Wednesday, May 20, 2009

In memorial of bass gear past

I think at this great anniversary of playing nearly 20 years (close anyway) that I reflect on all the bass gear I’ve owned over the years. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten :

Basses:

Black Axe (UK) – It didn’t have a truss rod so consequently had a bowed neck and was a generally a cheap, crappy abortion of an instrument. But at least it inspired me to go get a job to replace it.

Red Marlin Sidewinder (?) – P-Bass copy with a maple neck. I had a very bad day and decided a new bass was the perfect pick me up so I traded it.

Sunburst Ibanez Roadstar2 Fretless (Japan?) – I was listening to a lot of Sting so convinced myself I wanted to play fretless. After a week I changed my mind but the shop I traded the Marlin at refused to trade back so they offered me a replacement.

Red Crackle Aria Pro 2 (?) – not sure of the model and it may have been a chimera. I played it in Alpha State and for the first 6 months of Cries of Tammuz until the neck flopped during a string change..

Gun Metal Blue Fender Jazz (USA) – From the moment I plugged it in I knew it was for me. It has an incredibly rich and woody sound. I still have it to this day and is my favrorite, thought it’s been modified with a BadAss2 bridge and Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pickups.

Sea Foam Green Peavey Patriot (?) – bought when I first moved to the US. It had been de-fretted so had cheater lines and was detuned to B, E, A, D so I could play Painted Window songs Jeff played on 7 String guitar. Sold (ha ha) to a friend who neglected to pay.

White Fender Jazz 5 string (Mexican) – What killed it was the crappy active electronics and was generally a little blah sounding. In a moment of financial recklessness was part exchanged.

Black Musicman Stringray 5 string (USA) –Maple neck and active EQ. Beautiful instrument which I never fully managed to get the tone out of I wanted. I still weep for its loss.

Natural Yamaha BB Chuck Rainey (USA/Japan) – The ultimate pawn shop find! One of four basses built for Chuck Rainey in the mid 70’s as part of an endorsement. Just dripping with mojo.

Black Unknown Violin bass (Japan?)– bought as a project from E-Bay for $50. Turned out to be too wrecked to bring back as the truss rod was broken and only one pickup worked.

Sunburst Rogue Series 2 Violin Bass (Indonesia) – Surprisingly good sounding cheap instrument. Sounded about as good as any violin bass you could drop $2k on and was used on the Beanie Shavers recordings. Like an idiot I sold it as it wasn’t getting much use and wish I’d kept it.

Black Ibanez ATK 100 (Korea) – The bass equivalent of waking of next to the toothless hag from the bar the previous night. Didn’t sound as good as it should have done (crappy basswood body) and was virtually unsellable.

Fender 51 Reissue Precision (Japan) – Apart from the butterscotch blonde (i.e. yellow) finish a really nice instrument. One single coil pickup, Telecastor style controls and headstock. Bridge upgraded to BadAss3 and pickup being changed to Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pickup.


Amps

Flyspeck personal amp – Came with the Axe bass my parents got me, lasted 5 minutes as memory serves before making a sickening farting sound and dying permanently.

Torque 5W – Not really a bass amp but was loud enough for the neighbors to complain. Actually used in the first band Paul Nemeth and I formed. Last seen in my elder brothers room.

Peavey Basic 60 – And we mean basic. 60W combo used in Alpha State and the first year of Cries of Tammuz. Really didn’t keep up with a live band but at least was fairly light,

Peavey TNT 115 – 150W combo amp which I used for countless Cries of Tammuz shows and half of Damuzi Awakens (the other half was direct into the mixing console) and the songs I played on Yezidi. Sold to a club owner before I left the UK

Park Combo – little 30W combo for home use. Basically a rebadged Marshall, sadly sold during my first broke year of marriage.

Peavey Combo 300 – 300W combo that could run a second cab. Didn’t keep up with the wall of noise which is Painted Window. I also got Peavey 210 cab which turned out to have fried speakers (thanks Guitar Center Seattle)

SWR 350 Head and Henry 8 x 8 cabinet – my first really pro-rig. I liked the sound of it (which was mostly the 8’s getting tortured) but seemed to blow 2 -3 speakers a year so was getting an expensive habit.

