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Do you have a 'Wife?'

GeneralElectric

GeneralElectric

Dec 26, 2007
10,314
1,375
36
NY, NY
#1
Do you have a bass that has been with you for 10+ years? Is it your main player, or at least up there? I wanna see those well loved basses! Tell me their stories!


Mine is my Fender 57 RI. Its a first year in white. I've been calling it The Wife for longer than I knew Billy Sheehan and his bass even existed. I got it around 2000 or 2001 when I was 10 or 11 years old for my birthday. Found at a pawn shop for $400, my dad split the cost with me. It was my first bass and the one against all others are judged. Admittedly I only bought it because it looked pretty close to Steve Harris' Precision. It was pretty much brand new and came with all the case candy and OHSC. I promptly lost all of it.

I joke that its been dragged behind a truck. In reality its been dropped, carried in a duffel bag on my back sans case, smashed into cymbals, fallen, gotten wet, gotten soaked, and probably a lot of other abuse I'm forgetting about. The electronics have all been replaced (except for the pickup) as they've been crapping out on me.

Its a great sounding and playing bass that weighs next to nothing. I was doing a set up on a someone's bass today and they came over to pick it up. While they were here they asked to try it because they'd never seen a bass with a pickup cover before. They offered to buy it on the spot and kept raising the price until I told them I'd never sell it. I've even had my old bass tech offer to buy it off me. Its got too many memories and has been with me in every band I've ever been in and my, now deceased, father helped me buy it. I took a page from Jamerson's book and carved 'Per Padre' onto the neck and filled it with pen ink.

Pickup cover is back on, bridge cover isn't as I change strings every other week. Currently wear a fresh set of DR Hi Beams. The old set is sitting in denatured alcohol.

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Before the guard swap when she wore LaBella JJ flats

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#4
3726818161_d425b7a0cc_b.jpg


My 1997 American Standard Jazz
I got her used in 1998 from a little mom and pop store that closed down years ago
Its been gigged hard in my college band, has all the bumps and mojo from those years too
then it sat in a case for 5 years while I went to art school ,got married, etc,.
I started going to church and they lost their entire band shortly after I started to attend
they asked for volunteers and my wife "volunteered" me
I have been playing the Jazz ever since (2005)
and have added 3 more basses to my stable
 
#6
Bought it at GC for the princely sum of 400 bucks in 1993. It's a '68 and has that tone that only a mid 60's Ric can get. It's had lots of repairs, but it still has that magic mojo. It's played gigs with Great White, Molly Hatchet and ELO (and maybe some others I can't remember.) It's amazing how easy it is to get a Chris Squire tone out of it. :bassist:;)
 

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#7
I played stand-up bass in a bluegrass band in
the Ozarks of Arkansas. When I moved to Little
Rock, I wanted to switch to electric bass. So
in 1985 I bought a Westone Electra,

Tabdog1.jpg


It had an 18 volt preamp. I had never even heard
of an active bass before. It sounded better than
anything else I played, and still does. It was $595
originally, but I got it for $400 plus tax, and it came
with a Fender jazz bass hard shell case,

4-4-1-1.jpg


I played in a few bands, both country and rock. I
finally got with an old friend and we became the
Bomb Squad,

bigta2.jpg


When my wife got pregnant, everything slowed to
a crawl.

My son plays bass now,

IMG_3125-1.jpg


That has kept me interested in guitars/bass/music.
I am disabled now and cannot depend on being able
to play at any given time. I occasionally will stand
in down at the old folks home, and I like to setup
and mod cheap guitars and basses.

But, this is my only wife now that my kids mom has
passed away,

3-16-9-1.jpg


Tabdog
 
#8
king_biscuit said:
What strings are on the old girl GE?
Click to expand...

DR HiBeams 50-110. I swap them out once they start to lose their zing which is generally about 2 weeks since I've got sweaty hands that are usually dirty when I play. Gross, I know, but I run around a lot and its not like I'm eating bare handed. Plus they get a lot of beer poured on them too as people have lately been throwing cups around to get everyone wet. After that I stick them in a PVC tube filled with denatured alcohol.

