A while back, trying to be funny, I coined the phrase “three basses is one too many” to describe my collection of upright basses and in particular, too many, from my wife Linda’s point of view. All were out and scattered through a couple of rooms in our house. I would occasionally play each of them in a jam or rehearsal. They all had a different flavor of tone based on their wood, vintage, what strings I had on them and the size of the instrument. I went through phases of preferring one over another for the gigs I was playing.
Now I’m a one woman man, married for 36 years to the same one and even before that I wasn’t the lothario type stringing 2 or 3 girlfriends at one time. So, as it pertains to my musical mistresses, I came to favor (love if you will) only one of them. It was my 1939 Kay. Its sound was crisp and punchy fitting the different styles and genres (if you call Old Time a genre) I was playing.
Once, I was in this place with one instrument, the other two starting picking up dust just sitting around. They were never in tune and who cared. I was a one bass man. You all know how this story goes. Nothing was too good for this bass. Twice a year visits to the bass salon (Matt Bohn The Bass Doctor) for treatments and tender loving care, new strings, endpin, bumpers for the bout, bridge and action adjustments, new pick-up and whatever else I wanted to spoil this instrument with. Last month, at Grass Valley, Matt put an original Kay tailpiece he found somewhere on this bass. It is a pre 1950 gorgeous piece of wood and I had to have it on my bass.
So what about the other two neglected instruments, being a one bass man they were getting no attention what so ever from me or anybody. I finally put them into bass bags so to protect them from the elements but they still were taking up plenty of space in our home. As it turns out “three basses is two too many”.
From some past experiences, I convinced myself that I needed a back up just in case the Kay went down but I don’t worry about that anymore as the chances of that happening are slim and I know where some rental basses are if needed until my beauty recovers.
If you know me then you probably know that I’m all about promoting bass playing and bass players, spreading the faith even though they will probably steal my place in a jam in the very near future.
As you can see I’m making the case here to get rid of two upright basses and have taken some steps to do that. My hope is that they go to a good home and to a player who will play and care for the instruments.
One of my estranged basses is on consignment at Steve Swan’s Bass Shop in Millbrae. It is a fully carved MT-1 with a big sound. Hopefully some student will buy it and enjoy the booming sound.
The other one was a ¼ size Kay that I had for when I had back problems 5 years ago. It has all the Kay hardware and the Kay sound that I like. With this one I chose a different path for passing it on….. or paying it forward if you will. At Grass Valley this year I donated it to the Kids Academy (through the Lending library). Now I’m sure that it will be played by a young bass player that will hopefully find a love of bass playing and maybe pass it on, when he out grows it.
That’s the story of how and why I went from three basses down to one. Obviously this doesn’t include my vintage 1976 Fender Mustang Bass or my unique resonator (dobro) bass. I still have those two. Also you may have noticed I went the whole way without any homonymic reference to fish or any mention of tequila for that matter.
Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Catch you next time.
