was my opinion at the time, and still is, that the bass was the most powerful, elegant and magical of all instruments. If played right it fused all the other instruments into a cohesive force, the actual foundation of music. Although in those early years I couldn't have explained it.

After a failure at building my own bass, I was 11 years old. Dad told me I'd be getting a bass for Christmas, a few months away. I guess after all the work I put into this failure and my attempt to start another he figured I'd stick with it.

I had two choices at the Post Exchange, the Hofner or the Framus. The Hofner wasn't designed to hang by a guitar strap, it took a good portion of energy just to hold up the headstock and it didn't feel that well designed, plus the Motown cool dude, who played at the teen dances, had the Framus. It felt better, it's what I wanted. I got it for Christmas 1965, by New Year's Eve I was in a band with the base commanders son, and a drummer. Our good friend who was hanging out with us started singing Wilson Pickett's Midnight Hour at a rehearsal and he sounded great, we had a singer.

That was my only bass until 1981 when I purchased the Fender Precision Special. About 5 or 6 years ago, and having built a few instruments, I decided to put the old Framus on the bench, clean it, tweak it and set it up. All those years I had been playing it with the bridge 3/4 of an inch too far back. I had to bend the strings for correct intonation. I slapped myself in the head for being such a dunderbrain. If it wasn't for that 3/4" I may of never purchased another bass.

Naw it would of happened anyways "o)

Thanks, that was great and inspirational.

Closest I've come to that was finishing a set with a broken D string. Pulled it off and laughed through most of it.

I get that it can be kind of cool to create a certain atmosphere for the audience but I'd rather all the ware and dings be my story.

Thanks, just came in from working on a belt, a Christmas gives for my brother in law. Not fancy, no tooling, last a lifetime with a little leather oil occasionally.

If I can sell off some basses I don't really use I'd like to get this 12 fret 00-18 custom vintage Martin, I would go overboard and make a hand tooled leather case for it. Actually a huge project.

I found a pic of a seat I did for Beaner years ago.

Thanks, it actually sounds better than it should.

I had a doctor that wouldn't leave me alone about building one for his son, who was playing with my good friend Albert Castiglia at the time. I gave him a "go away don't bother me kid" price of $800.00, he still wanted it. I still tried to put him off, he wanted it by October, three months away, for his son's birthday, I said I'd try. He came back from the bar with a bottle of water for me, I took it and a check for the 800 bucks was wrapped around it. He wouldn't take it back.

Good friends of mine, she wanted me to build one for her husband for Christmas, He played mine when they were down for the Key West Poker run. I told her it was too expensive, I explained to her I had already charged a guy $800, I didn't think it was appropriate to change the price, it would have been unfair to the doctor.  She didn't care, she wanted me to build it and the money was not an object. I included some cool custom MOP inlay on his to try and make up for the high cost.

Thank God no one else wanted one. I really don't want to get into building stuff for others. I'm retired and I plan on staying that way.

I'll still do custom leather work for others, now and then, I don't encourage it but a lot of people know I do decent work. Back in the 90s Chopped Motorcycles became a thing, a lot of people wanted to pay big money for a hacked up custom motorcycle. I was part of the motorcycle culture. My close friend and mechanic got me doing some custom work. A friend had me make a leather cigar holder for Billy Lane of Choppers Inc. He had me go with him when he gave it to Billy, I had tooled Billy's image on it. He had me do a custom tooled seat for a build he did for this guy in Miami, Paul Cox was swamped with work at the time, I guess. So I got into that for a short period of time. I'll still rebuild/cover a seat but it will be for a friend and only for a vintage motorcycle.

I guess an example would be appropriate. A hand bag I did, tooled leather, kangaroo liner and lacing.

A really interesting project, designed by function and ergonomics, adding in a touch of artistic intent.

I like it.

I built a funky bass about 12 years ago. It was inspired by a strange swap.

I finally had enough of the braking silicon G string on my Ashbory. I made a trade with a guy who didn't like his FleaMarket "Flea" ukulele. So we swapped. The Flea didn't work right, the saddle was missing from the bridge. I called FleaMarket Music and they sent me one at no charge. A great little uke that easily fit in the saddle bags of the Harley.

As usual I found a forum of uke players to learn more about the instrument and it's culture. I ran into a guy named Owen Holt on this forum, he built ukes and had an instrument he called a bass ukulele, it was based on these Pahoehoe strings he developed using unbreakable polyurethane. If I had known I'd of kept the Ashbory. I contacted Owen, back channel, through his Road Toad Music web site. I decided to build my own 20" scale bass ukulele, I had a tenor uke I was going to use. Owen was extremely helpful so I  ordered the strings, pickup and tuners from him. I eventually decided to build it on a cigarbox, I had plenty of decent wood for the neck, I used mahogany with a Purple Heart fingerboard and a darker wood headstock overlay. I cut out mother of pearl and inlaid the headstock with a pole dancer and put two mudfap girls on the upper bout of the cigarbox. It works great. I have Aquila strings on it now, the Pahoehoe's are bit tacky, my fingers glide over the Aquila easier.

Kala Bass Ukulele are licensed by Owen to use his patents. 

I agree. Trying to wrangle them all into harmony can be an adventure. The worst is when you get a wolf tone from a single note. Usually a neck problem, and the dead spots. Doesn't often happen but it can and it sucks.

I agree weight may not be the main determining aspect of it's tone, you could say that about the LesPaul too, but it is part of the sound, it's certainly not just the weight but density, grain and hardness will add resonance and sustain.

The Homedepot bass is very light weight but has a great tone, you can test wood by tapping it. I know a guy who drops his bone nuts and bridges on a hard surface to determine density. Certainly it's addition is slight but it does all add up.

Interesting thread, I wasn't aware that anyone cared either way. I use a pick rarely, but I always have one with me. I make them out of rawhide, sometimes ebony, even vintage tortoise shell.

I knew of a guy in Gainesville back in the 70s that was missing his right hand just above the wrist, he was a good bassist, he had a leather prosthetic with a pick installed. He had to play from the elbow.

I paralyzed my right arm by 50% when I broke my neck in an automotive accident, previously I had crushed the radial head in my right arm elbow the doc fused it. Three times in my life I had to re-learn how to play. The good news is it's been 27 years since I've used alcohol or other intoxicants "o) and better than I ever was on bass or guitar.

Any tool it takes to service the song is appropriate. I ain't you, you ain't me and there is nothing wrong with that.

Thanks, and I bet your correct about the Fender forum low Enders. Shortly after I moved up to the farm after I retired I came across a 2X8 at HomeDepot, that had tight even grain and great tone. I let it sit in the shop for 5 years then made a bass out of it. The body is a little small, after edging the 8" board down for a tight center joint but the tone is really good. Same pickup as I used in the Surf Green linked above.

This one I stained with a propane torch. Funky looking but a player for sure.
https://flic.kr/p/WAfXZw



For that surf green I had the guys at the automotive paint store mix it up and put it into a spray can for me.