I'm pretty sure that this bass has been around here a couple of times in various stages of function, so I thought I'd post a current thread on it. It went out to a new home this morning, so I no longer have any financial interest and my intention has everything to do with bass nerdiness and nothing to do with the censorship police that frequent here. As much as some people tend to hate these old aluminum basses, I like 'em on their own merits and try not to compare them to anything but other old aluminum basses.
If you are fussy and high maintenance, stop right now. The following images may make you VERY uncomfortable.
As far as I know, this bass was an old touring roadhorse based in Nashville, but rode all over the country for decades on top of the old tour buses and was featured in a LOT of classic recordings. The last known functioning gigs it had were with country glam rocker Ira Dean when he played with the band One Trick Pony. If you search around you'll find it used in several videos and in many magazine articles. It started out with moderate road wear and eventually turned into Mad Max or Apollo 13 after the re-entry.
I bought the burnt out carcass in stripped down not even close to working condition on epay last year. It looked so far gone I was going to concrete it into a glass wall in my shop as an art piece. A couple of friends of mine convinced me that was beyond rough and into the realm of Willy Nelson's guitar, Trigger; over a bit of coercion, they convinced me to resurrect it.
I remember seeing this bass at Merlefest about a dozen years ago, from the audience. Ira and 1TP were playing the main stage and during the middle of a song, he hit a remote switch and suddenly there were big bright truck headlights highbeaming the crow- honkey tonk deluxe. By the time I got the carcass, it had been n the west coast and someone with pretty good welding skills had filled in the headlight holes, but the oil pressure and tachometer guage holes were still there.
I chose to make the new bassbar and the soundpost patch out of 30 year old Honduras mahogany in an attempt to take the edge off the voice- it worked quite well. You can see it eventually wound up with Spirocores ( including a Stark E!) and a gut G.
The original neck was beyond trashed and held together with mostly bolts and screws, so it wound up with a nice clean 1950s Kay neck that I had around the rafters as a spare; 1/4" shim under the fingerboard and two carbon fiber beams were added to thicken it a little and to stiffen things. A new brdige ( not the junkyard heap in the photos) was added and a few other minor details.
One of the great things about this is that every inch of wear is real, hard earned honest roadwear, not a "relic".
A LOT of bass players that I know like to diss on these old tanks pretty hard. They own basses that cost more than my house; they spend decades studying at fine institutions all over the world; they tend to be VERY high maintenance. 'Probably not the right bass for you!!!
On the other side of the bass spectrum, I gigged with this bass twice and lent it out for a third gig last week. It played arco with a Celtic session and a more reserved older crowd, it played at lightining speed with a gypsy swing quartet, and it nearly brought the house down at a LOUD amplified honkey tonk Texas style bar gig. The crowd and all of the other players really enjoyed!
I was going to do a removable neck conversion on it later this month, but a bill arrived this week, so I let it go to the next owner this morning and used the $ to pay for my tuition and travel expenses at the Oberlin bass workshops in a few weeks. Hopefully you'll see it hard at work for decades more to come. As much fun as this old bass was, there is no way I'm going to pass on that gathering of 20 great bass builders from all around the country, a couple of months before I start my next new bass build!!!!
Since I first saw this bass here at talkbass, I wanted to bring it back full circle and let folks see the next incarnation. Over the last half dozen years, I've had a LOT of TB members who regularly contact me and have expressed frustration with getting access to information about these and the AlCoA basses and exressed disdain that several of the articles I've written have been difficult to obtain. In an effort to help folks out, I've added a section here where you can learn about the history and background of these instruments and there is a large gallery of images that I've collected over the years from a lot of helpful people. Since I don't have any for sale ( If you dig around you'll see two AlCoAs mentioned; are not in my possession, and I don't own them. Another member here owns them), I don't see it as a conflict of interest, more in the spirit of community and information sharing. It took me a LOT of work and over a decade to gather this and then put it out for free.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
'Hope you like it!
Ciao,
j.
If you are fussy and high maintenance, stop right now. The following images may make you VERY uncomfortable.
As far as I know, this bass was an old touring roadhorse based in Nashville, but rode all over the country for decades on top of the old tour buses and was featured in a LOT of classic recordings. The last known functioning gigs it had were with country glam rocker Ira Dean when he played with the band One Trick Pony. If you search around you'll find it used in several videos and in many magazine articles. It started out with moderate road wear and eventually turned into Mad Max or Apollo 13 after the re-entry.
I bought the burnt out carcass in stripped down not even close to working condition on epay last year. It looked so far gone I was going to concrete it into a glass wall in my shop as an art piece. A couple of friends of mine convinced me that was beyond rough and into the realm of Willy Nelson's guitar, Trigger; over a bit of coercion, they convinced me to resurrect it.
I remember seeing this bass at Merlefest about a dozen years ago, from the audience. Ira and 1TP were playing the main stage and during the middle of a song, he hit a remote switch and suddenly there were big bright truck headlights highbeaming the crow- honkey tonk deluxe. By the time I got the carcass, it had been n the west coast and someone with pretty good welding skills had filled in the headlight holes, but the oil pressure and tachometer guage holes were still there.
I chose to make the new bassbar and the soundpost patch out of 30 year old Honduras mahogany in an attempt to take the edge off the voice- it worked quite well. You can see it eventually wound up with Spirocores ( including a Stark E!) and a gut G.
The original neck was beyond trashed and held together with mostly bolts and screws, so it wound up with a nice clean 1950s Kay neck that I had around the rafters as a spare; 1/4" shim under the fingerboard and two carbon fiber beams were added to thicken it a little and to stiffen things. A new brdige ( not the junkyard heap in the photos) was added and a few other minor details.
One of the great things about this is that every inch of wear is real, hard earned honest roadwear, not a "relic".
A LOT of bass players that I know like to diss on these old tanks pretty hard. They own basses that cost more than my house; they spend decades studying at fine institutions all over the world; they tend to be VERY high maintenance. 'Probably not the right bass for you!!!
On the other side of the bass spectrum, I gigged with this bass twice and lent it out for a third gig last week. It played arco with a Celtic session and a more reserved older crowd, it played at lightining speed with a gypsy swing quartet, and it nearly brought the house down at a LOUD amplified honkey tonk Texas style bar gig. The crowd and all of the other players really enjoyed! I was going to do a removable neck conversion on it later this month, but a bill arrived this week, so I let it go to the next owner this morning and used the $ to pay for my tuition and travel expenses at the Oberlin bass workshops in a few weeks. Hopefully you'll see it hard at work for decades more to come. As much fun as this old bass was, there is no way I'm going to pass on that gathering of 20 great bass builders from all around the country, a couple of months before I start my next new bass build!!!!
Since I first saw this bass here at talkbass, I wanted to bring it back full circle and let folks see the next incarnation. Over the last half dozen years, I've had a LOT of TB members who regularly contact me and have expressed frustration with getting access to information about these and the AlCoA basses and exressed disdain that several of the articles I've written have been difficult to obtain. In an effort to help folks out, I've added a section here where you can learn about the history and background of these instruments and there is a large gallery of images that I've collected over the years from a lot of helpful people. Since I don't have any for sale ( If you dig around you'll see two AlCoAs mentioned; are not in my possession, and I don't own them. Another member here owns them), I don't see it as a conflict of interest, more in the spirit of community and information sharing. It took me a LOT of work and over a decade to gather this and then put it out for free.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
'Hope you like it!
Ciao,
j.
