Thursday, September 28, 2006
"We're just about ready to begin the robbery proper..." *
A quick note from the editor: these write-ups and descriptions are close to being in chronological order, but not necessarily so. When you are a musician suffering an episode of G.A.S. your memory tends to get a little fractured. With this many in the herd, an accurate acquisition timeline is difficult to establish.
Once they arrive, things happen to them: you need to put your stamp on them, and make them your own. Parts sometimes move between basses. Other parts are replaced. Many are upgraded. All the Fenders have had their "vanilla" neck-plates replaced with the Fender-issued 'F' logo ones. In most cases, I bought chrome bridge and pickup covers (that many consider to be bling), but usually only install the former.
The parts basses usually (but not always) consist of an Fender-built neck. I have American-made ones, Mexican-made ones (referred to as MIM), and some made in Japan (aka MIJ). The bodies are aftermarket ones that I usually (but again, not always) finish myself. The tuners may be Fender brand, or not - sometimes you cannot tell. I have a big preference for DiMarzio pickups, but not all the bases have them.
With this many, you might think I spend a small fortune getting setups done and changing strings. Nuh-uh! I do all my own. Really, if you can drill a headstock to install tuners, you should be able to set the action and intonation on them as well.
Now the question: "How Many?" Well, let's categorize them a bit.
There are 3 five-strings and the rest are four-strings.
There are 4 fretlesses.
(If you've been reading from the start, you know that there's a five-string fretless.)
There is one with active electronics, the rest are passive.
There is 1 "home-built", one non-Fender (an OLP), and the rest are what I would call "Fenders".
The active bass and the OLP each have one double-pickup; all the rest have either a standard "Precision" pickup or two (but not always!!) "Jazz" pickups.
The number of maple vs rosewood fretboards is about equal. The number of "natural" finished ones does not accurately reflect the fact that it is, far and away, my favourite.
They all have hard-shell cases and their own straps and cables.
So, the final answer? 16.
And yes, I play them *all*. No one gets left out of the "rotation".
* Raising Arizona
Once they arrive, things happen to them: you need to put your stamp on them, and make them your own. Parts sometimes move between basses. Other parts are replaced. Many are upgraded. All the Fenders have had their "vanilla" neck-plates replaced with the Fender-issued 'F' logo ones. In most cases, I bought chrome bridge and pickup covers (that many consider to be bling), but usually only install the former.
The parts basses usually (but not always) consist of an Fender-built neck. I have American-made ones, Mexican-made ones (referred to as MIM), and some made in Japan (aka MIJ). The bodies are aftermarket ones that I usually (but again, not always) finish myself. The tuners may be Fender brand, or not - sometimes you cannot tell. I have a big preference for DiMarzio pickups, but not all the bases have them.
With this many, you might think I spend a small fortune getting setups done and changing strings. Nuh-uh! I do all my own. Really, if you can drill a headstock to install tuners, you should be able to set the action and intonation on them as well.
Now the question: "How Many?" Well, let's categorize them a bit.
There are 3 five-strings and the rest are four-strings.
There are 4 fretlesses.
(If you've been reading from the start, you know that there's a five-string fretless.)
There is one with active electronics, the rest are passive.
There is 1 "home-built", one non-Fender (an OLP), and the rest are what I would call "Fenders".
The active bass and the OLP each have one double-pickup; all the rest have either a standard "Precision" pickup or two (but not always!!) "Jazz" pickups.
The number of maple vs rosewood fretboards is about equal. The number of "natural" finished ones does not accurately reflect the fact that it is, far and away, my favourite.
They all have hard-shell cases and their own straps and cables.
So, the final answer? 16.
And yes, I play them *all*. No one gets left out of the "rotation".
* Raising Arizona
Monday, September 25, 2006
They hate the band?
We played Friday at what used to be one of the city's jumpingest places. We were supposed to play Saturday, but then we got bumped back because they were going to do a Pay-Per-View thing.
The first set, we played to about 6 people. The second set? One. And the only reason that he was there was because I ran into him on the street and we were catching up (I sub'ed a couple of times in a band he used to work with), and I suggested he drop in and catch a set. That's all he caught. After that, the manager told use that we didn't have to play the third set and to tear down. But.... we still got paid.
Maybe when that place on the waterfront closes at the end of the month, this place will pick back up. I hope so; we are scheduled to play there again at the beginning of November.
The first set, we played to about 6 people. The second set? One. And the only reason that he was there was because I ran into him on the street and we were catching up (I sub'ed a couple of times in a band he used to work with), and I suggested he drop in and catch a set. That's all he caught. After that, the manager told use that we didn't have to play the third set and to tear down. But.... we still got paid.
Maybe when that place on the waterfront closes at the end of the month, this place will pick back up. I hope so; we are scheduled to play there again at the beginning of November.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
So, why do they call it a "skunk stripe"?
We played last night at a curling club in a small town about 40 minutes away. They set up a small stage in the middle of the rink, and we had about 175 people show up, drink and dance.