Ampeg Classic Head and 6 x 10 cabinet – this is what I currently run. I had an 8 x 10 for a few years which sounded great but just too much of a nut buster (160lbs). Great all tube tone from the head and the 6 x 10 cab gives plenty of woof (even too much sometimes) and is a little more portable (only 115lbs and about 10 inches smaller) .


Effects

Boss CE-2 Chorus – My Dad got me this is a 17th birthday present. Like an idiot I sold it when I was hard up for cash (sigh). I may be getting one from Jeff to expunge my guilt.

Boss Turbo Overdrive OD-2 – bought cheap, never really used, sold cheap.

Digitech Chorus – how soon we were parted?

DOD Phaser – the effect sounded great but was signal killer. Put to death approx 2004.

Fodera Model 2000 Pre-Amp – 18V Pre-Amp used to boost my Jazz Bass when it had Bartolini pickups Great quality unit which I sadly didn’t need once PW broke up the first time.

Boss CE-5 – Bought from Jeff very cheap. I still use it and am very happy with it.

Electro Harmonix Bassballs – one knob, one switch Rob proof autowah. It’s a bass killer by itself but sounds great with an EQ pedal to put back the frequencies it takes out

Boss GEB-7 – EQ pedal, kind of went without saying I guess.

spoke Rob at at 9.30pm | permalink | 1 comment





Thursday, March 05, 2009

Help needed…please send someone to rub my overfull belly

I’m usually someone who eats fairly modest portions (by US standards anyway). That is unless I go to an Indian restaurant in which case I pack it away until it starts pouring out of my ears (if you’re lucky). Jeff came and visited me at work and we went to lunch at Curry Corner in Lacey, where $8 gets you enough food to leave you a bloated, curry smelling heap in the corner.

Our struggle to get Xander potty trained continues. Once in a while he’ll make a big point of running over using the potty for no.2 but a lot of the time (at home) he’ll happily use his diaper for everything unless you make him go once an hour. At least one good thing about him is he seems to really enjoy his food, or to be clear whatever I’m eating. I was putting some hot sauce on some spaghetti and he asked to try it. I expected his head to start spinning around and steam to come out of his ears, but he seemed to like it and wanted some on his pasta. The good thing about this is I hope he’ll grow up to enjoy the kinds of foods I do so I’ll have a cohort at home (other then the dogs that is) to eat with.

PW has our first 2009 show coming March 28th at Hells Kitchen but we are working to get some more shows booked (other then HK that is). I’ll probably play my new P-Bass which I’m really very happy with since I got it. The P-Bass is such a fundamental sound in the history music and very satisfying to listen to. It’s kind of like playing a tree trunk compared to my Jazz though.

I sometimes wonder when people come into my house whether they find the dog stink offensive. I think I’m mostly immune to it but once in a while Olly breathes on me when I’m not expecting it and almost pass out. Although we clean up his deliberates in the house (they aren’t accidents anymore), I’m sure he leaves other surprises which we don’t find, as well as his general houndiness I wonder if there is something festering in a corner of the house I haven’t discovered yet. There are some ominous stains under the couch cushions for sure.

spoke Rob at at 4.45pm | permalink | 0 comments





Saturday, February 14, 2009

How I met your mother (edited version)

So Pie thought it would be interesting for me to tell my side of the story of how we met.

So early January 1995 I was with the Goth band Cries of Tammuz. As memory serves we had a show at The Marquee on the following Sunday and I headed to the Royal George in London to meet the keyboard player Mark, to hand on out flyers and drink a lot of beer.

As I was mingling around the Royal George I got talking to a guy named Dave. I think he was a musician and we were probably chatting about the local scene when this incredibly cute girl with jet back hair to the middle of her back, a nose chain and wearing some Camden Market type shirt walked up and starting talking to me. It turned out she was a friend of Dave’s and we started talking. I thought she was Irish (she was American) and a Goth (she hated Goths/Goth music) but I can’t have said anything too boneheaded as she didn’t run away. (Spoiler Alert: It was Pie).

I headed out to some other clubs and met some other American girls including an Asian girl from New York who was very artsy and pretentious. I guess I must have asked her out and we agreed to meet the following Friday at the Royal George.

