Recent content by Ductapeman

We took a gig at Eastern Washington State College decades ago now, didn't know till we got there that we were to play outside-- in February, in two feet of snow. I now know that it is completely possible to play bass while wearing mittens.

It was a Harmony H22, bought for fifty bucks I borrowed from our drummer's uncle. May? 1966, I was a sophomore in high school. Here we are probably the next year, 1967, playing at the local Civic Center-- band name was the Purple Grackle, and we were fifteen-yr-old small town hippie wannabe's...

That one is in nice shape-- I'd grab it but I already have a black one, and a blue one, and my wife would scalp me-- the black ones look fantastic if you swap the metal parts for all gold plate

Yes, I always carry two basses-- though I can and have swapped a string within a single verse of a twelve-bar blues, it is still much faster and less kerfuffle to just keep a spare, and Squier P Basses are effective and relatively inexpensive.

The ones I find myself still thinking about decades later are two: In the middle 1970s I owned a 1967 left-handed P Bass that had been refinished in the red Gibson SG-looking finish, Sounded fabulous, drew looks from the other bassists, and I found I could actually play it left-handed after a...

It could still be quite playable with a bit of work. Pull off the neck, is there a "turtle" brand in the neck pocket or on the heel of the neck?

Plus about six Fenders of various sorts, and some one-offs like the Harmony H22 I learned to play on in the winter of 1966--

For some reason the giant red bass balalaika that the Red Elvises used to drag around just cracks me the hell up, no idea why

Carey Nordstrand is making your pickup. I know because I bought one. Tried to contact the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop about making something like this, for SIX FREAKING YEARS, and they never once even responded even to tell me to go to hell. Carey had one on the shelf. I will never buy another...

Nothing is dumb if it turns your crank and you can afford it.

Another vote for the Casady Epiphone. I'm pretty much a Fender guy, but I liked my Epi enough to buy a second one so I could gig with them. They can be had used for surprisingly cheap if you're patient and diligent.

The headstock logo is definitely something in Chinese-- if someone can speak Mandarin I bet you'd have your answer-- and I thought it was an Alembic when I looked at it first too

I've been playing for quite a while now, and until relatively recently the only pedals I used were a Boss tuner and (often but not always) a ten-band MSR EQ in the patch loop of my Gallien Kruegers. (ETA: A Y2K Fender Jazz V to the tuner and into the GK-- that's the loop.) Then a couple years...

There is one in my closet at this moment, next to a Jazz Bass with a P neck. To me they balance better. So sue me.

Usually I'll buy said person a beer and tell him/her "Come find me at break, and you can tell me--" Since we were in the top 5 bands in our market we (mostly) didn't suck too bad, and it made for good public relations.