2005-10-26
Bass History
So I got a request for a history of the basses that I've owned today so I think I'll oblige.
My family went down to the Lake of the Ozarks a lot and at night there were bands at all the restraunt & lounge type places. One of these bands had a bass player that was playing a red P-Bass and it sounded so awesome to me. At that point I realised that I wanted to play bass.
As my birthday and Christmas got closer I just kept asking for a bass. My mom was dead set against it. She said that I wouldn't stick with (I am flighty after I get bored) and that bass was boring anyway and that I should play lead guitar. I was set on bass. I started noticing bass players on albums I listened to. I started drooling all over basses in Guitar Player magazines. I was really enamored with Billy Gould from Faith No More. I researched his setup: an Aria Pro II bass and Peavey Mark IV heads.
Luckily for me my Dad was more sympathetic to my bass leanings and for my birthday I got a shiny white Aria Pro II bass! It was the entry level model but it was white and perfect. It was pure coincidence that it was and Aria. My step-brother-in-law (step-sister's husband) played bass and my dad took him shopping with him and this just ended being the best beginner bass they found.
This bass went through absolute hell. Not only did I play the hell out of it it was abused as well. It's been on fire, thrown, dropped, dragged, had liquid spilled on it, animal sacrifices... well not that far but the rest is true. I had this bass until I was about 18 and I sold it to my friend Travis. I don't know everything that happened to it but it was at one point painted green. I recently came back into posession of it by way of Shane. Travis and Shane had a little project going and Shane was playing bass and this was the bass they had available. It is currently flat white (rattle can probably), has a Batman logo between the pickups and has a wood thing where the plastic electronics cover was on back. It still plays and sounds like I remember and is one of my currentl projects. I'm expecting to get it back in pretty decent shape over the winter.
In Jr. High I got a Hohner Jack bass. This was the Jack Bruce signature model. It was a headless bass, it proudly exclaimed being license by Steinberger, but had a normal shaped body. It was also the first active bass that I had. Since none of the amps I had were equipped with active inputs the active switch was like an onboard distortion for me.
I got rid of the Hohner and got a Yamaha Fretless. I loved the fretless but didn't play it as much as I should have as I didn't like the single P-Bass pickup sound at the time, I liked the really present two pickup sound. When Ten by Pearl Jam came out it was really nice to have a fretless around to jam to that album. I learned all about sliding harmonics and having to take control of my own pitch.
The timing on the rest I'm fuzzy on so bear with me. The next bass was a Washburn 6 string. This was one of the more expensive basses I owned. It was a really beautiful bass despite the Washburn name. It played wonderful and sounded exactly like I wanted. It was bright and tight and present. I was slapping and tapping like crazy on this thing and loving every bass wanker moment of it. I still remember how that bass smelled, there was a faint cherry scent to it.
I traded the Washburn in on a black with white Squier Strat and a Fender Princeton chorus. This was my first foray into guitar playing. After a while I traded the guitar and amp in and got a Pacific Blue Fender Jazz Bass. This was a great bass. It was a light metallic blue and played and sounded perfect. That Jazz Bass growl was one of the most amazing bass sound I have ever made. When you got rolling on a note it just filled in the hole under the guitars and cut through just enough that it wasn't buried.
I got bit by the tweaky bass bug again and got a Samick 5-string. The coolest thing about this bass was the inlays in the shape of the planet Saturn. It was ok. I should have kept the Jazz bass.
After the samick I went 100% the other direction. I wanted a cheap plain as hell bass. I got a Squier Bronco. One single coil pickup. It's short scale, which was a first for me, but it worked. I still have this bass and often it's the most appropriate instrument for the job. It's currently got a bridge pickup from a Les Paul instead of the crappy little single coil. It has some balls, low, rumbly balls. It's so easy to play and so sloppy.
I don't remember when but I had an Ibanez Ergodyne too. This is the bass I was playing at the end of Experiment Gone Bad. It was a good bass. It was annoying during season changes. I had to set it up every spring and every winter. I think that having the wood neck and composite body made the natuaral changes exaggerated. One week it was fine and the next the strings were either laying on the frets or the were like 100 feet up and barely playable. I sold that on eBay a while ago.
Currently I have a P-Bass Special Deluxe. It's black with a white pearloid pickguard. The pickguard is not exactly right, it's for a vintage style P-Bass and the person that owned it before me had wedged the tone pot in. I recently had this fixed. I also have a white on white fretless Jazz Bass. This has a big crack in the body but still works and sounds great.
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