Lunch report - Friday the Thirteenth

It's Friday. I'd like to thank everybody for participating this week. My work schedule calls for longer-than-average days, but the upside is that I have every other Friday off. Today is the day. I went to my son's school this morning to hear him sing the school song in front of over 100 kids. He did it without any backing track, and without having to look at the lyrics. I must admit I was proud. He's been practicing all week...well, whenever he puts his bass down and takes a break from working on "Brown Eyed Girl".

Lunch today will be a Subway sandwich - probably ham and cheddar on oat bread, with sweet peppers. I follow the same lunch routine on my Fridays off: pick up a sandwich, have it wrapped as two separate halves, and head in to the boys' school to eat lunch with them. The last two years my wife (who is making a mid-career change from insurance broker to special education teacher) was also working in the same school, so I used to have three lunches in a row when her lunch break didn't overlap with one of my sons.

Today's photos are going to shift away from my G&Ls to my sons' Fenders. I'm not in favor of buying kids high-end instruments as status symbols, but I didn't want them to start on something unplayable like my first Kay was. If you look around, aren't in a hurry and don't mind a few imperfections, some good deals can be found. Both of these cost about the same as a short-scale Chinese import.

First comes Cloudy, my youngest son's Musicmaster:







Cloudy was named by my son within about two minutes of first opening the case. The blue paint has been refinished. The seller claimed it was pretty rough and priced it accordingly, but I'm very happy with the job that was done on it. It doesn't look like a G&L or PRS, but then again a Musicmaster's not supposed to. There are also some scuffs on the neck, but they don't affect playability. It played like a dream when it arrived, but with the weather starting to change it is showing signs that a setup will be in order soon.

Next is my older son's 2002 MIM Precision Junior:





My son has a name for this bass, but he isn't telling anybody. I suspect it's named after a girl in his class. At least that's what his brother claims. Anyway, this is a very sweet bass guitar. It has the same 30" scale and about the same neck profile as the Musicmaster, but the alder slab body is scaled down quite a bit. The pickup is the same one that was being used in the US-built Precisions. The control is a single volume. This gives really decent volume for a short scale, especially compared to the Musicmaster's leftover Strat pickup. The flame in this bass's neck is incredible.

G&L topic: Is G&L missing the student market? The Tribute series are great guitars by almost all accounts, but when it comes to smaller hands and shorter arms they aren't exactly user-friendly. Hunting down short-scale instruments for my kids to learn on was not easy. Aside from a couple of Fender models on the used market, the choices were very low-quality Asian imports for around $300-500. The next step up was $1000 or more to get into Gibsons or boutique instruments. Heck, forget the kids, I want a good short scale bass at a price that matches the quality. Do you think G&L should consider producing a couple of smaller instruments? Could you see yourself buying a 22" scale Fallout or a 30" scale SB-1?

Non-G&L topic: It's Friday the 13th. I am fine with that, especially since I have the day off. I don't walk under ladders because I don't want things to fall on me, I won't light three cigarettes off a single match because I don't want lung cancer, and I'm more concerned about deer than black cats running in front of my car. I do admit to getting just as creeped-out walking up a dark flight of stair now as I did in grade school. I don't know why, but sometimes I get a feeling like something is walking up the steps behind me. What superstitions will you admit to? Please leave religion out if this - if not out of respect for fellow G&L heads, then at least to keep Craig from having to lock a Lunch Report thread!

Thanks again for plenty of good discussion this week. Keep your stick on the ice!

Ken

This gives really decent volume for a short scale, especially compared to the Musicmaster's leftover Strat pickup.

This just reminded me of another instrument/effect pairing (I'm posting it here instead of in Wednesday's LR). Old Strat pickups can sound great in a Strat, but not so much in a short-scale bass. I went hunting for an EHX bass boost a couple of weeks ago to address the issue, but ended up finding an older BBE Opto Stomp for $30. It didn't do much for adding the very bottom end, but when you get up past the first octave...WOW!!! It does an amazing job of thickening up the sound when the compression is barely on and the volume is slightly boosted. I haven't tried it with any of my G&Ls - FWIW, I'm not even bothering to use my Carl Martin with the B-15 - but one day I'll give it a shot through my practice amp. I think the Opto Stomp would definitely be worth a try for any bass.

Ken

Gabe made a small scale X-body Interceptor for his son .(Flame Maple body with translucent red flames !!)
I'd buy one of those for the child within (nudges Darth ).


I used to have one of these ; a Supro "pocket" bass.
It was maybe 5 lbs , sounded huge.
With a piezo in the wood bridge it could add some definition to the notes .
Amazingly fun to play .



I have a leftover piece of northern maple that is a touch too small for a full ASAT sized body, I was thinking about a
Mando-SAT ?

elwood

Elwood,

That Supro looks really fun. There's something about a short-scale bass. IMO they need more attention to detail in construction and setup than a full 34" scale, but they can be incredibly fun to play. If G&L offered one, I would go with a fretless first and then come back for a fretted.

Ken

Plus I dug the style and the old logo they did (which your sons' bass has making it one of the first 3 years made if I remember right).

Tim,

The neck stamp is from 1971, so it's one of the earliest. The pocket was covered by the refin, so I'm not sure what year the body was.

Ken

Ken , why would you go fretless first ??... just curious

These have great pickups...motown all the way:

Epiphone Newport

Ken , why would you go fretless first ??... just curious

Because I have GASsed for a short-scale fretless for years, and have yet to see a decent one for under $1000 used. After spending a couple of year playing only the upright, I've found that I can play much more expressively on a fretless neck. They were nightmares when I tried them back in the 80s, but they are a piece of cake compared to the 43" scale on my upright. I guess it's sort of like having a certain neck profile that you prefer for lead guitar, and another profile for rhythm.

