The DC Jr is no longer in production.

[slinkp]

This is a very good description of the bass.  Only someone who has spent some quality time with the LP DC Jr.  would be able to make these observations.  And anyone who hasn't may not see exactly what is being said when you praise such things as simplicity and a bass having only one pickup.  The minimalism is a plus and the fact that the bass delivers a punch is even more of a plus.  I wouldn't look at ''made in America" as a mystique, though.  Through the years some American companies really have established a reputation for making good guitars and basses.  As a typical American, I've spent much of my life buying various goods made in other countries.  If something I buy is very good, and it's made here, too, that's more lagniappe than mystique for me.

Yeah, it's quite aggressive in the mids, but also has depth and snap if you want it. And something about that pickup puts a lot of pop in the attack if you play with a pick or a percussive fingerstyle. And it's easy to fit into a mix.
The neck suits me - it's round and chunky in a way I like but feels easy.

I know the matte finish is partly for economic reasons, but I love how it feels on the neck and I like that grainy look. And I'm a sucker for blue.
My only aesthetic gripe? That weirdly squared-off end of the pickguard is a strange and I think slightly ugly choice. Oh well, it's a minor blemish.

Would I have bought one if it was priced like a T-bird or SG? Probably not, but I was eyeing them at $999, and when they were on sale I couldn't resist. Mine was $650 US with tax, and Chicago Music Exchange did an excellent setup. Now it's my main bass.
Add me to the "maybe getting too old for long scale" club - I don't know how long I'll still be able to play a full set on the old LPB-1.

[westen44]

Yeah, it's quite aggressive in the mids, but also has depth and snap if you want it. And something about that pickup puts a lot of pop in the attack if you play with a pick or a percussive fingerstyle. And it's easy to fit into a mix.
The neck suits me - it's round and chunky in a way I like but feels easy.

I know the matte finish is partly for economic reasons, but I love how it feels on the neck and I like that grainy look. And I'm a sucker for blue.
My only aesthetic gripe? That weirdly squared-off end of the pickguard is a strange and I think slightly ugly choice. Oh well, it's a minor blemish.

Would I have bought one if it was priced like a T-bird or SG? Probably not, but I was eyeing them at $999, and when they were on sale I couldn't resist. Mine was $650 US with tax, and Chicago Music Exchange did an excellent setup. Now it's my main bass.
Add me to the "maybe getting too old for long scale" club - I don't know how long I'll still be able to play a full set on the old LPB-1.

The bass seems especially suitable for this kind of stuff, even though the original versions weren't played on Gibsons.  I did see the Sword bassist playing a Thunderbird in one of their videos, but most of the time he doesn't play one as far as I know.  My knowledge of The Sword is somewhat limited.  And I think Mel Schacher's choice in basses is well-known. 

[ilan]

GFR's Sin's A Good Man's Brother was the second song I learned on bass, back in 1975, and my introduction to appoggiatura. My teacher, a classical violinist who fled Communist Romania, actually wrote down the guitar riff in bass clef, not the real bass part. I used to admire his ability to listen to a song and immediately transcribe any part with a pencil and staff paper, no instrument in hand.

[westen44]

GFR's Sin's A Good Man's Brother was the second song I learned on bass, back in 1975, and my introduction to appoggiatura. My teacher, a classical violinist who fled Communist Romania, actually wrote the guitar riff in bass clef, not the real bass part. I used to admire his ability to listen to a song and immediately transcribe any part with a pencil and staff paper.

GFR's songs were an essential part of my first band.  Grand Funk was the guitarist's favorite band.  He would bring in their songs for us to learn.  We did and when we played them there was always a good response from the crowd.  So some of my first songs on bass were also GFR.  That and songs from Hendrix's first album.  That was pretty much how I learned to play bass.  I had originally been inspired by Paul McCartney, but we only did a few Beatles songs.  However, we could play Hendrix, GFR and a few others for much of the night.  If anyone had suggested trying to write original songs, the response would have been blank stares.  I did dabble in that in later bands, but not extensively. 

[uwe]

Ooh, I first thought he was playing a Nite City cover - now that would have been rare, but Night City is another band.

[westen44]

I've never heard of Nite City.  Wikipedia said they had poor sales and no following.  Also, their second album was only released in West Germany.  I have no idea what their connection to Germany was.  They broke up after that second album.  But this may explain why someone from Germany may have heard of them, but someone from the U.S. may not have.  Wikipedia goes on to say that it was Ray Manzarek's band.  And Nigel Harrison would end up playing in Blondie.  I can never get Ray Manzarek's name right.  That's probably spelled wrong. 

[uwe]

The Doors have always had a strong following in Germany.

The Nite City debut album had a rave review in one of the German music magazines when it came out in 1977 - that is how I heard of it. Initially, Iggy Pop was originally supposed to have been the singer for Nite City, but he moved with Bowie to Berlin. Ray Manzarek (you spelled it right) just couldn't get enough of working with vocalists that weren't per se the greatest singers it seems! 

