First Bass No.2 - Beg, Steal, or Borrow, but NEVER sell your basses!!!
A cautionary tale in my continuing series about my bass guitars.
Around the beginning of 1979, growing ever confident in my role as a bassist and inspired by the beautiful “blueburst” guitar our guitarist Fos Foster had commissioned from now legendary guitar builder John Birch (remember Dave Hill’s superyob guitar in Slade?) - I ordered one myself. This time, a Caramel sunburst Rickenbacker lookalike, with customised Birch biflux and superflux pickups, and a daunting array of controls bristling across the front. It had the most beautiful slim maple neck and was a dream to play. It served me well through two years with the band Apollo, touring Scandinavia, whom I joined in April 1979, finally turning fully professional. ( You can see me in unforgiveable satin in the photo, playing it at the Torvetten nightclub in Gjovik, Norway in 1980.) It stayed with me into the beginnings of Tubeless Hearts, but alas, like so many stupid kids before me, I messed with the bass, putting different pick ups in it, and eventually, disillusioned with the sound I sold it to a music shop. It was to be one of many basses I regretted parting with, as in the early days, i could only afford to by a new one by getting rid of another. Show me a guy who has a collection of guitars or basses, and he’s either sting, or semi-pro! I’ve always promised myself that if I ever saw this bass again, I’d buy it. It was a beauty!
Next time: Amidst the junk, a gem…
Kev Moore
April 7, 2008 at 11:33 am
Golly!!! Is that you in the pic Kev?
You look like Freddie Mercury there! Seriously!
Nice bass, painful story!
About those front controls, silver knob things, its not customary on all basses right? Do guitars ever have them?
April 7, 2008 at 12:19 pm
The knobs…that bass had six, plus a toggle switch. Yes, all basses and guitars have them, but generally 7 is overkill! They all serve the pickups, (the little bars beneath the strings on the body) either to switch between them, change the mix between them, or alter the volume or tone. I don’t know about other guys but I tend to keep everything set the same except the master volume, and do everything else on the amp! I’m currently having a Danelectro longhorn semi-acoustic bass customised and restored, and guess what? It will have one pick up and a “top-hat” combined volume and tone control (so it will appear to only have one knob, yeah!) I think I should christen it “The Minimaliser”. By the way, when its finished, it will be my final entry in this series, but we’ve a way to go yet!
April 8, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Oh cool!!
I’m able to see a major difference, guitars whether electric or (basic?)acoustic have a large vent/hole just above the centre and the strings are majorly from that hole alongside the handle, whereas with bass it runs along the entire instrument, from the handle down the legnth of body of the instrument as it is in your pic, am I right?
April 8, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Thats the general pointer I’ve been working off, as you’ve explained that before right?
Look forward to the oncoming instalments! I’ll be a whiz in no time!
April 8, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Mmm…okay. Virtually all (except for headless, which we’ll leave out of the argument cos it just confuses things) guitars and basses have strings which are wound around the machine heads on the headstock (RHS of my pic) they then pass through a grooved nut at the top end of the neck, and are held at tension above the fretboard along the length of the neck before passing over the bridge saddles and anchoring in the tailpiece. The gap between the strings and the fretboard is called the action. A solely electric guitar or bass doesnt need a hole, or indeed to have a hollow body, as the pick ups and amplifier will provide the volume. That’ll do for now, I need a lie-down!
April 10, 2008 at 11:57 am
You’re an extremely kind person!!
That was one hell of a lesson there!! I’ll be damned if I havent learnt anything from that!
April 15, 2008 at 4:45 pm
There’s a smart pupil! Always praise the teacher! More basses coming up in the next couple of weeks, and no doubt some dodgy hairstyles as well!
June 10, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I have a John Birch Bass 1975 Ric copy jus like that! But it has a black scratchplate…
June 19, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Wow, thanks for commenting Oliver…was the scratchplate original or a later addition?
June 24, 2008 at 6:48 pm
I have one of John Birch’s Ric style SCDR basses - see the gear pages on our website. Not a thing to ever part with - and FAR more knobs than is really sensible!!!
Cheers,
Ian