I have no idea whether this makes sense or will be helpful...

Ken

Squire is coming back out with a 30" short scale VI bass, e to e just like a guitar. Seems that would be friendly for a student's hands...

[youtube]qblERL_-i1M[/youtube]

Musicmaster basses like yours are very cool. They have great necks with good tuners and in spite of the
Strat pickup they can sound pretty good.

I have one with a red finish and a mother of toilet seat pick-guard.

Those tuners look bad but they are actually made in Germany and they work very well.
I saw a MM bass converted to fretless and the neck was still straight so it played very well.

I prefer a long scale neck for fretless work but to each his own.

I am not a big fan of the mini P-bass, I think its more of a novelty than a valid instrument.

Great job on the lunch reports this week.

Last edited by bassman on Fri Sep 13, 2013 2:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I do agree with Ken about the short-scale fretless!
I've wanted to de-fret a Gibson EB2-D and maybe string it G/C/F/Bb ever since I stupidly sold my old (fretted) Epi Rivoli, with its EB3 back pup added, decades ago (70s). Mind you, that stupid sale part-funded a 63 Precision, which fetched around £350 a couple of years later....
With modern amp developments, the Gibson / Epi would now sound very nice.

I think your theory on buying your son the Musicmaster Is sound.
I once had a mid 60's Mustang but compared to my Jazzmaster I just couldn't get into.
Superstitions , Nah, you make your own luck
Anthony

Meh, no superstitions.

And shortscale G&Ls would be killer.

Maybe a shortscale neck option for bass and guitar?

Or should a shortscale be built from the ground up hmm.

Ken , my sister turned 13 , friday , april 13 back in the 70's..... lol .....

I'd be interested in a short scale sc2.

I'm not superstitious at all buy grandma lives by all of them!
Great week ken, I've been away so responding has been tough using my phone!

a surprised that darwin didn't chime in on the friday the 13th origin. it was indeed bad luck if you were a templar, as 10-13 (friday) 1307, phillip the fair ordered the templars to be arrested, tortured and executed. most of the templars fled however, and their fleet disappeared that night never to be seen again, but likely some of them made the trip the america and darwin's kensington rune stone was left behind by some of the templars who escaped friday te 13th.

The bassman in one of my Seattle bands years ago used to use a Mustang bass, which always sounded better than I thought it should. My first electric was a Fender Duo Sonic. Cool guitar.

I can't see G&L doing much more for a student guitar than what they do now.

When people ask me about a guitar for a kid I often recommend using a baritone uke to start them out.

Bill

Ibanez Mikro is a sweet little guitar for a small person , I got one of my grandson's a Mikro used for like a 100.00 , a new one is only 145.00 ..... I don't think G & L needs to compete against that , but a Tribute small scale bass could be a good

The Tribute short-scale could be good.
+1 on the Mustang; I remember some bands coming to my studio with Mustang basses in the 1970's, and they were almost indistinguishable from Precisions for making records with, if the amp was good.

Happy Belated Friday the 13th!

Short scale bass... OK! Our bass player plays a Kala U-Bass. He's been gigging with it almost exclusively for over a year now and I'm here to tell you it's a punchy little beast. We play many different styles of music, and sometimes even get loud. The U-Bass is NOT a toy--it RAWKS!

Here's my band in a video we made off a live board mix from a gig we played earlier this year (the bass is all U-Bass):

[youtube]zH6VjO7eNfE[/youtube]


And yes, I am the street dog.

--GDub

gdub, did your guitar sound like that live? the whole band sounds good, but the guitar tone is very wimpy. also there seem to be some intonations issues. the reason i am asking is that the guitar tone from the board can be really bad, even if live it sounds good coming from the amp. did you mic, or did you go direct out?

gdub, did your guitar sound like that live? the whole band sounds good, but the guitar tone is very wimpy. also there seem to be some intonations issues. the reason i am asking is that the guitar tone from the board can be really bad, even if live it sounds good coming from the amp. did you mic, or did you go direct out?

You are direct Louis! No it didn't sound like that live. This song came up after a loud-ish song where the sound guy potted me down and then forgot to bring me back up in the mix. For the video mix we had to have him pull up the guitar which compromised the tone. Also, you're correct, the board EQ is what it is. But... it was free, the sound guy is a friend, and we didn't have a plan about what we would do with the recording. As for intonation, well, that is relative to the amount of beer I've had--it was a St Patrick's Day gig so I'd had plenty. And the obvious flub in the solo was because someone else missed a "call and response" step, which threw me off... but, hey it's live and the video is fun--at least for the non-guitar geeks amongst us.

Oh, and the thread was about bass. How about that U-Bass!

Cheers.

--GDub

gdub, i am always direct. the u-bass sounded great. i just played a few weeks ago with a bass player using a u-base, it sounded huge. you guys drink when you play?

...you guys drink when you play?

Depends on the gig. Oktoberfest and St Patrick's Day gigs are usually a big party, band included. We eat, drink, hang out with and entertain the crowd. Everyone has a good time, we get paid, and we ALWAYS get asked back.

--GDub

The Kala basses are an extension of the Ashbory Bass. The original Bass Ukulele was built by David Gomes, and back in the day Large Sound supplied him with Ashbory parts. Here's the first ever Uke Bass:
http://www.largesound.com/ashboryarticle/concept/ukulele/