I took two basses (I always take two). One was the OLP fretted 5-string, the other was the black MIJ (Made in Japan) 4-string fretless Jazz. This is the dark twin to the white-finished model. The OLP is only one of two non-Fenders in the rotation. The other is the 5-string fretless mentioned in a previous post.
Neither of these basses has a skunk stripe. This is what they call the thin strip of darker-coloured wood in the back of the guitar or bass neck. Almost all necks are made of maple, and the back of the neck is routed out in order to install the metal truss rod. This is the very long adjustable bolt that run the length of the neck. It adds stability and strength and is used to add or remove relief (the forward or backward bend). I guess they use walnut or rosewood to make it really stand out, instead of using maple, which would only stand out a little.
With a maple fretboard on a maple neck, the neck would be one-piece, so you would have to make that route to get the truss-rod in. With a rosewood fretboard, you don't really need that back route since the rod can be installed from the front. So here's the strange part. In the early 70s, Fender started making almost all their necks with a skunk stripe, even the ones with rosewood fretboards. I guess it saved time and/or effort. Of course you can understand the all-maple necks needing one, but the others?
But here's the stranger part (or parts). The OLP is a maple fretboard, but has no stripe! These guys made the extra effort (actually, wouldn't it be less effort?) and routed from the front, then capped the neck with another piece of maple, and made it look very nice. That little touch was, for me, a big selling point. The MIJ fretless Jazz's also lack the stripe, despite being made in the mid-90s, long after Fender decided to take the easy road. I'll leave it to the reader to speculate about Japanese quality control.
The band played well, and we enjoyed the night. I messed up a couple of times while playing the 5-string, thinking that I was hitting an 'B' and instead hitting an 'F#', and then making a few more mistakes when I switched over to the fretless and still being in 5-string mode.
I took two basses (I always take two). One was the OLP fretted 5-string, the other was the black MIJ (Made in Japan) 4-string fretless Jazz. This is the dark twin to the white-finished model. The OLP is only one of two non-Fenders in the rotation. The other is the 5-string fretless mentioned in a previous post.
Neither of these basses has a skunk stripe. This is what they call the thin strip of darker-coloured wood in the back of the guitar or bass neck. Almost all necks are made of maple, and the back of the neck is routed out in order to install the metal truss rod. This is the very long adjustable bolt that run the length of the neck. It adds stability and strength and is used to add or remove relief (the forward or backward bend). I guess they use walnut or rosewood to make it really stand out, instead of using maple, which would only stand out a little.
With a maple fretboard on a maple neck, the neck would be one-piece, so you would have to make that route to get the truss-rod in. With a rosewood fretboard, you don't really need that back route since the rod can be installed from the front. So here's the strange part. In the early 70s, Fender started making almost all their necks with a skunk stripe, even the ones with rosewood fretboards. I guess it saved time and/or effort. Of course you can understand the all-maple necks needing one, but the others?
But here's the stranger part (or parts). The OLP is a maple fretboard, but has no stripe! These guys made the extra effort (actually, wouldn't it be less effort?) and routed from the front, then capped the neck with another piece of maple, and made it look very nice. That little touch was, for me, a big selling point. The MIJ fretless Jazz's also lack the stripe, despite being made in the mid-90s, long after Fender decided to take the easy road. I'll leave it to the reader to speculate about Japanese quality control.
The band played well, and we enjoyed the night. I messed up a couple of times while playing the 5-string, thinking that I was hitting an 'B' and instead hitting an 'F#', and then making a few more mistakes when I switched over to the fretless and still being in 5-string mode.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
On paper, but not posted
Well, I had promised myself that I would do a better job at flossing. And I promised my good friend Jamie that I would write him more often. I told him about the flossing thing. He said that not writing him often enough might cause gingivitis. So now the blog suffers as well from my lack of commitement. You'd do well to question it. I do have a history.
The band I play bass in is still working lots. Our busiest period was in July when we worked both the Fridays and Saturdays for four week-ends straight!! I had thought that 2-3 times a month would have been enough, and that too much, but I enjoyed every minute of it!
Last Saturday we played a local club on a job we picked up at the last minute. So "last-minute" that we had to find another drummer since the regular thought we had the night off and booked something else. Fortunately, Todd (a drummer I had worked with before) was available and did a very good job considering all he got was a set-list and the original versions of the tunes as MP3's.
Anyway, I have the (somewhat fleshed-out) beginnings of the descriptions and histories of two of my basses. There are a total of 16 basses that form the rotation. I take two per gig, meaning that I played them all in the aformentioned month of July. My favorite at the moment is the one pictured above: a Fender Jazz-style fretless five-string with DiMarzio pickups and round-wound strings. It is by far the biggest project of them all: I finished the neck and body (from USA Custom Guitars) ; drilled the holes for the tuners; assembled and wired it up and did the setup (action & intonation). It's one of the four fretlesses I own.
