Jeffrey K. Elkins – The Bass Blog

This begins the list of instruments, rigs, and pedals that I use for all occasions. I’ll try to keep it current! I’m going to start with the axes.

Covering The Basses

Vance

Vantage VP-710B – The guitarist in the garage band I was in in High School had a Vantage electric guitar with double humbuckers that I coveted until last year – no kidding. I tried to get him to sell it to me for the longest time – it broke my heart when he took it to college with him and turned it into an art project. Last year I found one on eBay and snatched it up. Then I bought this fellow to go with it – nearly-matched set.

This one’s my Old Gentleman. A late 70’s Matsumoku set-neck passive bass. He’s quite handsome, and the pickups have plenty of old-school thump. I had a Korean bass that looked similar to this one back in the day, although it didn’t sound anywhere near as good. I took the Korean to Europe in 1985 – the bandleader was not enamoured, as “pretty” was less important to him than sound. I wish I had owned this instrument at the time. Very round notes. Seriously delicious for jazz, funk, or what-ails-you.

Lady Emma

Eminence Upright – I discovered this 10 year-old beauty on Gruhn’s website 5 days after it got posted as a consignment item. It was a little out of my price range, but some of the music I was playing was calling for an upright sound (versus my fretless), and one of the groups I’m in was morphing from electric-rock to acoustic. So the timing was right, and it wasn’t going to last long, even at the price (which was STILL less than half of the new cost). So I went downtown and poked around upstairs, playing an aluminum upright made in Kalamazoo, and a couple of other double basses… but finally walked over to the lady I had been staring at across the room and introduced myself. Good thing I got over my shyness. We go dancing a couple of times a month.

Bonus - when they brought the original packaging down, we discovered an LR Baggs acoustic preamp/DI in the case. The Gods were smiling. So was American Express, but that’s another story…

Big Red

Ibanez 5-string Basses - I purchased an Ibanez SR905 at Sam Ash on Sean-the-bass-guy’s recommendation. The neck on the SRs is slim, which makes the 5-string very navigable, and the active Bartolini’s were a godsend over the junk I had been playing (which I traded to Sam for a good discount on the 905). I immediately started getting compliments from bandmates on the new sound – it was alive and sparkling.

When I made the decision to invest in a fretless, I started looking around for a match for the 905. I’d fallen in love with the slim neck, and I also wanted the fingerboard scale to match for muscle memory purposes.  Further, I was hoping to find those lovely Barts. To my great horror, I discovered that there wasn’t a fretless option on the 905… Ibanez’s custom shop is only open for endorsing musicians (seriously, I’m there guys… give me a call), and you had to drop several levels to the 300s to find fretless as a standard option on any of the SR series. But at that level, the bart pups weren’t an option… in fact, active pups weren’t available at all with a fretless in the SR series.

Yeah. I cried. I gnashed my teeth. I sent emails. But finally I bought a Rob Allen mb-2. Damn that was a nice bass, but though it was incredibly powerful, it felt a little fragile. It was lovely for recording… but I was just afraid to take it to some of the places I played. But then I read that in ‘94, at NAMM, Ibanez had come out with a fretless that closely matched the SR series!

The Twins: Red & White

I searched some more, and discovered (through his music and website) Gary Willis, a terrific jazz bassist with groundbreaking technique. Gary, it turns out, has been an Ibanez endorser for years, and with them designed and developed a 5 string fretless with a special, active Bartolini pickup. With the help of Brian at The Low End Shop in Murfreesboro and the Guitar Center in Mobile, I turned the new mb-2 into a used Ibanez GWB1 fretless (although the dude at GC thought he was selling me the 105 with it’s cheaper ebonol board and screwed-in ramp – but when I received it, it turned out to be the original). White ash, off-center dots on a gold-lined ebony fingerboard, stacked knobs, black hardware (and the coolest damn tuners EVER) – she’s a beauty. There is a newer model (quite a bit more expensive), but the one I picked up is nearly perfect. I’m going to rewire the battery housing – it pops a bit when I start digging in (a method very contrary to the way Gary plays – he’s all about the light touch). I put La Bella tapewounds on it because I really, really like those strings for fretless.

I’ve got some other stringed items, but these are the basses that do the heavy lifting for me. Lately I’ve been enjoying thumping on Vance quite a bit, and he’s coming (without a backup) to the next few non-acoustic gigs. I just put La Bella flats on him (760 FL), and wowser. Who needs a ‘72 Gibson Les Paul Signature semi-hollowbody, anyway?

I’ve still got some amps and pedals to show you. But they’re on the next page!

UPDATE 09-27-09: Big Red and White are on consignment. To see the twins, check out Big Joe’s Guitarworks in Madison, TN.