The PBJ Part 1, or how to build a bass without really trying…

I felt I should put up a little blog post about the project bass I’ve been working on for a couple of years now. I’m convinced it’s finished, but hey, that’s what I thought a couple of years ago.

This starts as one of those “I didn’t really mean to” to stories. Around Christmas  of 2010, I got my renewal for my satellite radio account. At almost exactly the same time, I happened to notice that Guitarfetish (GFS), the online parts supplier that Mr. Thorpe uses for his prototype builds, had started to carry bass necks and bodies. I thought, “For what they want for three years of satellite radio, I could buy enough parts to build myself a new bass. Hmmmmm…”

So, I ordered two pickups, a bridge, a maple neck, a Jazz-style body (I’d never owned a J bass before, and it had been 20 years since I’d had a bass with two pickups), a pickguard, and some tuners from GFS. I didn’t want to build a completely stock Fender-style bass; I had some ideas of my own, but more on that in a minute.

I recorded some of my reactions  as I basically took the parts out of the box:

The GFS neck

“I think there’s a real possibility that you could look at the “sealed vintage-style neck” straight out of the box and be disappointed. The finish was rough, the frets were sprouty (a couple of them were really bad – do the guys putting these things together trim the frets off with pliers?) and the overall piece was kind of underwhelming. Now, I realize that these kind of projects never fall together and, like any project, be it finishing a basement or restoring a classic car, you’re going to be in for some fabbing and general elbow grease before you get it anywhere near where you want it.
According to GFS’ website, “This can make…a PERFECT vintage feel satin finish (Just give the neck a good once-over with some 0000 Steel Wool)”, so despite my initial misgivings, I had at it with the ol’ quadruple-ought, and lo and behold, about an hour (or maybe a bit longer) later, the neck actually felt good.
I left the frets to Dan – a few passes with a flat file, then a careful rounding-over with his fret files, and we were in business.
The profile is kinda like a 50’s “baseball bat” neck, but with a flatter, wider fingerboard. Overall, it’s a lot like its owner – chunky and comfortable.
The headstock is….well, it’s a headstock. I’m not thrilled with the shape (sorta 80’s Asian…Mann, maybe, or Hondo?), and there were some discussions about reshaping it, which is why there’s still no decal. However, the one issue that complicates that is…
I used GFS’ Wilkinson tuners, which are really solid and smooth, but BIG. The headstock had to be reamed out somewhat for the bushings, and the backing plate for the “G” tuner had to be rounded off with a grinder in order to not hang over the edge.”

The body and pickguard.

Though the neck had some issues, the body was stellar from the get-go, a beautiful sunburst (which is curiously a three-colour sunburst on the front, but just black and red on the back); I realize that they’re made in China on a CNC machine, but I still don’t know how they manage to keep the retail price at 59.00. Made of paulownia wood (the Asian substitute for ash or alder), it’s really solid, and sounds great.

I’d gladly build another instrument with a GFS body.

The hardware was just as nice; I already mentioned the tuners, but the bridge was another bargain.

That sweet, sweet bridge…

It’s a heavy cast piece à la Hipshot, fully adjustable with an Allen key, and nicely plated for some real sparkle, especially  compared to a stock Fender bridge. Again, I’d use this piece on any project I had going. How do they sell them for 19.95?

Now, I did mention that I didn’t want to build just a stock Jazz-style bass, so one of the things I thought I’d play with is the electronics. I’d heard rave reviews about the Music-Man style pickups that GFS sells, so I ordered one of those. For the treble pickup, I ordered GFS’ “Pro” style Jazz pickup.

I’m not a big “knobs and switches” guy, so my next challenge was “how do I control these pickups so that I can balance the sound, without the bass looking like it was designed by NASA?” In fact, what I really I wanted was something that looked simpler than a stock Jazz bass.

My dad had just bought me the terrific coffee table book “Fender: The Golden Age” for Christmas, and I started to look at the pictures of early Jazz basses, when they only had two controls; a “stacked” volume and tone control for each pickup. “Well”, I thought, “I can certainly use that idea”.

I ordered a 1962 Jazz control plate from the MusicZoo (the only genuine Fender part on the instrument), and got Dan to scrounge up the appropriate electronics: one “stacked” pot to control both the volume for the Jazz pickup, and the overall tone for the whole instrument, and a volume control with a push-pull switch built in, for the Music Man pickup. That allows me to shut off one of the coils  in the MM pickup to get a brighter, more balanced sound. Props to the MusicZoo for optimism, BTW; I ordered one twenty-dollar part from them, and now they email me catalogue shots of ten thousand dollar guitars every week!

