mcnach Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 (edited) In 2005 I ended up with a bass in my hands, by accident, onstage at a hotel where we were having one of these "work bonding exercises". I decided that bass was actually rather cool. A month or so later I went and bought myself a Jazz bass by Vintage. I really liked that bass. I had owned two other basses before, as I liked recording stuff at home with my guitars and a drum machine. The first one was a P-bass type, Lyon by Washburn. I also had a Squier P-bass. But I barely played with them more than a few hours just to add some "dum dum dum dum" under some rock guitar... nothing exciting, since bass did not excite me. But the Vintage brand Jazz changed that, together with the experience of playing a bass with a band and have people dancing to the music. For I had not gigged before either (just a couple of small things on guitar). I loved the sound of teh Jazz, how it felt... now this was a bass I really enjoyed playing. That Jazz bass was... "the bass that started it all". In 2006 my interest went down... until May 2007, when I decided I should really just join a band, since it seemed the best way to enjoy bass... either that, or to sell the bass and forget about it, stick to guitar. In June 2007 I joined my first band on bass. With the Jazz. By 2008, I had a couple of Warwicks and I was moving house, needed to reduce clutter... I sold the bass to someone locally, here in Edinburgh. By 2009 I was gigging regularly and loving it, and my guitars received less and less attention (currently I own three, while in 2007 I had probably 10-12). I missed my Jazz. Yeah, it was not the best bass in the world, but it was pretty nice for what it was. And, it was my first. It was the one that opened up a new world for me, really. I used to think all basses sounded the same (please, don't hurt me!). But with the Jazz I learnt there was a lot more to bass than I thought (or didn't think, rather). I wished I had not sold it. After all, it wasn't really worth much... but it was gone. In the second half of 2010, my band Sea Bass Kid played a gig with another two bands from Glasgow. As we were local and playing last, we agreed to provide drum kit, my bass rig etc. A band called Supermarionation was playing, and I remember showing their bassist the workings of my RH450 head "yeah, I have saved this preset for me, so change anything you want, and this is the mute..." blah blah... He seemed vaguely familiar. I assumed I had seen this band before somewhere else. I went out to get something to eat, and came back to catch the end of the first band. Supermarionation was next. They started... I thought the bass sounded very good. It's always interesting to hear your own rig being played by somebody else. I left for a while again. This was a downstairs bar, and I was trying to get the bar upstairs to play some of our recordings, hoping to entice more people to come down to the gig. I sent the prettiest girl among us but the DJ had none of it. Some half-arsed excuse as "oh, I don't have a CD drive... oh no, my USB does not work either" (Just say "no!", idiot, instead of giving lame excuses). So I come downstairs again to finish seeing this band properly. That's when I noticed the bass. A black Jazz bass. With a black pickguard. But not just any black pickguard. I had replaced the original tortoise-shell type pickguard with a brushed metal one, black, which was great for shielding incidentally. This looked just like it... and yes, that headstock... hey, this looked a LOT like my old bass. And the player... THAT'S WHY HE SEEMED FAMILIAR!!! I talked to him afterwards, and yup... it was the guy I sold the bass to. His name was Sam, only I insisted in calling him Steven for a while for some reason (sorry! ) I told him I missed the bass. He was not looking to sell it. We parted. I posted the story about my reencounter here, on BassChat... and what do you know? Ste... erm, I mean Sam was here too, under the nick 'uncle psychosis'!!! That gave me the opportunity to stalk him a bit and insist on how much I'd like that bass back, if he was ever to sell it. He firmly said he had no intention in the near future to sell it, but if he did, he'd remember me. He did. On Sunday 26th August 2012, I reunited with the Vintage EJM96BK Jazz that started it all for me. Happy days!!! Edited August 27, 2012 by mcnach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbayne Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Nice story! If I ever see my first bass again, I,ll pour petrol over it and light a match!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apa Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 [quote name='apa' timestamp='1346061339' post='1784562'] [/quote]Indeed. Great story, but you know the rules, no pics = never happened Seriously, congrats. I'd like my first back (Yammy BB300) which I swapped with a friend, but he hates parting with any of his kit whether he plays it or not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andydye Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 I love a happy ending to a story with a few twists and turns along the way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 You are absolutely right, apa... Here is the beast: One thing this bass has is... not very exciting pickups. I was not terribly fond of them when I let it go... and now that I know a bit better, I like them even less. I have two pickup sets already that I can use: 1) the original pickups from my CIJ Fender Jazz (apparently USA pickups, as the previous owner verified, and should be rather decent). These will preserve the looks, as they have black covers. 2) I also have a set of new cream-covers DiMarzio Model J, which are less traditional but quite good pickups too, and humbucking. With those, the bass will look a bit like this: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 I could put my J-Retro preamp, which I moved to a black plate, into this... although I decided to use it on my CIJ Jazz instead. But then it'd look like: or Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Stick in the CIJs first of all IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 [quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1346061338' post='1784561'] Nice story! If I ever see my first bass again, I,ll pour petrol over it and light a match!! [/quote] Make sure it's filmed!