Double Bass Cousin Jake's Bass (Flatt & Scruggs)

[carteru93]

I belive he's got nylon strings on,,I've seen early photos with guts,,those look like supernyls to me,,He was a great player,,simple as pie but had timing like no other,,bad left hand and all, Josh told me he taught him how to play the bass.
The latest dvd of the Flatt&Scruggs show includes a show from 1956 in which Josh is playing the bass,,few know that he was hired as a bass player,,and just fell into playing the Dobro,,,but he sounds good on bass too.

There's a show on Youtube from the 50's, I have it on DVD also, of the boys playing what looks to be a USO show. Featured the "Little Darlin" doing his porkchop dance, and was hosted by Charlie Applewhite. There are a few songs here that I believe Josh played the bass on, and also Hylo Brown.

 

[carteru93]

Marty Stuart is making an interesting G chord! Reminds me of the Cherryholmes picture that caused a ruckus recently.

And the infamous JD Crowe Rounder cover...

 

[juuzek]

You too Juuzek! How do you post big pix like that - the software made me shrink them down to 640 max.....

Hi Jake,
To post, I first uploaded the pics into a 3rd party hosting page; I use Photobucket, but there is Flikr and Sanpfish too.

Then, I copy the image code [the site generates it automatically] and paste the code into the comment box. Voila!

 

[Jake deVilliers]

Voila!

Aha! Thanks for the explanation - I've seen other bigger pix and wondered. I guess I'll be sticking with the thumbnails....

 

[MollyKay]

Goodness! That bridge looks like a potato chip it is curled up so high. I am continually amazed at these basses. They were absolute workhorse in their day. Anyone that snubs their nose at an old Kay should take into consideration how these basses traveled and were played. Good golly no wonder some of them look like they were drug behind the bus instead of on the bus.

Great pictures…I love this old stuff.

 

[Jake deVilliers]

And I'd bet 20 bucks that they put the same curled bridge back on when they scraped off the worn finish to make it a blonde - and put it an inch and a half too high too!

 

[kg4muc]

Early on Jake played a M mdl Kay the typical red orange sunburst,latter in the 60s he used a C mdl Kay, which was owned by Lester Flatt,I have a good pic of it someplace,,it stayed with the band when Jake left Lester in the early 70's
and was refinnished to a blonde about that time,,I was told it ruined the sound of it,,I'll dig up my photos for you,,Kent

On some of the old Martha White Show DVD's I noticed they used both a 639 and what looked like an RCA (possibly a BK6 or 12 ) taped just below the neck..either way you cut it that was one fine sounding bass!.The one picture that's on the 69 box set looks to be SuperNils on it..Always wondered how he kept the A string so bright on those.. I had heard a lot of rumors on what actually became of that bass..good to know the rest of the story ( RIP Paul Harvey)

Wayne Thomas

 

[Gearhead43]

Cousin Jake rules!!

 

[Dave R]

YouTube is a goldmine for F&S videos, I have about 30 of em downloaded to my iPod.

Sprta off topic...but how do you get videos from YouTube to your iPod? I would love to do that..

 

[Jake deVilliers]

Sprta off topic...but how do you get videos from YouTube to your iPod? I would love to do that..

You can get vids from YouTube onto your hard drive with Download Helper, a Firefox extensionInvalid Link Removed

I don't know nuthin' about Ipods...

 

[Dave R]

Thanks, Jake. Worked like a charm.

 

[superman]

I spoke to Gary Tullock last night,,he is Jakes son,
He told me Jake sold the bass to lester when he quit the band sometime in 1970-71, Lester had the bass refinnished blond which we see in the photo of Johnny Johnson playing it. now the "rest" of the story,,it seems that Johnson left the bass out in the rain at some point,,it got soaked and was destroyed,,what a shame,,that was a good bass.

 

[forndog1]

Like the pic in post #25 makes my A S look new..

 

[wallawallabob]

Looks like rope burns from being lashed to the roof!

 

[superman]

Thats actualy what I call bow rash,,I bet this bass was in a school ,,play a lot with a bow,,which the user had little control over,,,mine is the same way,,came from a college .