Sad story Flux, but on the bright side, its really cool that you invented something so good at a young age that others wanted to copy it. You have a creative talent that a lot of folks would be very envious of.
Thank you very much, Steve. It's not really that ~great~ though, in fact most of my relatives kinda mock me about my ~ahem~ "talents" (my mother calls me a "tinkerbell" .... someone who tinkers on things but never really hits it big with anything. Then again she's one of those that thinks if you're playing music you automatically are trying to "make it big" and often compares one to big shot famous musicians, asking about when the "hit record" is going to come out ... odd woman). I think of myself as being like the father in the movie "Gremlins" that invents all of these screwball things that aren't really that useful. Haahaa!
Like his "Bathroom Buddy" that had a razor, toothbrush, toothpaste dispenser, some other suchity such stuff on it. He always carried one around in his pocket and was constantly pitching the thing to anyone that would stand still long enough to listen. Haahaa!
I'm just highly envious of the designers and builders of the Retro Switcho bass. It's SO nicely done (or .. well..
will be when completed) and it is going to look INCREDIBLY COOL with the 50's/60's vibe and look of it. I imagine it'll sound fantastic and be super versatile as well. I think it's owner called it Infinite P ... perfect name. I love the aesthetic touches with the special shaping around the logo, the sortof Telecaster type headstock (thin and streamlined look), and the cut-out hole in the body. I've designed that same type of hole thing in my own bodies but it's never a shaped hole, it's just a round hole with radiused edges. I go for more of a "racetrack appeal" .. racebikes usually have round holes in various things to reduce weight. Even the fretboard markers, the way those were done .... that is just so nice.
Damn that Retro Switcho is just so stinkin' COOL! I can't wait to see the mental image manifested into reality. It sortof inspires me to get the X-Bass moving more forward so I can finally get the Race Bass built.....
.... built with headless bass parts (bridge and headstock thingy). It's overall shape and detail inspired by the shapes and angles of racebikes (mainly the rear tail section) .....
And adopting other aspects of those bikes as well like a pickguard made of aluminum with round "weight reduction" holes in it, and other details done to certain bits of hardware. Now you can see why the Big Al appeals to me so much.
I'm very envious of how well the Retro Switcho bass looks and how well it has been designed. It embodies all of the research and ideas I've been pouring into the X-Bass and it just looks SO DANGED GREAT!
It reminds me of BlueTalon's Rickenbacker with the P-bass pickups it has, but this bass is a little different in that it appears to have a less focused intention with greater view on versatility. If memory serves Blue Talon's Rick has a very specialized pickup wiring arrangement, very purposeful setup that involves sending the treble coils to one half of the stereo field and the bass pickups to the other side of the stereo field. I'll let him explain that in greater detail if he chooses to do so, I know he's protective of the setup (it's his right to be) so any further details should be his perogative to expose.
In any case the Retro Switcho is just a super nicely done bass with a high degree of appeal, and if the actual workmanship aligns with the excellent design (which I have no reason to doubt that it will) that is going to be one bad-ass bass. I keep envisioning it in combinations of a sortof burgundy and cream color scheme, or perhaps a sortof "the right green" with cream. With cream binding, and gold (brass?) or nickel hardware.
Wow .... good job! Woops ..... GREAT job!
Carry on!
(and thanks again Steve for what you said about me. I appreciate it! It was motivational. You reminded me of the thing I do for a living .. that turned out ok, at least it's feeding me.) Speaking of ~you~, it's easy to imagine what type of paramilitary-esque vibe you could put on something like this bass .... but theen again I suppose you've already done that and done it well!
Dang it .... I gotta get moving!!
