Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[beans-on-toast]

It's the Blues Monday feeling in St. Louis, where, apparently, laws ensure no blues are played without a piano.

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That's true. Love the thunderous bass.

For a while, radio was programming slots based on what instruments were in the band. When Elton John was big, music with piano got more air, strictly guitar bands got less air time. Radio was defining that guitar bands were dead. So if you had piano you got slotted into some of the EJ segments. Same happened with synth based music. Radio drove what was "in".

 

[beans-on-toast]

Blues Monday, metoo

Barbara Lynn lends some soul to all her songs.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Couldn't resist this one.

 

[BargeOn]

Nice

Paul Desmond had the sweetest tone I've ever heard come out of an alto.
I got to meet and chat with Morello* and Wright after a 1964 concert in Miami. Couple of really nice guys to 3 teenagers who managed to get up on stage. (we couldn't get close to Brubeck and Desmond)
*most 'musical' drummer ever.

Great story. Gene Wright's lines are a study in elegant simplicity. I read a bio that said Bruebeck was strict on that point so he could go where he wanted and count on the bass to be there when he landed and stay out of the way in the mean time.

Dave's son Chris has been making great jazz for years. Plays a modified fretless Ric, can do dead-on 16th note runs while singing. Plays trombone too, which is a kind of fretless horn.

 

[G-Dog]

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[Jeff Scott]

I find that leaving the instrument in the case when not playing helps a lot with seasonal climate change. In the winter when it is drier, I leave the more delicate instruments in their cases in a closed clothes closet where they are more protected from the drafts of leaking windows. It's difficult to control the temperature when the sun heats a room in the afternoon and at night it's way colder. Any isolation helps.

Unless an instrument is currently being used for something (on stage at a gig, practice, noodling, etc.) it stays in the case. Better for the instruments, even if it does require a few more seconds to get to one.

(Re: Höfner 500/1). The necks are hard maple. Construction varied over the years.

IIRC, the 1/2" (or thereabouts) center strip of the neck is birch. All that I have played (various '60s models), and the one I owned ('07 500/1V63) had that.

 

[GwenOnBass]

And learn today the man who shot the photos of Altamont that Rolling Stone published without attribution for his own safety has come out of hiding 49 years later. His name is Bill Owens and he's published a monograph titled Bill Owens: Altamont 1969

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[GonePlaid]

Nice

Great story. Gene Wright's lines are a study in elegant simplicity. I read a bio that said Bruebeck was strict on that point so he could go where he wanted and count on the bass to be there when he landed and stay out of the way in the mean time.

Dave's son Chris has been making great jazz for years. Plays a modified fretless Ric, can do dead-on 16th note runs while singing. Plays trombone too, which is a kind of fretless horn.

"Fretless horn"-I like it. A trombone playing friend refers to his as a "slide operated tone approximator".

 

[El Güero]

It's the Blues Monday feeling in St. Louis, where, apparently, laws ensure no blues are played without a piano.

 

[beans-on-toast]

IIRC, the 1/2" (or thereabouts) center strip of the neck is birch. All that I have played (various '60s models), and the one I owned ('07 500/1V63) had that.

That’s interesting. The neck on my old one is solid maple with a rosewood fretboard. I can’t recall the construction of the ones that I used in the 60’s, that was 50 years ago. The top of the body on mine is spruce, the sides and back are both maple.

There have been a lot of variations over the years, a spruce strip could have made the neck a bit lighter and helped with nose dive. But the instrument is so light, I’ve never had issues with that. I always used a vintage strap that had felt liner against the shoulder, it must prevented slippage to some degree.

In all the years that I’ve been using 500/1’s, I’ve never had to adjust the neck. A failure at the neck joint affecting the neck angle is something else. The old ones used to come unglued.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I don't think I have any photos of my V63, but here is a photo of the back of a 1965 500/1's headstock.

As this site shows, yes indeed, the neck construction varied between two, and three, pieces (add two more for the headstock wings).

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[GwenOnBass]

Wish I could "like" Beatle basses like the Hofner 500/1 enough to own and play. Closest encounter was an offer to play an Epi violin bass that i declined.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Very close string spacing, nice and light, my V63 was very well made. I had it during my Macca faze a few years ago. It now resides with a friend in OZ, who, IIRC, uses at church every weekend.

 

[beans-on-toast]

What’s nice about them is they feel like nothing. You can move around without any weight burdens. Intonation up the neck can be a problem with any short scale bass. It has to be set up with an attention to detail.

I can also play things on the Hofner that I can’t pull off on a larger neck.

Somehow it feels better than my Cort headless, another small instrument.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I don't think I have any photos of my V63, but here is a photo of the back of a 1965 500/1's headstock.

View attachment 3585670


As this site shows, yes indeed, the neck construction varied between two, and three, pieces (add two more for the headstock wings).

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Still lots of strength in the maple side pieces.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Here is the Cort

 

[GwenOnBass]

What’s nice about them is they feel like nothing. You can move around without any weight burdens. Intonation up the neck can be a problem with any short scale bass. It has to be set up with an attention to detail.

I can also play things on the Hofner that I can’t pull off on a larger neck.

Somehow it feels better than my Cort headless, another small instrument.

If I could get past the shape and the brownburst, could be. I didn't even pick up the offered Epi violin bass "to see".

 

[steve_rolfeca]

Wish I could "like" Beatle basses like the Hofner 500/1 enough to own and play. Closest encounter was an offer to play an Epi violin bass that i declined.

I tried various cheap clones, and even owned an Epiphone Viola bass briefly.

Never understood the appeal. Then I tried an actual German Hofner through a Mesa , and was surprised by the way the low end bloomed as I turned the amp up. Still not my thing, but I finally understood the appeal.

I now have that kind of bloom, but with the mids and highs that I prefer. La Bella CB40 classical bass guitar strings, on a Guild Jumbo Junior bass:

 

[GwenOnBass]

And while we're at it, never really followed the P/J thing. What it appears to me is most use only the P pickup. If any are using only the J pickup regularly, it's eluded me.

 

[beans-on-toast]

And while we're at it, never really followed the P/J thing. What it appears to me is most use only the P pickup. If any are using only the J pickup regularly, it's eluded me.

Those that want high frequency pickup at bridge sounds might prefer a PJ. I don't pop and always want to use a neck pickup (or as close as I can get to it).