Once, when I was 15 and had no money, I lusted after a gorge bass in (RIP) Dougie's Music Store* in Northwich. This is 20 years ago, you understand. I wouldn't mind tracking one down now I have a tad more disposable, or at least finding out some more info on them. Also to convince myself that my memory isn't completely knacked. So - it was a smallish body, orange flame top, beautiful, and I'm SURE had an AA logo on the headstock. Does this AA brand exist? *If, heaven forbid, any forumer is familiar with the shop, it was on display in the small cupboardy bit at the far end upstairs on the guitar floor.
I used to work in Dougie's music, I clearly remember this bass, it had a gold Badass bridge and was a clear red finish. Dougie told me the AA stood for Angus Attila (Attiler not sur how you spell it). I sold the bass to a guy from southport called Malcolm, I remember this as I advertised it in the loot magazine and sold it from my home one sunday. must have been around 1993.
Wow. this isn't a zombie thread, it's full on resurected! To complete this story we need a post from another TBer saying 'wow, I bought this bass in 1993, it's in the classifieds at the moment!'
I googled Dougie's music Northwich and seen this post in the search results, just had to reply. I actually still see a couple of the guys I used to work with at the shop. Mark who used to run the guitar dept is a good friend of mine who I see on a regular basis and Terry who used to do the repairs on amps, re tubing and stuff, he has a hardware and electrical store on the market in Northwich. I often think of maybe one day resurrecting the old shop I think I would even call it Dougies LMAO.
I remember these basses were advertised in the early 1980s in Musicstop's (largish local store) catalog, and I played one in the store in my town as well. Nicely made, quite bright sounding, lots of sustain. I seem to remember they were not very expensive.
"They were not very expensive" when you're 15 is very, very relative. I ended up buying a (lovely) Rick copy from Dougie's for £70. Fans of doomed Northwich music shops will hopefully be amused to hear about a Kay guitar in Gorst and Oakes (sold fridges, cookers and guitars - aren't provincial towns fun?). I pressed my nose against the window and yearned for that guitar as a kid for years. It had a through-neck, vaguely double-cutaway Les Paul, and was beautiful. Then one day I saw it for sale in a house clearance shop down the road and was SOOOOOOO excited - I even had saved enough pocket money to buy it. Took it to school soon after for a band practice or something and left it in the music dept store room... in the afternoon when I went to pick it up said to the music teacher "just getting my guitar" and he replied "ah yes, yours is the small one". And the next Saturday I part-exed it for the biggest guitar I could find.