Well, I’m at 900 words and I’ve just ordered the parts; I guess the build will be a separate thread.

Jim Clench 1949-2010

Jim Clench, one of the most influential bassists ever in Canada, passed away after an extended battle with lung cancer November 2. He was 61. He replaced Jim Henman in April Wine  in 1972, just before they recorded their seminal album, “On Record”, and later replaced Fred Turner in Bachman-Turner Overdrive  . (Necessitating a name change. After that, they were simply called “BTO”.)

I’ve often wondered if Jim ever realized what a huge influence he was on almost every kid to ever pick up a bass in Canada. In 1974, you couldn’t get a gig if you couldn’t play the bass breakdown in the middle of “Drop Your Guns”. he was also a very good (though not prolific) songwriter,writing such Wine hits as “Cat’s Claw” and Oowattanite”.

Here is Wine, in all their glory, doing their cover of Hot Chocolate’s  “Could Have Been a Lady” for Canadian TV. Speeded up a bit, and with a new bassline not in the original, Wine’s version became an instant classic.

The Left Right Hand….

Hamilton blues diva Trish O’Neill and I were having a conversation the other week about how we both happened to be naturally left-handed, but learned to play guitar right-handed.  It was, for her as well as me, a matter of the availability of instruments as much as anything else.

But it led me to wonder, “How many others are there?” Well, once you get around to asking, it would seem that almost as many natural lefties play right-handed as left-handed. LeftHandedGuitarists.com  posts the following list of players who are left-handed, but play righty:

AL ANDERSON (I assume they mean the guy from NRBQ, not the guy who played with Bob Marley)

BILLY BOB THORNTON

BILLY CORGAN

BOB BROZMAN

BRUCE COCKBURN

CALVIN NEWBORN

CARL WILSON *

CHRIS MARTIN (Coldplay)

CHRIS REA

DANNY GATTON *

DAVE HOLE *

DAVID BOWIE *

DAVID BYRNE

DUANE ALLMAN

ELVIS COSTELLO

ERIK DARLING (The Rooftop Singers)

GARY MOORE

GEORGE BARNES

GEORGE VAN EPS *

GILES HEDLEY (Giles Hedley Blues Band, The Aviators)

INORAN (a.k.a. INOUE KYIONOBU)

JANICK GERS (IRON MAIDEN)

JIMMY RAINEY

JOHN WETTON (KING CRIMSON)

JOHNNY WINTER

JULIA ROBERTS

KEANU REEVES

KEITH CARRADINE

LEFTY FRIZZELL

MARE WINNINGHAM

MARK KNOPFLER *

MICHAEL ANGELO BATIO *

MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD

MICHAEL HEDGES

NICK LOWE

NOEL GALLAGHER (Oasis)

PASCAL PERIZ

PAUL LE MAT

PAUL SIMON

PHIL HILBORNE

PRESTON REED *

RIK EMMETT (Triumph)

ROBERT FRIPP

RUVANE KURLAND

STEVE CROPPER *

STEVE MORSE

TED GREENE

I am amazed by how many of my favourites are on here – Steve Cropper, Michael Bloomfield, Al Anderson. I am also amazed by how many super-pickers there are – Danny Gatton, George Van Eps, and one that remains unconfirmed – I’ve always understood Roy Clark to be a member of the fraternity.

 

“Man, that thing sounds like a cardboard box…”

Largely because it is…Bogdon basses are the brainchild of noted bass, er, eccentric Bogdon Vasquaf.

Under two hundred bucks for the deluxe model, including a pup.

And lest you judge it too harshly –

Is this the new Golden Age?

Ugh…

For the electric guitar, I mean. There seems to be a real renaissance among guitar manufacturers and distributors these days. Thinking back to the decade when the Deacons were formed, there were some awful things happening. People were pulling mellow, fat-sounding pick-ups like P-90’s and HiLoTrons out of classic guitars and replacing them with gawdawful high-output noise boxes. The first generation of digital processors were drowning us in effects, making your average guitar sound like it was being played through a dishwasher. Classic manufacturers were making terrible, terrible mistakes like the Fender Katana. It just makes you shudder.

However, these days, it seems like a week doesn’t go by when I find a new (to me, anyway) company doing exciting things along more traditional lines.

Eastwood Airline

There’s Eastwood Guitars, in Georgetown, Ontario, who are endorsed by everybody from Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks), to Stan Ridgeway (Wall of Voodoo), to Robyn Hitchcock, to Chris Difford (Squeeze), to Earl Slick (David Bowie), to Deacon buddy Alfie Smith. They make repros of 60’s guitars in factories in Korea and China, specializing in oddball American and European makes like VALCO, Messenger, Mosrite, Kay, Univox, Wandre, Hopf, Hofner, Eko, and the like. They change their lineup regularly, so visting their website is always a treat.

