I took my Warwick Streamer in today to a friend's workshop to have him look it over and talk about setting it up (I'm too lazy to do it myself, and I don't mind supporting a friend pursuing a career as a luthier). After we talk about my bass and things, the conversation goes like this: Him: "Want to see something cool?" Me: "Sure, what is it?" Him: "I have Jonas Hellborg's bass." Me: "WHAAAAAAT?" And he was right. He worked in the Wechter guitar shop when Jonas had his acoustic bass built and was the guy that did the repairs and set ups on the bass. So, when Abe sold Wechter guitars, Jonas kept sending the bass over to my friend, where it is now. Sadly, even though I asked, I couldn't play it. It's currently without strings or a bridge, so it would've been impossible. But it was THE bass, the one on the cover of "The Word" that I bought an acoustic bass because I wanted that sound. It made me giggle.
I hope you're gonna time it so you can play the thing before it goes back. Being a full on ABG weenie that bass has always made me hot.
Sadly, that's probably not going to happen. My buddy is moving to Seattle at the end of the month, so I don't think it'll be finished by then. I'm going to definitely ask him to let me know if it's done while he's in town.
It's rainy and windy and just generally nasty out here for the next few months. He should at least wait 'till spring. Is he setting up shop for himself in Seattle? I'm up in Vancouver, BC where there are some excellent repair folks but it never hurts to know of another one in the vicinity.
He's mainly going to work in the repair shop at Dusty Strings. I think he'll keep building guitars on the side as well.
Picked my bass up yesterday from my buddy's shop. He said all in all, it was pretty good. A couple high frets, a twist of the trussrod and we were all good. He commented on how nice the intonation was already, and I told him I set it with my Peterson StroboFlip (endorsing artist). Anyway, he let me pose with Jonas' bass. It is HEAVY, which surprised me somewhat.
That is SO cool! I actually saw they early stages of the restoration on your friend's Facebook page ( Jonas Hellborg Bass - Built by Abe Wechter | Facebook - the great things you can find with Google!), but hadn't seen any updates for a while. Me too! It's that bass that MADE me a full on ABG weenie...