F-ing new guy

[ErictheBastard]

Hi folks, long-time lurker, first time poster.

Been a bit too busy playing bass to sit around and talk about it (oooh, a bit snarky ain't we? Nah, just getting over a jaded phase and ready to get back to enjoying the bass world the way I did when I was young).

Anyways, been playing 31 years (you think I'd be a bit better by now...) lots of bands, some minor successes and have done quite a bit of time in the 'biz' over the years. I was a salesman at large at the Los Angeles (Studio City actually) Bass Centre owned by Alan Morgan and managed by Chris Maury (who frequents here). I also was a product specialist for Trace Elliot back in their peak years in the early 90s.

Anyways, I just play bass now. I also own a studio and do the requisite amount of engineering and producing. My current efforts are all focused on my band Highway Down which I'm sure will amuse and amaze you in the video below. Did I mention that I'm also sarcastic as Hell?

 

[Epitaph04]

Dont worry. Pretty soon youll be too busy talking about bass to play bass!

 

[ErictheBastard]

I suppose I should add some evidence that I indeed do have the disease, so here's the current arsenal:

•'64 Fender Custom Shop Relic Jazz Bass (on loan from God)
• Hofner Club Bass (strongest fundamental of any bass PERIOD - Pyramid flatwound assisted)
• Eastwood knockoff of an Ampeg Scroll Bass (gets the most questions)
• '62 body/'78 neck Fender P-Bass (meaty, beaty, big and bouncy)
• Sting signature P-Bass (Leo knew exactly what he was doing right from the beginning - and it is the most unlikely, yet correct answer to that age-old stupid question "what is a good bass for metal?")
• Danelectro cheap-ass bass (complete with collapsing bridge)
• Guild B302 awesome bass (although with a couple of glaring engineering deficiencies which are solved by playing a Guild B301 awesome bass)


These are the ones that have come and gone:

• Teisco/Silvertone Violin Bass (my first!)
• Hondo II P-Bass (a profound waste of perfectly good plywood!)
• Pawnshop mystery P-bass with a great walnut body, mirror pickguard and a Kubicki neck with the frets ripped out (wish I still had it)
• BC Rick NJ Series Eagle (another good answer to the ubiquitous stupid question)
• Aria Pro II SB-Elite II (Rudy Sarzo & John Taylor envy! Then, because I was a metal moron at the time, I put a Fµ¢king KAHLER BASS TREM ON IT! D'OH!) Stolen.
• Kramer-era Japanese Spector with a neck made out of pasta
• Squier Jazz bass with a Moon neck
• A couple of Kubicki Ex-Factors (neato!)
• A truly brilliant Status Graphite Series 2000
• A custom built 32" scale Alembic Elan in transparent Trace Elliot Green over quilted maple with a reverse headstock and green LEDs.
• The worst sounding Warmoth Jazz Bass (transparent Trace Elliot green over swamp ash/birdseye maple neck) ever built - (sometimes two pieces of wood just weren't meant to go together).
• Tobias Basic 5 made out of Australian Lacewood that sounded like fuzzy mud.
• Warwick Streamer I 5-string (early version with tight string spacing) with a Fernandes preamp (quite good) and also with a Trace Elliot green stain (see a pattern developing?)
• Warwick Thumb 5 fretless (Why did I sell it? Probably food or some stupid reason like that)
• Music Man Sterling (great bass, but I seemed to change my mind on that at some point - I'm sure there's another in my future)
• Fernandes Jazz Bass (really great sounding and only about $200 -replaced by a '67 Fender Jazz that turned out to be NOT all that)
• '67 Fender Jazz Bass (I have zero recollection of whom I sold it to)
• Some Ibanez thing that WASN'T A SoundGear (I do have my pride and am admittedly a bit of an elitest snob on that subject)
• MIM Fender 60s Jazz Bass with custom shop pickups (good bass!) Stolen
• Lakland Skyline 55-01 (nice bass, but I never really found much use for a 5-string) Stolen
• Geddy Lee Jazz Bass (that I was somehow swindled out of by a kid at church - seriously)
• Lakland Skyline Daryl Jones 5 (beautiful playing instrument, but the tone NEVER sat right in the mix - ever)
• MIM Fender 60s Jazz Bass, Dimarzio Ultra Jazz pickups (freakin' awesome) de-fretted and filled with a hard poly finish on the fingerboard - for sale!

I'm sure I'm missing a few, but you get the idea

 

[BCondabass]

Hey there Eric Brad C here... Been a long time for sure...
Welcome the Talking Heads of Bassdom!
(I used to come up to the Bass Centre and hang out, play the ladies once in a while)...
Cheers,
Brad Cummings
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