The second album (with the lead vocalist gone and the other guys in the band now singing) was a bit bland and had nothing dark to it. But the debut is a nice eclectic mix of hard rock, AOR, glam rock, West Coast influences plus Manzarek's idiosyncratic organ and electric piano playing high up in the mix (echoing Supertramp a little) - and even a bit of Disco thrown in for good measure.





Nigel Harrison was in all these interesting bands (often with his buddy Michael Des Barres) that never quite made it: Silverhead, Nite City, Chequered Past - his success with Blondie being the exception.

[westen44]

I once jammed in a very informal jam session which had a keyboardist who spoke very highly of Manzarek.  I had no idea he died in 2013.  I was traveling some that year and somehow missed that news.  When I think of 2013, I usually think of it as the year I finally got to see Golden Earring.  Of course, as it turned out, it was my one and only chance. 

[Alanko]

I feel bad for guys like Ray Manzarek and Mitch Mitchell. They are in one lucky, lightning-strikes-once band that defines the zeitgeist of an era. Then... tumbleweeds. The '70s is one long also-ran lost weekend of musical nothing.

[uwe]

I feel bad for guys like Ray Manzarek and Mitch Mitchell. They are in one lucky, lightning-strikes-once band that defines the zeitgeist of an era. Then... tumbleweeds. The '70s is one long also-ran lost weekend of musical nothing.

Uhum!!!  Almost all of my desert island albums were recorded in that era, Sgt. Pepper being the only exception I think. I actually believe it was a very productive and creative era, rock and pop music diversified greatly, a multitude of genres and sub-genres formed. It's the age of Deep Purple, Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Alice Cooper Group, Queen, the Eagles - stadium rock in all its variations, of Glam Rock but also of King Crimson, Mike Oldfield, Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols, Ramones, The Police, Talking Heads and The Cars. Soul, Funk and Disco gained widespread market acceptance, even Rap - in the next decade hugely influential - made its entrance.



A decade full of musical milestones and longlasting influences more like!

[Alanko]

I meant for Ray and Mitch, not as a whole. 90% of my CD collection is from the '70s!

[uwe]

Oh, ok, you're right then. The Doors were too iconic for Manzarek, Densmore and Krieger to really ever have a chance at anything else. Continuing the Doors didn't work in the absence of their charismatic frontman and house poet, the two post-Morrison Doors albums are not essential purchases to put it mildly. And they never had or did not take the offer to play in another established name band.

Actually, not such a rare thing: Unless you are the perceived leader and chief writer, having similar success in two name bands as a musician is seldom. I guess Frampton did it coming out of Humble Pie (as did Sting departing Police), but even the guys in a mega-band like Purple couldn't continue on a similar scale. Jon Lord almost had an offer from Bad Company after Purple split, but was vetoed by Paul Rodgers who didn't think a dominant Hammond sound was the right thing for the nearing 80ies and Ian Paice auditioned with The Who and was favored by JAE, but Townshend preferred Kenny Jones as someone he knew from the 60ies (IMHO and not as a DP-fanboy: a mistake from a purely musical view, Jones was wrong in so many ways for The Who). None of the Purple split-off bands ever had the artistic stature or commercial impact of Purple, not even Rainbow (which had the benefit of featuring Purple's main musical driver). With latter day Whitesnake being the exception, but it took Coverdale more than 10 years of hard work from the ground up (Whitesnake's beginnings were commercially humble to say the least) to re-crack the US in a comparable way to heyday Purple.

[gearHed289]

Ian Paice auditioned with The Who

Wow, that could have been great. Never heard about that. I think Pete had probably had enough of the chaos that Moon brought, and was ready for someone more tame, like Mr. Jones.

[uwe]

"Tame" is a key phrase here, I think Townshend wanted to tame down the whole rhythm section in The Who full stop because his songwriting was developing that way, less riff-oriented, there was less for the rhythm section to do, he wanted a more conventional approach. Who's Next had really been the band's last hard rocking output (eight years BEFORE Moonie's death in 1978). Townshend never replaced John Entwistle with a player of similar flamboyance either.

Paice was magnanimous about Pete's decision. He said in an interview with a drummer magazine that though he would have very much liked to have joined The Who, he respected and understood that the preference for Kenny Jones was strictly based on a common 60ies Swinging London bond between The Small Faces and The Who (Purple in contrast were a beast of the 70ies and Paice was from Nottingham, having spent much of the 60ies touring Continental Europe, he was never part of the then London scene). Plus he was friendly with Kenny Jones himself back from the days when Purple broke America as an opening act for The Faces (and The Faces treated Purple - to the latter's eternal gratitude - extremely well on that very long tour).

Kenny Jones, of course, would later go on record to say that "The Who didn't have a bassist actually, but it had two lead guitarists! The only bassist was my bass drum. We never had a real rhythm section."  So maybe not the most understanding musical companion for Entwistle's playing. Listening to what Ian Paice did on Burn, him pairing up with JAE sure would have been nothing short of explosive.