She was actually just wearing my set of mystery flats up until last week. No idea what brand they are. The pics of the bass with the gold guard, she's wearing LaBella James Jamerson Signatures.

Generally I string my basses with HiBeams gauges 50-105 (just replace it with a slightly skinnier E) as I find that the 105s generally sound a little tighter.
 
#9
tabdog said:
I played stand-up bass in a bluegrass band in
the Ozarks of Arkansas. When I moved to Little
Rock, I wanted to switch to electric bass. So
in 1985 I bought a Westone Electra,

Tabdog1.jpg


It had an 18 volt preamp. I had never even heard
of an active bass before. It sounded better than
anything else I played, and still does. It was $595
originally, but I got it for $400 plus tax, and it came
with a Fender jazz bass hard shell case,

4-4-1-1.jpg


I played in a few bands, both country and rock. I
finally got with an old friend and we became the
Bomb Squad,

bigta2.jpg


When my wife got pregnant, everything slowed to
a crawl.

My son plays bass now,

IMG_3125-1.jpg


That has kept me interested in guitars/bass/music.
I am disabled now and cannot depend on being able
to play at any given time. I occasionally will stand
in down at the old folks home, and I like to setup
and mod cheap guitars and basses.

But, this is my only wife now that my kids mom has
passed away,

3-16-9-1.jpg


Tabdog
Click to expand...

This is probably one of the most touching things I've read on TB. I hope you and your son play as often as you can. You're either singing or smiling in all your pictures for a reason. :)
 
#10
GeneralElectric said:
Do you have a bass that has been with you for 10+ years? Is it your main player, or at least up there? I wanna see those well loved basses! Tell me their stories!

Mine is my Fender 57 RI. Its a first year in white. I've been calling it The Wife for longer than I knew Billy Sheehan and his bass even existed. I got it around 2000 or 2001 when I was 10 or 11 years old for my birthday. Found at a pawn shop for $400, my dad split the cost with me. It was my first bass and the one against all others are judged. Admittedly I only bought it because it looked pretty close to Steve Harris' Precision. It was pretty much brand new and came with all the case candy and OHSC. I promptly lost all of it.

I joke that its been dragged behind a truck. In reality its been dropped, carried in a duffel bag on my back sans case, smashed into cymbals, fallen, gotten wet, gotten soaked, and probably a lot of other abuse I'm forgetting about. The electronics have all been replaced (except for the pickup) as they've been crapping out on me.

Its a great sounding and playing bass that weighs next to nothing. I was doing a set up on a someone's bass today and they came over to pick it up. While they were here they asked to try it because they'd never seen a bass with a pickup cover before. They offered to buy it on the spot and kept raising the price until I told them I'd never sell it. I've even had my old bass tech offer to buy it off me. Its got too many memories and has been with me in every band I've ever been in and my, now deceased, father helped me buy it. I took a page from Jamerson's book and carved 'Per Padre' onto the neck and filled it with pen ink.

Pickup cover is back on, bridge cover isn't as I change strings every other week. Currently wear a fresh set of DR Hi Beams. The old set is sitting in denatured alcohol.

Before the guard swap when she wore LaBella JJ flats
Click to expand...

Great story and an awesome bass!!
 
#11
I have had my '81 G&L L-2000 for close to 27 years. It was almost stolen from me, been close to getting burned in fires twice (I ran into my apartment to get it while the apartment next to me was completely in flames) but I have never had a bass like this one. Shes totally solid and heavy. I dont take it out of the case much lately but when I do its like a time machine. I remember playing in bars when I was still in high school and some of the dings and scratches I still know how they happened, and that makes me laugh. Got in a with the keyboard player in a band I was in cause he knocked it off the stage and fell like 4 or five feet. Amazingly it stayed in tune! I would be crushed if something happened to it.
 
#12
GeneralElectric said:
DR HiBeams 50-110. I swap them out once they start to lose their zing which is generally about 2 weeks since I've got sweaty hands that are usually dirty when I play. Gross, I know, but I run around a lot and its not like I'm eating bare handed. Plus they get a lot of beer poured on them too as people have lately been throwing cups around to get everyone wet. After that I stick them in a PVC tube filled with denatured alcohol.

She was actually just wearing my set of mystery flats up until last week. No idea what brand they are. The pics of the bass with the gold guard, she's wearing LaBella James Jamerson Signatures.

Generally I string my basses with HiBeams gauges 50-105 (just replace it with a slightly skinnier E) as I find that the 105s generally sound a little tighter.
Click to expand...


I'm going to have to try a set of SS rounds on mine.
 
#13
I've always been a pretty prolific trader/G.A.S -addict, so none of my previous basses survived until the 10-year mark... but one is coming close - my frankenjazz.

Invalid Link Removed

I bought it somewhere around 2005-2006 (if I recall right). I was obsessed with getting a fretless at the time, so I got a fretless MIM jazz. Alas, I never had the time (or the interest) to work enough with my fretless playing, so it ended staying in the rack practically unplayed. Then I got the idea of getting a graphite (necked) bass. Being a student with pretty limited quantities of cash, I opted for the next best choice - A Status replacement neck. After that I've replaced pretty much everything. The original tuners with Schallers, PU's with EMG's and the bridge was Swapped for a Gotoh. After I changed the neck, I've been playing it more or less all the time, in parallel with any other basses I've might have had at any time. A couple of times I've been tempted of selling it, to finance some other purchases but this temptation always ends when I pick it up. Too much work has gone into it, and I know if all other basses fail I can count on it to work.

The funny thing is, soundwise it's nothing special. Acoustically it's average at best (somewhat dull at worst). Amplified, the EMG's give a nice punch and work great live, but I still think the sound could be better (I'm thinking going passive with it). It's just that this is something I've worked with for so long to make it reliable and "mine" that I can't really think of a reason to part with it. :)
 
#14
BluwekBlegug.jpg


The bass below in the picture (Natural 78 Fender Precision with dMarzio) is my servant, not a wife, and never will be... (I call my basses servants instead of wife hehee)...
Has been with me for 25 years, since the very first time I play bass.

But for last 4 years, the Fender Sting Precision, above, starting to be my main servant. LOL.
I love that CIJ Fender.
 
#15
tabdog said:
I played stand-up bass in a bluegrass band in
the Ozarks of Arkansas. When I moved to Little
Rock, I wanted to switch to electric bass. So
in 1985 I bought a Westone Electra,

Tabdog1.jpg


It had an 18 volt preamp. I had never even heard
of an active bass before. It sounded better than
anything else I played, and still does. It was $595
originally, but I got it for $400 plus tax, and it came
with a Fender jazz bass hard shell case,


I played in a few bands, both country and rock. I
finally got with an old friend and we became the
Bomb Squad,

When my wife got pregnant, everything slowed to
a crawl.

My son plays bass now,

That has kept me interested in guitars/bass/music.
I am disabled now and cannot depend on being able
to play at any given time. I occasionally will stand
in down at the old folks home, and I like to setup
and mod cheap guitars and basses.

But, this is my only wife now that my kids mom has
passed away,

3-16-9-1.jpg


Tabdog
Click to expand...

wow...this could have been a harry chapin song or something...beautiful story man. /thread.
 
#17
#19
This is my baby. I got her a year ago for my 14th birthday. She's my first bass. She's almost impossible to damage. I used to bring her every where with my. In fact, the only two places I didn't bring her were school and the shower. When I was in the shower she was resting on the bathroom counter. I love to show her off. Even my bass teacher wants her, but I'm not givin her up. I'm gonna run her into the ground, rebuild her, run her into the ground again, rebuild her again and repeat that process over and over again until I die.
I have an electric bass that looks like the red one in the other picture, but I'm only keeping that one until next year so I can get a Rumblekat. It doesn't mean much to me. It's just louder and newer than my first bass. I think of it as that SS that some one had, but only took out once or twice a year because they didn't want to damage it cause they thought by saving it they were making it worth a lot more money.
 

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