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krysh Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 [quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1346061338' post='1784561'] Nice story! If I ever see my first bass again, I,ll pour petrol over it and light a match!! [/quote] I hope somebody already did that to mine. congrats, great story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apa Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Cant you swap the cream covers over for black ones? The J retro may be a bit of a 'waste' in such a thing! Although the black cover does go well with the scratch plate. But then you would have to swap the bridge and machine heads for black to just to complete the look Oh and one thing Ive noticed............ Its got a rosewood finger board!!!! Im suprised you let it through the door A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 [quote name='apa' timestamp='1346067240' post='1784704'] Cant you swap the cream covers over for black ones? The J retro may be a bit of a 'waste' in such a thing! Although the black cover does go well with the scratch plate. But then you would have to swap the bridge and machine heads for black to just to complete the look Oh and one thing Ive noticed............ Its got a rosewood finger board!!!! Im suprised you let it through the door A [/quote] No, the J-Retro will go on my CIJ Jazz. It was just for "ilustration purposes here". I can't decide whether I hate or love teh cream covers. I can't remove them. I could get another set if I really really wanted to, in black. But I'm thinking of trying the Fender pickups first anyway. Yes, rosewood, who would have thought that! but it's a rather pale example, 'though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle psychosis Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 (edited) Glad you're a happy man, Jose. Was really cool to catch up with you and return your baby I love the look of the cream covers. Go for it! Blatant plug alert: If anyone wants to hear what the bass sounds like (albeit compressed and amp sim'd...) in its current incarnation I used it to record my band's "On The Fly" EP. You can hear it here: [url="http://www.supermarionation.co.uk/releases/on-the-fly"]http://www.supermarionation.co.uk/releases/on-the-fly[/url] Edited August 27, 2012 by uncle psychosis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichF Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 cream covers, nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donnyboy Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Not too sure about the cream, great story though. The blacks look " right" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 [quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1346080582' post='1784980'] Glad you're a happy man, Jose. Was really cool to catch up with you and return your baby I love the look of the cream covers. Go for it! Blatant plug alert: If anyone wants to hear what the bass sounds like (albeit compressed and amp sim'd...) in its current incarnation I used it to record my band's "On The Fly" EP. You can hear it here: [url="http://www.supermarionation.co.uk/releases/on-the-fly"]http://www.supermari...ases/on-the-fly[/url] [/quote] I love this bass. It's weird. It's only a bass... I have "better" Jazz basses... but it's like meeting an old friend: it may have been a few years since you last met, but after 10 minutes it feels you were never apart. Really at home with it. I plan to play my Friday gig with it. I hope I see someone looking at the headstock name and turning up their noses because it's not a Fender or something. I love my reverse snobbery, me. I'll try the Fender pickups first, as I really am not a huge fan of the original Wilkinsons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 [quote name='Donnyboy' timestamp='1346104265' post='1785441'] Not too sure about the cream, great story though. The blacks look " right" [/quote] I like the cream ones... but at the same time I find them a bit... like "racing stripes" on a Seat Ibiza, or something like that Black & chrome is classy/classic. So I'm going with that first: those CIJ Fender pickups will be in place maybe tonight, or tomorrow night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle psychosis Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 [quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1346104953' post='1785452'] I plan to play my Friday gig with it. I hope I see someone looking at the headstock name and turning up their noses because it's not a Fender or something. I love my reverse snobbery, me. [/quote] haha, me too. I used to quite regularly get complements from sound guys when using that bass live---I'm led to believe thats quite rare!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 28, 2012 Author Share Posted August 28, 2012 [quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1346139824' post='1785602'] haha, me too. I used to quite regularly get complements from sound guys when using that bass live---I'm led to believe thats quite rare!! [/quote] Indeed. Most times all the attention they give you is "ok, bass guitar... yep, ok, now give me the guitar on teh right" or about 20 seconds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary mac Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Great story and glad you are reunited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 [quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1346104953' post='1785452'] I love this bass. It's weird. It's only a bass... I have "better" Jazz basses... but it's like meeting an old friend: it may have been a few years since you last met, but after 10 minutes it feels you were never apart. Really at home with it. [/quote] I may have said how a year or so ago I had 3 jazz basses bought and sold.... a FSR Fender 70's reissue, cost a grand secondhand, a good price; a Valenti jazz, was cheap secondhand at 700 and a cimar jazz that cost me 70. I only regret selling one of them. guess which one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 29, 2012 Author Share Posted August 29, 2012 [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1346240260' post='1786822'] I may have said how a year or so ago I had 3 jazz basses bought and sold.... a FSR Fender 70's reissue, cost a grand secondhand, a good price; a Valenti jazz, was cheap secondhand at 700 and a cimar jazz that cost me 70. I only regret selling one of them. guess which one! [/quote] That Cimar bass of yours also looked amazing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcnach Posted August 29, 2012 Author Share Posted August 29, 2012 So, