My Instruments
A recent inquiry from a fellow bass player inspired me to post this article about my instruments. Picture to come.
Here's a list of instruments I current own, listed in approximate order that acquired them in.
Basses
- Acoustic Electric Bass
I walked in to Sam Ash years ago without any intention of buying anything, I just wanted to look at Acoustic Electric (AE) basses. Inspired by Brian Ritchie from the Violent Femmes, I had originally wanted to buy an Acoustic Electric, but bought the Jazz (above) instead. When I heard this one, I just had to have it. Lucky for me, it was only around $250 because it was on closeout. I pointed out a small chip in the wood and they cut the price in half. The hardshell case ended up costing more than the bass!
I think this bass has a great warm, woody upright tone and I currently have flatwound strings on it. It's a "Montana" made by Kaman. - Late 70's Music Man Sabre
After the 8 string, this was my primary bass for years. I bought it because it had a bottom end that just wouldn't quit, but in the studio always turned the EQ into a reverse smiley, emphasizing the midrange more than any other bass player could understand. I developed a highly melodic style of playing that bordered on "lead bass." In retrospect, emphasizing the midrange was a natural extention of having played 8 string immediately before.
The bass has a Sting Ray neck, had it when I bought it. - Warmoth Jazz
When Warmoth started making basses with block inlays and binding, I had to have one. So I bough a body from Stew Mac, some '73 pickups off eBay and had it built for me. While I'm not crazy about the Stew Mac body, it is my primary bass right now. Heavy as hell, but it's rock solid and sounds pretty good. I may upgrade the body to a USA Custom Jazz one day. I also have a Maple Jazz Bass neck lying around not doing anything... - '73 Precision Bass
I walked in to Sam Ash with a friend of mine looking to buy an Acoustic Guitar. She walked out with a Taylor Baby, and I walked out with this. Well, I didn't walk out with it that day, I put it on Layaway and sold my '68 first. When I walked in the salesguy told me about this bass, but I didn't pay any attention to him. Then I saw it on the wall - this old, beat up P-Bass and decided to play it. - 60's Hofner
The "Beatle" Bass. This thing sounds huge. Warm, fat and woody. I love it.
Guitars
- Green Mountain Guitars, Acoustic Guitar
Just sleightly larger than the Taylor Baby acoustic (just large enough not to fit in the gigbag or hardshell case), I bought this guitar in Boulder Colorado. I was traveling and wanted something to travel with. After listening to both the Taylor and this guitar, I decided on this one. I've actually been in contact with the luthier who created this guitar (and eventually sold his design) about getting more of them because I love the sound so much and know that they were hand made in limited quantities. The sound is a great contrast to normal acoustic guitar sounds. - 70's Jaguar
This is a parts instrument that I bought from my guitar tech. I really liked the sound, though it had no finish, so I tried spray-painting it silver... that didn't work out very well, so I'm in the process of stripping it and I'm going to leave it natural wood. - Fender Drednaught
I wanted an acoustic besides the Green Mountain Guitar, so I got this.
Amps
- Hartke 2115 Combo
A Hartke 200 watt amp, whose sound I got very used to over the years at the studio I used to rehearse at combined with a single 15" aluminum speaker. I accidentally ripped all of the knobs off of it one day when loading up the Jeep, so the only controls I have are on/off and the graphic EQ. I spray painted the wood around the speaker silver as well. - SWR Working Man's 12
This is my primary amp right now, even if it is covered in cat hair... my cats like to sleep on it, and I like having an amp out that I can plug in to. This amp has a nice metal speaker grill, so they can't damage the speaker. - 1963 Ampeg B-15
This amp is to my small amp collection as the '73 Precision bass is to my bass collection. This is the amp all the great bass players of the early 60's used - James Jamerson, Duck Dunn, etc. While they may not have recorded with it (they were more likely to plug straight in to the console), they always played live with it. In fact James Jamerson played live with it even when he should've bought a bigger amp because he didn't want to comprimise his tone. I know how he feels. I can't play through an amp whose sound I don't like.
Sold
- Kramer
A P/J style bass that I learned on. Going from the Kramer to the Jazz was like a dream. The Kramer had an aluminum baseball bat for a neck and the Jazz had such a thin, playable neck. - Fender Jazz Squier
This was my first bass, a red jazz that I turned into a fretless and subsequently sold. Luckily it had the word Fender larger than the word Squier and I just scraped the word Squier off. Nobody knew the difference. - Kramer 8 String
I played this bass for years with my band. To soften the hideousness I put a Bikini Kill sticker on it. At least then people who saw it would know that I wasn't about heavy metal, but more closely aligned with punk. - Yamaha 6 string
This is the bass John Pattitucci plays, just without the inlays. I played it a few times and people made fun of me. So I sold it with the intention of buying a good 4 string, but ended up with.... - Conklin 7 String
This was a really nice bass, well put together, very usable sounds in both the lower and upper range. It could sound like a Jazz Bass or a Gibson Guitar at the same time. Of course, this was purely indulgent and I ended up selling it. Played it out at one show, but for some reason I was very nervous at that show and barely strayed from established bass lines. - German 30's upright bass
I owned this bass for just a couple of years. I recorded a few songs with it, but otherwise, I never did more than play a few notes on it any time I passed by. - Fender Acoustic Dreadnaut Guitar
I bought this because I wanted an acoustic guitar, and I spent many a day on the beach with this guitar getting guitar lessons. My sister is the current owner of this guitar, so it's still in the family. - '68 Precision Bass
I bought this bass because it was in horrible condition and only costs around $200 at Guitar Center. So I had the body refinished by Jack Pigeon and redid the neck myself. Eventually I sold it to buy the '73, which has just the tone I was looking for.
page first created on Wednesday, November 20, 2002
© Mark Wieczorek