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Oregon Bass???

kmobass

kmobass

Nov 7, 2009
52
6
62
Morro Bay, California
#1
Hi Fellow TB'rs!
I have been a member for a quite awhile, but I have never posted a question in a forum. So, here is my first question ever. The Oregon bass! Does anyone on TB know anything about them and do they even exist any longer, anywhere? I only know of two Oregon Basses. The first one I ever saw was in 1986 while a BIT student at the Musicians Institute. My private instructor at MI was the late Jim Lacefield (RIP). I worked for his band FreeFlight as a roadie, Jim's bass tech and the I ran the monitor mix for the guys! It was a great job and Jim really helped me out back then...(I was only 22 years old), by giving me a job when I was a student. Jim owned an Oregon Bass and showed me how to set his bass up. After graduation in 1987, I never saw Jim again and in 1991, I learned that he, sadly...had passed away.

The second one I believe, is an Oregon Bass that the great bassist, David Friesen probably still owns. David appears to exclusively play his HEMAGE Basses. He is 83 years young now, (I believe...), and I am not sure how much he even plays his beautiful French Bass, but I am sure he still owns it. Other than those two wonderful bass players and their Oregon Basses, I have NEVER seen another Oregon Bass. It's like they just disappeared. Maybe they were the only two made??? I would be kinda surprised if that were the case, but I suppose it's possible.

I love David Friesen's music. I have contacted the HEMAGE bass guy, but have not heard back from them yet about maybe getting one of those basses. However, I would really like to find an Oregon Bass. Does anyone out there have any idea or know anything about these basses? Thank you in advance!

Best,
kmobass (Kurt Morrow)
 
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#2
kmobass said:
Hi Fellow TB'rs!
I have been a member for a quite awhile, but I have never posted a question in a forum. So, here is my first question ever. The Oregon bass! Does anyone on TB know anything about them and do they even exist any longer, anywhere? I only know of two Oregon Basses. The first one I ever saw was in 1986 while a BIT student at the Musicians Institute. My private instructor at MI was the late Jim Lacefield (RIP). I worked for his band FreeFlight as a roadie, Jim's bass tech and the I ran the monitor mix for the guys! It was a great job and Jim really helped me out back then...(I was only 22 years old), by giving me a job when I was a student. Jim owned an Oregon Bass and showed me how to set his bass up. After graduation in 1987, I never saw Jim again and in 1991, I learned that he, sadly...had passed away.

The second one I believe, is an Oregon Bass that the great bassist, David Friesen probably still owns. David appears to exclusively play his HEMAGE Basses. He is 83 years young now, (I believe...), and I am not sure how much he even plays his beautiful French Bass, but I am sure he still owns it. Other than those two wonderful bass players and their Oregon Basses, I have NEVER seen another Oregon Bass. It's like they just disappeared. Maybe they were the only two made??? I would be kinda surprised if that were the case, but I suppose it's possible.

I love David Friesen's music. I have contacted the HEMAGE bass guy, but have not heard back from them yet about maybe getting one of those basses. However, I would really like to find an Oregon Bass. Does anyone out there have any idea or know anything about these basses? Thank you in advance!

Best,
kmobass (Kurt Morrow)
Click to expand...
Any pix?
 
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#3
Sadly I can't find any pictures of an Oregon bass or David playing one anymore.



1756724672446.jpeg
1756724783436.jpeg


 
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#6
It's my understanding that there were only 12 of them made. They were built by a luthier in Oregon (Portland?)
Glen Moore toured as a duo with Nancy King. They came to St.Louis and I was at one of their performances.
It had a custom designed Underwood pickup that had two elements on each side sandwiched together.
They were "out of phase". They were very expensive for their time $4,000.00 circa 1985.
 
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#7
Ric Vice said:
It's my understanding that there were only 12 of them made. They were built by a luthier in Oregon (Portland?)
Glen Moore toured as a duo with Nancy King. They came to St.Louis and I was at one of their performances.
It had a custom designed Underwood pickup that had two elements on each side sandwiched together.
They were "out of phase". They were very expensive for their time $4,000.00 circa 1985.
Click to expand...
Glen's still around, but Nancy King passed away a few weeks ago 😢 I haven't seen him play in Portland since the 90s, and he always played an old European bass with a lion head when I saw him.
 
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#8
Played a gig at Conway House of Jazz in Oregon City about a month ago and Dave Friesson was just finishing up on a solo piano set. He stuck around and sat in for the first set playing a drum kit.
We talked about his basses, travels and what it's like playing in our old age.
He said once in the Midwest, looked into a phone book with pages and pages of people with his last name. Mennonite's for sure.
Beautiful basses, Dave previously played one with a seat built in…
IMG_2551.jpeg
 
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#9
Pings Bass said:
Glen's still around, but Nancy King passed away a few weeks ago 😢 I haven't seen him play in Portland since the 90s, and he always played an old European bass with a lion head when I saw him.
Click to expand...
I got to "play" that bass for a minute.
As told here:
DJ Bebop

Post in thread 'Most famous bassist’s axe you’ve actually played?'

Glen Moore

Got to "play" his Bass once.
He had this Klipschorn, Walter Woods (?), Lexicon reverb setup that made his massive bass sound even more massive 🤣 He uses an unusual tuning CADC which adds to the range.

Anyway he was playing a gig and afterwards I went up and introduced myself and mentioned that he has played with my dad on a few gigs. He asked if I played, and I said I am learning the bass. He was getting ready to pack his bass up and handed it to me while he went to grab the gig bag for it. I remembered his unusual tuning from my dad telling me about it. So I tried to play a...
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#13
Pings Bass said:
Glen's still around, but Nancy King passed away a few weeks ago 😢 I haven't seen him play in Portland since the 90s, and he always played an old European bass with a lion head when I saw him.
Click to expand...
His main bass is a Gotz he used that bass in standard tuning and used a Vektor in a non standard tuning so he could play their older compositions
 
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#14
bobhibson said:
Lace was a great guy. Fond memories of his counseling sessions.
Click to expand...
Hi Bob,
Yes, Jim was a great guy! I agree! He really helped me out a lot in 1986-87 while I was a student. I didn't know what I didn't know, LOL! I was at his house frequently doing the FreeFlight "roadie" thing. Stanley Clarke came over one night (To Jim's house...), to rehearse for an upcoming performance Stanley would be playing with them on. It was an amazing rehearsal of "School Days"...we did not have iPhones back then so it's just lost to my own memory of it. I stood in amazement as that was happening...many good memories and many stories of my short tenure with Jim and the guys!
 
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