There’s St. Blues Guitars, which started as an outgrowth of the custom shop at Strings & Things, the legendary Memphis music retailer. Their current models are designed in America and made in Korea. If your idea of an ideal guitar is a semi-acoustic cross between a Les Paul and a Telecaster with a bolt-on neck, you’ll love their stuff.

You all know how much I looove P-90’s – Reverend Guitars has a couple of models that sport three of them. They’re also manufactured in Korea, which means almost all their models are under a thousand bucks. Their lineup includes signature models for the late Ron Asheton (Stooges) and Pete Anderson, Dwight Yoakam‘s guitarist.

Top-of-the-line Japanese maker Greco is making licensed guitars based on the designs of the late Tony Zemaitis, probably best known for the custom axes he built for Ron Wood. They ain’t cheap, but they are beautiful.

Duesenberg Guitars are a comparatively new make from Germany, which are both absolutely gorgeous and appear to hold true to the tradition of German craftsmanship. Just the hardware on these babies is enough to bring tears to your eyes. They offer signature models for Ron Wood and Mike Campbell (Tom Petty). Again, they ain’t cheap.

Lastly, let’s not forget that the traditional companies have come a long way, too. Fender, who were the initial subjects of my ranting here, are now making reasonably-priced offshore models that would probably challenge any of their mid-70’s (or later) American output for quality and playability. The Baja Telecaster is a perfect example of that. The Squier Telecaster Custom II that I bought almost a year ago is a fabulous axe, especially since it was priced under 300.00. Let’s hope it continues.

And God created the Electric Bass…

From the Global bass forum, the forward to Tony Levin’s book –  http://www.globalbass.com/archives/may2000/tony_levin.htm

Apparently, God and I are in synch, which surprises the heck outta me…

Rock Therapy

With Biggles’ passing, I wasn’t really fit company for man nor beast this past weekend, so when Kim asked if I wanted to get out of the house for a while Saturday night, I quickly said “yes”.

We went to Rick’s gig in Burlington and, once they had heard what had happened, the guys were very empathetic. Bill, who does some cat rescue work of his own, recognized that I could use a little “rock therapy” and graciously gave up his bass seat for almost half a set so I could try to play out some of my emotional baggage.

Here’s a shot of me, Rick and Mad that Kim took. You may be able to tell that I’m not my usual exuberant self.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Thorpe

Yes, Dan celebrates again today! Congratulations, my friend.

We actually celebrated last night, at the Krickets gig at the Plough and Harrow in Burlington. We had an absolute blast, meeting up with some old friends, and making a few new ones. The boys also played particularly well, one of those fortunate side effects of playing to an audience that’s into it.

The real news for the Krickets is that they impressed so much that they got a St. Patrick’s gig out of it – at the Vicar’s Vice in Hamilton tomorrow night! Check the gig calendar for details.

My rig

My main gigging amp, since about 1980, has been this amp and speaker cabinet:

 

The cabinet is an Electro-Voice Thiele bass cabinet, custom-built for me from the original EV drawings by Garry Brown at GB Sound in Burlington. It contains a single EVM15L 15″ speaker, the same speaker that Garry put into it new, although it has been reconed a couple of times. I’ve driven it with every conceivable type of amp (an Acoustic 270, a high-end preamp/power amp setup, etc.,etc.), but I still keep coming back to…

…this head. It’s a Traynor Bassmaster Mark II. To my mind, it is one of the most overlooked tube amps (especially for bass) ever built. It’s extremely powerful (even though it has the same output tubes as a Marshall 50 watt, it’ll do 90 watts RMS in its sleep), and extraordinarily rugged, thanks to Pete Traynor’s ingenious original design. Most importantly, when I play through it, it sounds like ME.

Thanks to Traynor’s precise serial numbering, we know that #2041023 came off the line in April, 1972. I bought it out of rental stock at GB Sound for about 200.00 in 1978. I figured that, after 30 years, it was time to take the old girl in for a makeover, so I asked Kim for that as my Christmas present. That nameplate, BTW, isn’t original. It came off a much older Traynor Bass Mate belonging to old friend Carter Lancaster.

