HI All,
Since I haven't been able to find one, I'm starting both.
Thread rules: Pretty much none but you gotta talk about either Lane Poor and the shop or the instruments.
Club rules:
1) It's gotta be a Minima. (duh)
2) Your serial # is your # (Except for the 13 "Boo-Boo" instruments. Your # is the spot in line of planks, if you have one you understand)
3) You have to post a pic. (There are so few we have to show the world)
4) You have to tell the story of your bass.
That being said, here is "Blondie"
Serial # 2-2. (the 4th bass cut from the planks) That's said "Number 2 from the 2ed piece of wood" The first set of instruments Lane made were from 7 pieces of wood, each plank was numbered and 2 instruments came from each. However there are only 13 instruments not 14, one of the pieces was found to have a flaw and was retired to the window sill in the shop. (I think either 2-5 or 1-7, I can't remember) Lane felt that he might as well get the bad luck out of the way and go to market with 13. He never tried to fix the 14th.
Story:
I was working at a paint supply house when Lane moved into the mill to start making instruments. He would come in and clean us out of ultrafine sandpaper. One day he came in with a bunch of questions about paint booths and how to stop dust from getting in the finish. I offered to go help him design his booth. Once I got there, I saw my friend from grade school, Ronnie Agiuar, "Boo-Boo". Ronnie was cutting the planks for the first run of basses. Seeing a great chance to get in on a low serial # instrument, I asked "How much?" and was offered a special deal if I would help them design and build the booth so that they could paint in 2 weeks time when the first run would be ready for paint. The first 3 instruments were spoken for, one for Lane, one for Ronnie, one for a family member so I got "Blondie" (the colors were all picked out before hand however of the 13, there was only one amber, one root beer and one blue transparent finish, the rest were solid red, blue, black and white if I remember right) I helped with some of the "on the fly" design notably the indicator marker on the volume wheel and the addition of a thumb rest.
The "Boo-Boo" basses:
The first 13 are all called Boo-Boo because of Ronnie's nickname "Boo-Boo" as in "Yogi and Boo-Boo from Jellystone Park" (You have to know Ronnie to understand) and also for the fact that all 13 have an error in the production, the cord lock hole was drilled on the wrong side of the cord channel and was plugged with a dowel and the correct hole was drilled on the other side.
The pickups:
There are none. There are 3 bar magnets in the body close to the surface, the strings are wired as 2 circuits thus completing a current path and they are connected to the output jack via a volume pot. You can remove the magnets and the bass will produce output from the earths magnetic field however it is very low output. Put the magnets back in and it sounds very close to an upright with a brighter tone. Since the strings make output along it's entire length because they are vibrating in the earths field, you get harmonics and resonation from the entire instrument just as in an upright. You have to hear it to believe it.
OK, that the story of Blondie and a bit of trivia about Lane and the shop. If you have more questions, maybe I'll collect some emails and put them all in another post sorta like a LP FAQ.
Tom
Oh, Lane, if your out there in the ether, give me a shout, I miss Saturday mornings at the shop sharing the pot of coffee and conversation, it's been too long my friend.
Same goes for anyone else at the shop: Boo-Boo, Screaming Ray, Chris R (Hey I see Johnny B lives in your old house now) and any of the other early days crew that I can't remember your names after 20 years.
Since I haven't been able to find one, I'm starting both.
Thread rules: Pretty much none but you gotta talk about either Lane Poor and the shop or the instruments.
Club rules:
1) It's gotta be a Minima. (duh)
2) Your serial # is your # (Except for the 13 "Boo-Boo" instruments. Your # is the spot in line of planks, if you have one you understand)
3) You have to post a pic. (There are so few we have to show the world)
4) You have to tell the story of your bass.
That being said, here is "Blondie"
Serial # 2-2. (the 4th bass cut from the planks) That's said "Number 2 from the 2ed piece of wood" The first set of instruments Lane made were from 7 pieces of wood, each plank was numbered and 2 instruments came from each. However there are only 13 instruments not 14, one of the pieces was found to have a flaw and was retired to the window sill in the shop. (I think either 2-5 or 1-7, I can't remember) Lane felt that he might as well get the bad luck out of the way and go to market with 13. He never tried to fix the 14th.
Story:
I was working at a paint supply house when Lane moved into the mill to start making instruments. He would come in and clean us out of ultrafine sandpaper. One day he came in with a bunch of questions about paint booths and how to stop dust from getting in the finish. I offered to go help him design his booth. Once I got there, I saw my friend from grade school, Ronnie Agiuar, "Boo-Boo". Ronnie was cutting the planks for the first run of basses. Seeing a great chance to get in on a low serial # instrument, I asked "How much?" and was offered a special deal if I would help them design and build the booth so that they could paint in 2 weeks time when the first run would be ready for paint. The first 3 instruments were spoken for, one for Lane, one for Ronnie, one for a family member so I got "Blondie" (the colors were all picked out before hand however of the 13, there was only one amber, one root beer and one blue transparent finish, the rest were solid red, blue, black and white if I remember right) I helped with some of the "on the fly" design notably the indicator marker on the volume wheel and the addition of a thumb rest.
The "Boo-Boo" basses:
The first 13 are all called Boo-Boo because of Ronnie's nickname "Boo-Boo" as in "Yogi and Boo-Boo from Jellystone Park" (You have to know Ronnie to understand) and also for the fact that all 13 have an error in the production, the cord lock hole was drilled on the wrong side of the cord channel and was plugged with a dowel and the correct hole was drilled on the other side.
The pickups:
There are none. There are 3 bar magnets in the body close to the surface, the strings are wired as 2 circuits thus completing a current path and they are connected to the output jack via a volume pot. You can remove the magnets and the bass will produce output from the earths magnetic field however it is very low output. Put the magnets back in and it sounds very close to an upright with a brighter tone. Since the strings make output along it's entire length because they are vibrating in the earths field, you get harmonics and resonation from the entire instrument just as in an upright. You have to hear it to believe it.
OK, that the story of Blondie and a bit of trivia about Lane and the shop. If you have more questions, maybe I'll collect some emails and put them all in another post sorta like a LP FAQ.
Tom
Oh, Lane, if your out there in the ether, give me a shout, I miss Saturday mornings at the shop sharing the pot of coffee and conversation, it's been too long my friend.
Same goes for anyone else at the shop: Boo-Boo, Screaming Ray, Chris R (Hey I see Johnny B lives in your old house now) and any of the other early days crew that I can't remember your names after 20 years.