The next week I headed to the Royal George again and saw Pie outside and stated chatting before my date got there. We were talking for a while and my date finally turned up and walked past with a friend giving me the stink eye. She finally came back and we engaged in some awkward conversation and Pie, as she was available, helped each of us understand what the other one was saying (being fluent in both American and English). Finally my date said goodbye and left and I got talking to Pie again.

Now I should mention at this point that Pie was being virtually stalked by this semi-retarded goon called Richie at that point who about 20 years older then her and creepy in the worst way. I started walking towards the train station with them and Pie emphatically started trying to convince me to come to the rock club at the Astoria with them.

Now I admit I am Mr. Naïve so Pie had to make sure I got the message that she liked me but not knowing where the semi-retarded goon fitted in I give myself some credit for not instantly realizing she liked me.

Once we got to the Astoria I have to give Pie credit for not running for the hills once she saw me dancing (white mans overbite indeed) and because it was so loud we started writing back and forth on a copy of the Big Issue. I remembered we finally managed to sneak away from the big creepy bastard long enough to steal our first kiss in the foyer outside the main venue. I still remember that kiss, I think I will until the day I die.

I think after that we sneaked out of the club and Pie told me she was living with some friends of her ex in Arsenal and would I like to come home with her (because it was so late I couldn’t make it home of course). So we took a night bus part of way and a long walk for the rest talking the whole time. I remember the conversation being so easy and not feeling like I had to work at it or be someone else (with my personality I often used to feel a more interesting one was best used around girls).

So or course once we got to where she was staying we stayed up all night discussing Bible scripture and the next morning Pie woke up and told me she had an early meeting, but I was swell gal and she’d call me soon.

I won’t tell you that after we met I knew we met I instantly knew that she’d end up being my wife (or the mother of my son for that matter) but I knew it was something different and special from the start. When we get engaged and then married (a little early I admit) people said we wouldn’t last more then a year, two tops and now as we cruise near to 14 years together I cant help but think of the people who date for years and end up divorcing after one, The bottom line is she completes me and is the best thing in my life (and had a damn cute bum to boot).

spoke Rob at at 11.40pm | permalink | 1 comment





Thursday, January 29, 2009

And we're back

So I finally remembered where my blog was and have the energy to make a post.

So Xander has been with us for 9 months, oh what a ride. It's been 1000 times harder then I thought it would be (I'm being conservative). Someone asked me how long it took for him to fully adjust, I told them when he did I'd let them know. There have been great moments and some truly sucky ones, overall the normal experience of a parent.

So my violin bass was sold to get a Ibanez ATK100 (Musicman copy which I decided wasn't really worth buying and has since proven to be un-sellable. So after begging Pie profusely I'm part exchanging the Ibanez for a Fender 51-Reissue Precision bass. Japanese made, thumpy and cool.

Olly is still going like an old Cadillac. He takes a while to start, leaks fluids and has gangsters driving him around the neighborhood. I thought we were going to lose him when we got back to the US as he could barely walk due to herniation on his back, but he pulled though and is back to his humping drooling self.

spoke Rob at at 9.00pm | permalink | 0 comments





Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Scared you will be

So Pie and I are steaming up to parenthood at an alarming rate with our trip to China booked to start next week. I was initially stressed about the thoughts of parenthood, but they’ve been overtaken by the stress of going to a country where people don’t speak English (and we don’t speak Mandarin) and the rapidly out of control bill. Luckily we have a guide and a driver most of the time so that takes some of the stress.

It’s funny the mind movies that play in my head with the kidlet either accepting us or rejecting us. We’ve been told to plan for the worst and be happy if something better happens. He’s very bonded to his foster mother so he’s likely to grieve very heavily and may hold it against us for a while. But given time I’m sure he’ll come to love both of us and we’ll build a relationship.

The funny thing about adopting a kid is it’s like being introduced to a stranger and told he’s got to be your best friend. You don’t know them nor their likes or dislikes (and initially can’t even really communicate), but within a period you’ve got to learn to love each other. Add that I have very little experience with kids other then very occasional interaction with my nieces and Pie’s friends daughter (who could just about make someone suicidal smile).