We took the amp to legendary Hamilton tube amp guru “Wild” Bill Costello. As soon as he saw a second-generation Mk II, his eyes lit up. We quickly discussed what needed to be done (Bill’s catchphrase is “While I’m in there…”) and came up with this list:
1) Replace the power cord with one with a grounded three-prong plug.
2) Replace and bias the preamp and power tubes.
3) A complete “cap job”, replacing all the electrolytic capacitors in the amp with new ones, as they tend to dry out over time. (Bill – “including the ones in the preamp – they really sap your power if they don’t get done”)
4) Replace the 4 meg volume pots with 1 meg ones. This opens up the sound a bit, and also seems to help with the inherent Traynor problem where the signal gets as loud as it’s gonna get around “2”, and turning it up further only adds more noise. Bill suspects the main reason Pete used 4 meg pots in his design was to avoid copyright infringement on Leo Fender’s original Bassman schematic.
5) A grid plate mod (the “HiWatt mod”) to extend tube life.
6) A “while I’m in there” mod – Bill suggested replacing the now-useless ground switch with a switch that turns the negative feedback loop on and off. Traynor, Fender and Marshall amps have negative feedback loops, other amps (Vox, for example) do not. It does make a difference to the sound – with feedback gives you the precise “thump” of a Traynor, without sounds more “warm and fuzzy”. I play with this quite a bit.
7) Another “while I’m in there”. Bill did a “plexi” mod to the second channel to give it more of a Marshall feel. Personally, I feel it sounds too “thin” for bass, but I’m now afraid to lend it to any guitar-playing friends! Channel 1 is still ideal for bass.

Wild Bill did a wonderful job. If you need a tube amp tech, I can’t recommend him highly enough. The contact info for his company, Busen Amps, is here.

Bill is going for surgery on the 20th. We all wish him a speedy recovery. There are lots of tube amps left to work on!

The “Wife” and the “Mistress”

I talk all the time about my basses, perhaps it’s time you should meet them.

The “wife” is my main gigging bass, and has been since 1991 or thereabouts. It’s a Squier Precision bass, serial #E706210. It’s a bit of an oddball, in that it’s medium (32″) scale. Fender Precisions are usually 34″ scale. Greg Godovitz used the same model during Goddo’s reunion tour in the early 90’s.

It states on the headstock that it’s a “Made In Japan” (MIJ) Squier, which are among the most desirable. However, at least one source for Squier dating says that a very limited number of instruments, whose serial numbers begin with “E”, were actually produced in Fender’s Fullerton, California plant in 1989 and 1990. Apparently, the reason for this odd arrangement is that Fender had ended their contractual agreements with their Japanese suppliers, planning on moving production to a new plant in Ensenada, Mexico. However, a fire at that plant prior to its opening left Fender with no guitars and plenty of orders left to fill.

That dating would roughly coincide with my acquiring this bass, because Dan Thorpe gave me it as a Christmas present in 1990. At the time, it was used, but not very. I’m still kind of doubtful about this being an American instrument, because they are relatively cheap and plentiful even now.

It’s completely stock, with the exception of “V” strap pins, which help to keep it from heading to the floor. The passive “stacked” p-bass pick-up in it sounds really nice. In fact, everybody who plays it loves it.

 

The “mistress” is a 1970 or 1971 Ampeg Dan Armstrong bass, serial number D2076A. I’ve wanted one of these since I first saw one hanging in the window of Waddington’s Music in Hamilton as a young lad. This particular one has some provenance, as well. I am now certain that it belonged since new to one Terry Bramhall, a Hamilton/Burlington musician and friend. Terry played with such local acts as The Brass Union and Dillinger and also played with both Rita Chiarelli and Ray Materick for a number of years. It’s another “little” bass (30″ scale, even shorter than the p-bass), with an incredibly fast neck. It has all the quirks of any Armstrong – plexiglass body, non-adjustable wooden bridge, Grover guitar tuners, two strap pins on the bottom (so you can lean it against a wall without falling over), ugly formica woodgrain pickguard and Dan Armstrong’s own unique electronic setup.

It is non-stock in one important respect. When it was stored prior to my owning it, it was laid flat (probably under a bed) for a significant period of time. When seasonal humidity changes occur in a wood guitar, the body, being porous, absorbs the extra moisture. In a plastic guitar, with nowhere else to go, it simply pools in the bottom of the body. This must have happened several times, as by the time I bought it, there was a rust stain in the bottom of the pickup cavity, and, you guessed it, the windings had corroded to the point where the pickup was unuseably weak. I rectified this by taking it to famed bass luthier George Furlanetto, and having him hand-rewind it. He also made a snazzy new pickup cover out of some exotic wood or another. It looks better than new and sounds great. I do want to get some fret/neck work done on it though, to bring it up to snuff.