| Well Vincent, funny you asked, because I just two days ago got turned on to a terrific live recording of The Four Freshman, truly first class singing AND playing. Can't remember the tune I heard off the top of my head, just that it was a standard, played and sung at a blinding tempo including a trombone solo played in a manner that any top name jazz trombonist would be proud of, preformed by one of the gentlemen in the group who SINGS! Amazing! I must admit that I never knew much about the group other than he fact that their vocal style had a big influence on the sound Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys later brought to the pop music of the 60' and early 70's, about the time I first heard music and began my long walk as a musician. The Four Freshman are a group that I'd always heard of and read about, but never got much to hear much of, until very recently. As you know, I see you are on the west coast, most of the the jazz music that gets played on that station out of Long Beach often is not vocal music, save for the occational woman singer, or Lambert, Hendricks and Ross vocalese. But a friend of mine here in Hangzhou, China is an Italian guy who is a big Four Freshman fan, has seen the group live in recent years and will be only too happy to share some recordings of the group with me, very cool!
As for the "travel bass' question, it's been one of my favorite subjects to post my thoughts on thru the board, I have quite a bit of experiance with them.
I start doing long term traveling gigs in 1999. At that time I used a John Carruthers Sub-1, truly a "stick bass" in every sense of the word. Almost indestucable, but very much that big fretless bass on a pogo stick sound that most of us are trying to avoid. Plus very uncomfertable to play pizz, there's no room to anchor your right hand thumb at the end of the fingerboard. I used it for some ship gigs and then on a very nice hotel gig for a few months in Dubai, UAE playing piano duo behind a female jazz singer. My next move was the Eminence Removable neck bass. I had one delivered to Dubai early 2003. I used this bass quite successfuly in Dubai, then for a long time on a hotel gigs in Jackarta, Osaka and Hong Kong. It's sound is very much like a "real bass" with a pickup in nature. It gave me most of the things I'd hoped it would, those being some dergree of acoustic resonance, the double bass "vibe" in an easy to deal with on the road size. Easy to break down, not too difficult to assemble and flies for free as baggage. It comes in under the maximum weight you require and does indeed put out some acoustic volume, not enough to gig with, but plenty good for private practice. Sounds just fine thru an amp. Everyone I played with liked it. This particular bass made me quite happy for quite a while. But the grass is always greener, so when I saw the first internet ads for the Czech-Ease, I knew I just had to have one. I was just concluding an engagement in Hong Kong and had met a young fellow who's bass's neck had snapped off, He really needed a bass. But in Hong Kong there are no luthiers that are double bass specialists. He was up a creek and I was heading home, so I sold him my Eminence and put the money towards the purchase of my Czech-Ease. At the time, they were $4500, plus tax. Close to $5000 is a lot of money for me, but I had a booking coming up the next month in Shanghai, no time to waste, gotta have a travel bass, so I took the plunge. Is this bass better than the Eminence I had just sold, well, yes...and no. It's different. It's a very nice plywood bass that is scaled down at the ass-end of it's body. This instrument is an double bass in every respect, just with a smaller and unusual body shape. Has a normal sized neck and a feature that I really like, a normal sized bridge. The Eminence bridge is a quarter sized type, but it works fine for that bass. The Gage bass sounds big and punchy, like any other decent plywood bass. I've got a Shen 3/4 size hybrid bass that I bought here in China too. I often play each bass on allternating days here on my gig. We get a lot of regular guests here. They say my Gage Bass, with it's Realist sounds "bigger" than my Shen with an Underwood pickup. These are guests, not musicians. Personally, I find the Shen's tone to be more sweeter and more refined. But to non-bass players have used terms like, "bigger, "punchy" and "woodier" when offering comparisons between the two basses. This my of course have a lot to do wih the differences in each bass's pickups too. Acoustic volume? Well of course the Shen, with it's 3/4 sized body and carved top makes a louder and sweeter sound. But, one week ago the power went down on a Saturday night while we were playing before a packed house that seats about 200. No amp, no PA. And a whole lot of hard drinking, loud talking Chinese people. No problem, I kept on playing the Gage Bass. A bass playing friend of mine was in attendance. He said he could hear me! Downsides, well none to speak if a small acoustic bass for travel purposes is what you are looking for. You will be more often than not using the pickup on your gig right? If yes, then no problem, there you go, a plywood road bass that flies for free! As long as you treat it the way you treat any other plywood double bass, in regard to care, handling and maintainace then yes, I'd recommend it to you. It's flight case is very good, strong yet light weight and rolls and handles quite easily for a case of this type. It indeed does fit thru airline check in counters and X-Ray machines. Comes in under your weight limit requirement, with bass and bag inside. So far since buying it in the Spring of 2005 it's gone LA to Shanghai round trip, LA to Maui round trip, twice. Now LA back to Hangzhou, China and goes back home to LA with me in two weeks. So far, with out damage or incident. I plan to take it to my next gig, this one's in Hong Kong in November. Honestly, the only real drag worth mentioning about either The Gage Bass or The Eminence bass is this. You can't just bash them around like you can with, let's say, a Fender bass. You know, just take them on the plane in a gig bag and not worry too much about the knucklehead who enters the plane last and decides the best place to stow his backpack is "your" overhead baggage rack! Now somebody please! Make me one of these, with a 41/1/2 inch scale, that sounds and plays just like a double bass and I'll be the first in line to buy one!
Last edited by Mike Carr : 09-25-2006 at 04:09 PM.
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