To be honest with you, M. Blais, I didn't originally intend to look at the Dean - I went looking for a Palatino to try. But all that was there was the Pace. And I was (and still may be) contemplating committing myself to all the time and effort required to get an EUB up and running. I haven't bought anything yet, and may not do so for a while. It's just that this may seem like a better use of my time and effort and money, for the amount of time that I'm going to be playing the instrument.
Fretless BG - Yeh, I had one of those back in ’81, before going over to the Guitar Side. Used to alternate between that and DB with (in those archaic days) a Di Marzio Acoustic pickup stuck on the bridge. A few times, when we were pressed for space in the van and on the stage, for the numbers where I would normally switch to DB, it was left at home and I played the BG (a Shergold Marathon, if anyone remembers those!) on a stand in an upright position, using right hand DB technique. And it did sound different, to my and the band’s ears at least (“why don’t you play like that all the time?”)
So I have some history with all that. But, the look of something that is upright appeals to me in this context, and also to others who see that sort of thing. Yes it’s a compromise, but it may be good enough.
Now I’m not one of those who needs a particular form for a particular music – for instance, I have no sympathy with those who tell my fellow guitarists that they need to have a jazz guitar, when they turn up to a gig with a Telecaster. If my ears tell me something works sonically, and an instrument suits my eye, then I’m good.
I remember at one jazz gig being paid off at the interval because the pub owner was expecting “a proper jazz band, not keyboards and all that b******s”.
Seriously. Our line-up was guitar, bass, drums, keys – but because we didn’t have horns, or play “Stranger on the Shore”, or a bunch of Trad stuff, we clearly weren’t a “proper jazz band”. Well, he got what he deserved – within a quarter of an hour, people had voted with their feet (and their beer money!) and the place was empty before we’d even packed up our gear. On a wet Monday night, instead of having 75 people in there until closing time, he had two men and a dog. Not a great move.
Of course, if I were a REAL traditionalist, I’d be playing a banjo, and the bassist would be a Tuba player. And then where would we be?
). Granted, I needed to work hard to get a decent sound from it; but got there or thereabouts in the end.
