The Last Bass Outpost

Thank you Yoda, all-knowing one

Hey....it even works on a Apple/Mac!

No, that was his other white one. The one he got from me was definitely a matching headstock. It had be refinished for me by Top Shelf Music in Buffalo NY a couple years after I got it in a music store. I think I bought it in some small town near Ithaca, NY. Another bass player who I knew in Rochester, NY who also played one had told me he knew it was hanging in the store and I drove the next day to but it (four hours in a blinding snow storm, each way.) I think I only paid around $350 for it!!

Anyway...it WAS all-original. It was REALLY yellowed out but otherwise nice. I used it on my first album on a couple of tracks and on some live gigs. Then I decided to have the guy refinish it because I knew he did restoration work for some of the major manufacturers and lots of name players. Came out perfect and he even had an original Fender Bass VI decal, so he also redid the headstock. It DID have the matching headstock originally. I know I have an old photo of the bass before I had it redone.

It's one of those axes on my "I wish I hadn't sold" list but I guess we all have a list like that.

The real irony is that, at the time I sold it, I didn't realize that Entwistle owned a certain bass that was/is on my "Holy Grail" list. When I ran into him years later at a NAMM Show in California, I asked him about that other bass (a Hamer Standard [Explorer] 12-string.) He said he'd sold it off around 1990 but would have happily traded me for the Fender VI. I have a large collection of 8- and 12-string basses....so I could hear the devil laughing in my ear

Growing up and learning to play, the early Who and Entwistle was a major influence on me, so it was really cool to have one of my basses in Entwistle's collection...and for him to have liked it enough to have kept it until the end. I actually had contacted Sotheby's when they listed the bass for the auction to correct it, as they had it as "all original," and told them it was refinned where/when. Again, it was such a great refin that even their experts couldn't tell.

I'll post pics when I find them.

Here's my current flock of "Birds....Gibbys, Hamers, Jacksons, ESPs, Greco.

Hey...is there a pic of my old white w/matching headstock Fender Bass VI that I sold to him in that book? It was a Jan '63 one if I recall with the 3 switch plate. Think I sold it around 1984. There was one featured in Guitar Player the same month and I had it with me in NYC on 48th Street, wondering what it was worth,  the same day Entwistle came around looking for gear.

He still had that one when he passed away...got auctioned off by Sothby's for LOTS more than I sold it for

I have a picture of it somewhere in a shot of my gear at the time. I also had a rare cherry burst 1959 EBO that I think is in the same shot. Got it from the House of Guitars in Rochester NY. I've never seen another in cherry burst. Cool bass and checked all to hell in the lacquer.