My Basses
2000 Fender Standard Fretless Jazz Bass
Bass playing is an activity that I have backed into. From the earliest days of my guitar playing I have known that bassists were always in demand. I got my first bass about a year after I started playing guitar but never really took to it. Later on I learned to put a moving bass line under my chord solos and developed a feeling for bass playing. Since then I occasionally wrote parts for bassists that I worked with. As my ideas on bass lines developed and my expectations grew I found myself becoming more and more involved in working out the interplay between my guitar playing and the bassist. One day as I was working out a bass part I realized that I had become a bassist.
Every bassist needs a bass, so at tax refund time I started the process of choosing one. I tried the old-standby Fender Precision bass but wasn’t completely pleased with sound. I then went on to the Jazz bass and loved that sound. I tried taking a solo on an old jazz tune but couldn’t capture the feel I wanted until I tried a fretless model. With the fretless the aggressive edge was removed and I could express a solo the way I wanted to. It was challenging to play without frets but also very satisfying. The Midnight Wine colored standard bass sounded better than I would have expected considering the price. All in all, this bass has been a pleasing purchase and records great.
2002 Fender Standard Jazz Bass
Coming from a jazz background I tended to think of bass lines in terms of walking movement, and avoid repetitive lines. When I tried recording some tunes based on country or rock changes I quickly realized why bassists in these types of music use repetitive patterns at times. Anything else would be too busy and detract from the sound. When I arranged these types of tunes I realized that the more aggressive attack of a fretted bass had a place too. Attracted as I am to matching sets of almost anything I ordered a second Midnight Wine colored Standard Fender Jazz Bass, albeit one with frets. Because bass playing is a part-time activity for me the fretted bass is easier when I am out of practice on the instrument. During times when I am doing a lot of bass playing I will usually warm up to the fretless, but the fretted has earned its keep quite well. My matching basses share a double Fender Deluxe gig bag and travel together pretty much all of the time.
2004 Warwick Corvette Fretless
What can I say? The Corvette is a great sounding bass and against all logic the unlined fingerboard is easier for me to play in tune than the lined fingerboard on my fretless Jazz Bass. There is no permanent finish on this bass. Instead the wood must be waxed frequently with a special wax that comes in a shoe polish tin. This activity is a great stress reliever and makes the bass look good.
So much for the appetizers, now the main course; it sounds terrific. This bass has so much strength and depth to its sound that I am pleasantly surprised whenever I play it. That is really how I came to acquire it, I tried it every time I was in the store and one day I made them a ridiculous lowball offer and they accepted. Out I went, new bass in hand.
2004 Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom
AKA Jaguar Bass VI
AKA The Big Cat
When I first learned to play guitar I was told that a good way to keep busy as a guitarist was to double on bass. Soon after this I discovered the Fender VI Bass Guitar, a 6-string bass tuned one octave below a standard guitar. I was smitten, a bass that had two extra strings on top. There were two problems, I had never actually seen one in the flesh and I didn’t have any money to buy one even if I had found one.
The Fender VI was discontinued in the ‘70s but there was a Japanese-made reissue in the mid ‘90s. Unfortunately, I missed the boat on that one too.
In 2004 Fender introduced the Jaguar Baritone Custom which was along the lines of the Bass VI but without the trem. I had an additional motivation for buying the
baritone Jaguar. Somewhere along the line I started having tendon pain in my left arm whenever I played an electric bass with a 34” scale. Short-scaled basses didn’t
seem to cause any problems so I decided to pursue that direction. The Jag Bari (AKA Big Cat) can cover the bass part in a band if you are careful, very careful. The
low E string can be a little weak and it is easy to bend it and inadvertently end up playing sharp. Nonetheless it will get you by and has a pretty decent sound when
used as a bass. It does seem to strongly prefer a big bass amp when used this way. Baritone-guitar parts sound great too but for this mode a beefy guitar amp with
reverb is a necessity. The low melody notes send a shock wave through into the reverb springs which makes for a unique attack. The sound is pure sixties schmaltz.
2005 Fender Mustang Bass
As I mentioned earlier on, basses with a 34” scale and I have been forced to part ways but I am far from parting ways with bass playing. 30” scale basses and I do well together so I did a little horse trading and got a Mustang Bass. I was pleasantly surprised by the punch that it has on the low E and while it will never usurp a high-end bass with a long scale it does speak quite well for itself. Besides that it looks great in Fiesta Red with a White Pearloid pickguard. This is a fun little bass to play and has Fender of Japan’s great quality and attention to detail. The finish looks better than the finishes I’ve seen on many a high-dollar axe. It is definitely a serious instrument in spite of its modest dimensions. There is something about this of instrument that really grabs the attention both visually and sonically.
2007 Warwick Corvette Fretless CS
As I had mentioned earlier, 34" scale basses had become uncomfortable for me to play and I had converted to 30" models. This had left me with a gorgeous Warwick Corvette fretless that was getting little of my attention. With very great regrets I got rid of it but I never forgot the pleasure of owning a Warwick bass. Finally, in 2007 I decided to inquire as to the cost of buying a Warwick Corvette with a short-scale, fretless neck. After speaking to the good people at Dana B. Goods I found out that in order to get a short-scale fretless I would have to go through their custom shop. Well, as long as I was going to do that I figured that the sky was the limit so I set out on a quest to design and build the ultimate custom Warwick bass while still observing the realities of my budget.
What I ended up with was my "poor man's" custom bass with a short-scale neck made from Wenge wood, the stock Bubinga body and black chrome hardware. Getting this built and shipped from Germany to the U.S. took only a few months and the results left me more than pleased. Even though I had not paid for premium Bubinga in the body they did manage to find a body that had lovely wood grain. The sound is deep and rich, something that I'm certain is aided by the presence of the Wenge neck. The black hardware captures some of the appearance of the more expensive Warwick "Thumb" bass so I feel that I did quite well and the price was more than reasonable.
Many thanks to Dana B. Goods (importer) and to Warwick.De (manufacturer) for building such a fine bass to my somewhat unusual specifications.
