• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Barker Bass Club

#43
Update from sunny Madison:

#76 now has two bandleaders who won't let me use anything else. Second application is good old fake book jazz. I've backed off the neck pickup to 50%, the bridge to 80% and tone back around 75%. Punchy, expressive and fits in a mix wonderfully.

I did try my Jazz bass for one song tonight, the thing is fun in its own right, but doesn't drive a band like the Barker.

Camp Interceptor is really ready to go down to one bass. Heck, it is all anyone lets me play.
 
#45
pointbass said:
:D

Except for one location, no one I play with has any issues with the Barker and like you, a few places/gigs prefer it. Since I've been DB-ing it a lot lately, I miss the BVB even more .... :atoz:. That is a big moose to carry around :help:
Click to expand...
I get asked if I play an upright, and I tell them that I have an electric upright and that usually ends the discussion. No, actually they respond with the word, "Good," and THAT ends the discussion.

Then I show up with my Barker B1, and the discussion goes something like this:

"Wow, that's a cool looking bass. What kind is it?"

"Barker."

"Never heard of it."

"It's hand made by a guy in Oregon."

"Oh. Cool!"

Then the next conversation about my Barker goes something like this:

"You sound great. Do you want to take a solo at...."

I love it!
 
#46
These are wonderful things to read. I count myself a very fortunate person, with the usual list of wife, family, enough food, shelter, and then I get to the part about building things with my hands, which clearly I was prewired to do, and I'm all warm and toasty.

The one thing I'd like to include in that list is that I have been able to hear (and see) you play your Barker. Somehow, some way...lessee, Upstate New York (Thomas), New Jersey (Pfaff and Goode), Memphis (Goff), Milwaukee (Interceptor), Michigan (Phalex doesn't own one yet, but there's hope), Kentucky, Texas, Albuquerque (Owens), Colorado, north to Alaska, (Tom7), then Seattle and a buzz down the West Coast (Witt, Mancini, Fretster, Minnie Uthers). Where's my portmanteau?
 
#48
Ditto! Plus when you get to my house, you can try out the new Piezo Pickup in the B1 yourself!

For the rest of the Club Members: Lee has done all the woodwork on #86, for the battery box, the 4th pot, and space under the bridge to install the GraphTech Ghost piezo pickups and preamp. The bass is now at my office waiting for me to get home (week long roadtrip for work) so I can finish the soldering and wiring to bring this new creature to life.
 
#49
I posted a couple pics of the my work on Fretster's #86, over on the Looking for Barker Bass Owner...thread, two doors down.
 
#50
Am I out of the Barker Bass Club purgatory yet?

Better, more detailed pics coming, I promise ..... I have an extremely rare gig-free weekend coming up, my wife is out of town teaching a class, so now I have choices:

  1. Completely cleanup all the fall yard debris?
  2. Repair the rear door jamb?
  3. Change out the dimmer switch in the master bath?
  4. Take pictures of the BVB B6?
Whaddayathink?
 

Attachments

  • b6 pups.JPG
    b6 pups.JPG
    40.2 KB · Views: 88
  • b6 full.jpg
    b6 full.jpg
    42.2 KB · Views: 93
#51
Well, if #1 includes cleaning the gutters, a job I've managed to postpone myself so far, and if you do #1, please don't tell me about the gutters. If you do #4, please tell us and maybe even show us!


Referencing Tom's tale above of exchanges about the bass:

I played at the annual Hoedown for Hunger Fundraiser Saturday in the Next Town Over. Lots of musicians I knew, lots I didn't. It's kind of a zoo, really, with a teeny stage (community center) with access from the front only, too many straw bales as decor, and each group gets 25 minutes, five to set up and the rest to play. Tension.

So I'm playing in two groups, one a sitin, and I'm a bit tense, and in the warmup room, and a guy walks in and says, "That looks like a Barker." (He was looking at the bass in hand, not me.) Too soon I let on!

My preferred response, concocted later that night on the drive home: "Yeah, it's a Barker. The guy doesn't know what he's doing. As good as this sounds, he should be charging twice as much."

I may think of even better responses as I'm cleaning the gutters Saturday.
 
#52
pointbass said:
Am I out of the Barker Bass Club purgatory yet?

Better, more detailed pics coming, I promise ..... I have an extremely rare gig-free weekend coming up, my wife is out of town teaching a class, so now I have choices:
  1. Completely cleanup all the fall yard debris?
  2. Repair the rear door jamb?
  3. Change out the dimmer switch in the master bath?
  4. Take pictures of the BVB B6?
Whaddayathink?
Click to expand...
I vote that you do which ever you think will make the wife happiest. In fact, I'd do whichever GROUP of items would make the wife happiest.

