Me playing Joe Osborn's Jazz Bass

[The Lurker]

I had an unusual opportunity last week. I went to the Big E, which is our local state fair, and they had a touring exhibit from the Musicians' Hall of Fame, which included a number of instruments belonging to famous musicians including Will Lee, Scotty Moore, Bill Black, Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Lockwood Jr., etc. They also had the recording unit that Elvis tracked his first song on.

For a donation of $20, they let you hold and (if you knew how) briefly play the things.

Most of these things are pretty beat-- in addition to the road wear and so on, the museum they used to live in was flooded when Nashville was under water in May of this year, and the instruments had water damage. To add insult to injury, the city of Nashville then took the museum property by eminent domain, forcing the museum to close until they could find somewhere else.

So here's me playing Joe Osborn's 1960 Jazz Bass, the one that about a bajillion songs were recorded with, and one of Pete Townshend's guitars:

[BillyIVbass]

Cool! Bass Player Magazine recently had a 1-page write up about that bass. That thing must have a ton of mojo.

[funkytoe]

Very cool. Now, having held and played JO's bass, would you please tell us .... Is it some magical Excalibur of a bass, or even the best Jazz you've played? Or, was the magic in JO's hands and pick?

[One Drop]

Tell us more about the bass! How did it sound and feel?

[Caca de Kick]

Did Joe's bass seem affected at all by water damage? It was reported to be one of them that got submerged.

[57pbass]

At The Philly Gtr show a few years back I got a chance to play Fleetwood Macs - Peter Green's famous 1960 Les Paul....The guy who had it on display was very nice and he asked that I sit and he placed the guitar in my lap...

Please tell us more about Osborns J Bass....

[The Lurker]

Originally Posted by funkytoe

Very cool. Now, having held and played JO's bass, would you please tell us .... Is it some magical Excalibur of a bass, or even the best Jazz you've played? Or, was the magic in JO's hands and pick?

Well, I only had a couple minutes with it, and no amp, but here are my impressions:

It's very lightweight. One would almost think it was made of basswood or something, rather than the alder or whatever Fender used then.


It has very old flatwound strings on it.


There was a wear mark on the pickup cover where the chrome had worn off, probably from many years' resting the right hand there.


I couldn't begin to guess what was road-wear and what was flood damage. The finish on the back of the neck was completely gone.


Acoustically, it sounded very good.

[Stick_Player]

Tell us more about the bass! How did it sound and feel?

Probably like any other Fender Jazz from that period.

Is it some magical Excalibur of a bass... Or, was the magic in JO's hands

Completely and exclusively in JO's hands.

[One Drop]

Originally Posted by Stick_Player

Probably like any other Fender Jazz from that period.



Completely and exclusively in JO's hands.

Well, I personally haven't played that many 1960 Jazz basses, myself.

I've played a few heavily worn old Fenders and they can feel truly amazing. I've also played a lot of slightly later Js and Ps and they can sound very different from one another, much more than modern basses differ from each other within the same models.

If the sound JO got from his J was entirely and exclusively in his hands he wouldn't have made such a concerted effort to find a decent similar sounding replacement when he decided to retire the stack-knob, either.

Personally I believe the magic comes from the interaction of a player AND his instrument.

[BuffaloBass]

No doubt, but at least the OP got to touch The Grail. Friggin' cool!

Now if it was Jamerson's bass, I'd say, " You BEST be on your knees fool! "

Lurker gets to witness the mojo. Far out!