But we’re at least ready from a house perspective even if damn near broke us doing it. The accursed retiling of the fireplace is now done, probably in time for Xander to come back and lob something at it and break them, well at least I can fix it now I guess.

I probably had my last session (at least for a while) with Dave/The Beanie Shavers recording the bassline for his song Wicked World. I ordered some flatwound strings for my violin bass but they never turned up so I cancelled the order and got them from somewhere else. Of course when they turned up they didn’t fit so I’m begging a couple of the guitar shops to see if they’ll swap them for a set that will fit.

My coverage at work has pretty much taken over for me so I’m doing a lot of thumb twiddling until next week when I leave, which isn’t a bad thing other then I feel I should be doing something for my pay.

Jeff and I saw New Model Army in Seattle on Sunday. I really enjoyed it being spitting distance from them as in the UK Europe they play huge shows and in the US they tend to do club gigs. Of all the bands I’ve listened to over the years NMA probably has had the most profound affect on my playing and writing. When I got my Fender Jazz bass 15 years ago Paul (lead singer of Tammuz) remarked that it gave me the New Model Army sound (as a good thing). The other exciting news is the original/classic Killing Joke lineup have reformed and will be touring and putting a new album out later this year, probably not coming to the US though (assuming they don’t kill each other first).

Here are some pieces of Rob wisdom, styled after some other lists I’ve seen:

1 – Treat everyone you meet with courtesy and respect (which doesn’t mean you have to like them). Pie and I used to live above some Gangsta types who were alleged to be selling Crack but I’d always say hi and shake their hands when I saw them
2 – Never underestimate anyone, they’ll kick your ass (literally or otherwise) every time without fail. Can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me.
3 – Have the capacity to love endlessly, and tell those you do how you feel about them regularly.
4 – Never be in a hurry to get anywhere, slow down and enjoy the ride (unless you’re driving an ambulance that is)
5 – When arguing with a zealot don’t use rhetoric, use undeniable logic and reason.
6 – Art and music can save peoples lives
7 – Follow your passions, even if it’s for a few minutes a day
8 – Work is good for the soul, but a job you hate can make you want to kill yourself
9 – Money doesn’t buy happiness but it buys a lot of peace of mind
10 – Tomorrow comes very fast, don’t procrastinate

spoke Rob at at 1.20pm | permalink | 348 comments





Friday, February 28, 2008

A Friday too far

With the adoption closing in it seems like we have 20 projects going on at home. Pie finally got me to restart re-tiling the fireplace last week, and in my usual experience with our house I found everything is below spec and done badly. When I chipped the old tiles out I discovered they were attached directly to drywall instead of the concrete backer-board which is what is mostly used. I can’t even cut the drywall out because the mantel covers so much of it, so my conclusion was it’s been below spec for 20 years, another few won’t hurt.

The house kind of looks like a demilitarized zone at present with two of the rooms either being painted, stuff pulled out of closets to be gone through and boxes of furniture everywhere ready to be assembled. This weekend we’re moving Pie’s study downstairs and then straight to getting her old room converted into the kidlets bedroom. I’ve said to Pie we should try and time 2 -3 weeks at the end of this doing nothing but be hedonistic before we go get the kid. After that it’s be a good 16 years of acting responsibly (and another 40 before we can wear diapers and throw tantrums in the supermarket when we don’t get our way).

Pie let me buy a violin bass last week which I’ve wanted for about 15 years. I had a no-name vintage fixer-upper Japanese one last year but it turned out to be too badly damaged to bring back (no controls, the truss rod snapped off when the tech I use tried to adjust it and only one pickup worked). This one is the Rogue VB100 Series 2 which I think is Musicians Friends own brand model. For $200 it was really great quality sound and looks and does the thumpy Hofner thing really well. It’s funny that the Hofner retails for a lot more and sounds about the same from what’s I’ve read. It’s only because Paul McCartney played one (which he got because it was cheap), that they became as desirable as they did. I actually recorded the bass line to ‘Monty’ the song I wrote about my Dad with it, and was pleased with how woody sounding the tone was. I may use it in PW a little but I’d have to figure out on which songs.

Pie, Jeff and myself are going to see the New York Dolls on Sunday, hopefully none of them will OD between now and then.

spoke Rob at at 4.35pm | permalink | 0 comments