Country Bass Walk

[martinc]

Originally Posted by superman

I also ment to point out Jack played a Epiphone bass,,recorded extremely well,

Kent:
Thanks for the introduction to Jack Drake I listened to all the 36 samples. What a player! I think he would have been my mentor if I had been playing back then.
Some of that boogie-woogie jazz stuff he does is excellent. As you say he has great tone...also a great left hand touch too. He ain't no ordinary hillbilly bass player for sure.
Same goes for the band too. Quite a collection of talented musicians.

[superman]

I have never tried to track that one down,,I know he's playing a blond most of the time,, but in the later Ernest Tubb tv shows he has a black Epi,,it could be the same bass just with a refinn,,I have been trying to contact the family of his brother Pete Drake,,if I ever contact them I will ask about Jacks bass,,I know he also played a blond M Kay back in the 50s,,Tubbs band had a endorsment from Epip sometime in the 60s,,heres a link to some of the tv shows.
Ernest Tubb - Another story (from E.T. TV Show) - YouTube

[superman]

Heres a show with the black bass,,,same one??
Ernest Tubb - Thoughts of a fool (from E.T. TV Show) - YouTube

[MollyKay]

Ohhh….that’s a tough call. The blonde Epi is a post war because it has the light tail piece and larger FF holes. That bass looks to be a B-5 fancy model. If the black bass is the same Epi bass painted (GULP), everything was painted tail piece and all. The tuners look more like nickel then brass in the black bass.

An Epi painted black turned up in a music store in NJ. There was some story behind it, I don’t remember but the black bass is definitely not a factory color. To my knowledge Epiphone never painted a bass all black.

Love to know more about these basses if you find anything out.

[MR PC]

Originally Posted by superman

Tubbs band had a endorsment from Epip sometime in the 60s,,
]

Originally Posted by MollyKay

An Epi painted black turned up in a music store in NJ. There was some story behind it, I don’t remember but the black bass is definitely not a factory color. To my knowledge Epiphone never painted a bass all black.

if they had an endorsement, i think Epi would have been willing to do custom one off finishes. especially for Ernest Tubb, he was such a well loved personality......i did get to shake his hand once! his road band was the swingin'est as well.

[hublocker]

I just got Keith's book and boy am I glad I did.

Before I got in my current band (originally Western swing but moving to more swing than Western it seems) I used to play along with my Buck Owens and Ray Price records in the basement trying to emulate that walking style but the examples presented in the book move me much further along.

I was first turned on it by two things: the bass playing on "Heartaches by the number" on my mom's Dottie West record in the 1960s and Chris Ethridge's bass playing on "Close up the honky tonks" when I saw the original FBB with Gram Parsons at the Seattle Pop Festival in 1969.

It only took me 42 years to find a band that wanted me to play that style of bass.