They may be odd advice, coming from a bass club member, but then again, in my marriage, we both have say in all major family purchases, including basses! :smug:
 
#53
pointbass said:
Am I out of the Barker Bass Club purgatory yet?

Better, more detailed pics coming, I promise ..... I have an extremely rare gig-free weekend coming up, my wife is out of town teaching a class, so now I have choices:
  1. Completely cleanup all the fall yard debris?
  2. Repair the rear door jamb?
  3. Change out the dimmer switch in the master bath?
  4. Take pictures of the BVB B6?
Whaddayathink?
Click to expand...

Today's roster updates Ed's bass from his 5-string to his 6-string.

Congratulations!

Is it true this custom has a model name: B6?

BARKER BASS CLUB ROSTER
(Updated 10 Nov 09)
#00 Lee Barker

  1. Tom7 - B1 - (5-string fretless)
  2. pointbass - B1six (6-string fretless)
  3. TK4108 - B1 (4-string fretted)
  4. fretster - B1 (4-string lined fretless)
  5. Iotanet - B2 (4-string lined fretless)
  6. Interceptor - B1 (5-string, lined fretless)
  7. <Your name could be here!>
Former Barker Bass owners:
pointbass - B1 (5-string fretless),
 
#54
Tom7 said:
Is it true this custom has a model name: B6?
Click to expand...

I have no idea if that is a formal model name in Barker-land, it's just how I have referred to it since the day Lee started on it. I always think of it as a Barker 6, shortened to a B6. I guess it's sort of a weirdo B-1 fretless with 6 strings ..... not sure if Lee has a real model name for it or not ;)

BTW, thanks for the club update ... it's nice to be legitimate again :cool:
 
#55
Tom7 said:
I vote that you do which ever you think will make the wife happiest. In fact, I'd do whichever GROUP of items would make the wife happiest.

They may be odd advice, coming from a bass club member, but then again, in my marriage, we both have say in all major family purchases, including basses! :smug:
Click to expand...

Actually, that's great advice! After 28 years together, it's advice I totally agree with!

And agreed on the purchasing decisions, too .... in truth, my wife pretty much paid for this bass :D
 
#56
pointbass said:
I have no idea if that is a formal model name in Barker-land, it's just how I have referred to it since the day Lee started on it. I always think of it as a Barker 6, shortened to a B6. I guess it's sort of a weirdo B-1 fretless with 6 strings ..... not sure if Lee has a real model name for it or not ;)

I'd suggest we lift the alphanumeric protocol from Honda motorcycles when Soichiro rocked the two wheel world with the CB750, which he called 750four.

B1six? Does that raise your eyebrows or the hearer's?

It kinda qualifies as a B1 because of the two pickups.

Anyway, that's my .02. Just go out and have some musical fun, that's the point!
Click to expand...
 
#57
(Updated 10 Nov 09)
#00 Lee Barker

  1. Tom7 - B1 - (5-string fretless)
  2. pointbass - B6 (6-string fretless)
  3. TK4108 - B1 (4-string fretted)
  4. fretster - B1 (4-string lined fretless)
  5. Iotanet - B2 (4-string lined fretless)
  6. Interceptor - B1 (5-string, lined fretless)
  7. <Your name could be here!>
Former Barker Bass owners:
pointbass - B1 (5-string fretless),[/QUOTE]

If you want my particulars, I have a Brio fretted four custom and a B1 fretted four custom.

If Fretster wants to get specific about the goodies in his, I'll do a Potlatch with him and we'll see who wins.
 
#60
Lee Barker said:
(Updated 10 Nov 09)
#00 Lee Barker
  1. Tom7 - B1 - (5-string fretless)
  2. pointbass - B6 (6-string fretless)
  3. TK4108 - B1 (4-string fretted)
  4. fretster - B1 (4-string lined fretless)
  5. Iotanet - B2 (4-string lined fretless)
  6. Interceptor - B1 (5-string, lined fretless)
  7. <Your name could be here!>
Former Barker Bass owners:
pointbass - B1 (5-string fretless),
Click to expand...

If you want my particulars, I have a Brio fretted four custom and a B1 fretted four custom.

If Fretster wants to get specific about the goodies in his, I'll do a Potlatch with him and we'll see who wins.[/quote]
Any photos you could post? Technically, clubs give numbers to those who post photos in the club thread.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back