Through a fortunate turn of events, I've won the bidding for the last bass that Curbow Stringed Instruments has that was made by Greg himself. There is a lot of emotion involved with this purchase - the fact that it's the product of a master builder, who died before his time was first in my mind. Second, was how high a regard my friends bassmonkee and Dave Siff had for him - they both own(ed) instruments of his and called him a friend. I met Greg at my home during my first Atlanta GTG. He was a big, gentle giant with an unassuming appearance and demeanor. My time with him during that visit was way too short and I regret not being able to have more time then to pick his brain and get to know him better. Since then, I've met several of his former bandmates and other friends that knew him way back when he was just starting out with a shop down in Little Five Points. I've even played one of the first guitars he ever built. It is owned by a member of my church. I believe these people have been drawn out by my own luthiery adventures and they always want to tell their own stories of Greg and his instruments.
When I saw this on ebay, a new purchase was the furthest from my mind. But I quickly realized that this would likely be my last chance to own something from one of the greats. With that in mind, I bid like I've never bid before - without much regard to the "deal" and more to insure that I got the instrument over anything else. Unfortunately, I was outbid well before the end of the auction. I resigned myself to the fact that this one was not to be and I moved on. Yesterday, I got a "second offer" in my email. It looked legit but I don't take these things seriously anymore and I responded that while I desperately wanted the instrument, I wasn't prepared to on the chance it was some sort of scam. Today, I got a beautifully worded email from Cheyenne - an early student of Greg's and one of the folks that is helping with closing the shop and liquidating the remaining instruments. It was a second offer that arised from the top bidder backing out somehow. She was apologetic about the situation and emphasized that she and Margaret (Greg's wife) were pretty upset over the turn of events and that this bass was meant to be mine. Well, with this email as proof of legitimacy, I gladly bought the bass. I am going up to Morganton later in the week to pick it up and perhaps purchase some supplies from the shop for my own use in my builds. I've been considering a tribute build dedicated to the memory of my wife who died last year and to be able to use some woods from Greg's shop would simply be poetic beyond description - perfectly like me and something Deb would get a kick out of.
So here it is... A Curbow Dinky Jazz with a Rockwood neck. Not a top line instrument but one that will always hold a special place in my collection:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...PageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=012#ebayphotohosting
When I saw this on ebay, a new purchase was the furthest from my mind. But I quickly realized that this would likely be my last chance to own something from one of the greats. With that in mind, I bid like I've never bid before - without much regard to the "deal" and more to insure that I got the instrument over anything else. Unfortunately, I was outbid well before the end of the auction. I resigned myself to the fact that this one was not to be and I moved on. Yesterday, I got a "second offer" in my email. It looked legit but I don't take these things seriously anymore and I responded that while I desperately wanted the instrument, I wasn't prepared to on the chance it was some sort of scam. Today, I got a beautifully worded email from Cheyenne - an early student of Greg's and one of the folks that is helping with closing the shop and liquidating the remaining instruments. It was a second offer that arised from the top bidder backing out somehow. She was apologetic about the situation and emphasized that she and Margaret (Greg's wife) were pretty upset over the turn of events and that this bass was meant to be mine. Well, with this email as proof of legitimacy, I gladly bought the bass. I am going up to Morganton later in the week to pick it up and perhaps purchase some supplies from the shop for my own use in my builds. I've been considering a tribute build dedicated to the memory of my wife who died last year and to be able to use some woods from Greg's shop would simply be poetic beyond description - perfectly like me and something Deb would get a kick out of.
So here it is... A Curbow Dinky Jazz with a Rockwood neck. Not a top line instrument but one that will always hold a special place in my collection:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...PageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=012#ebayphotohosting
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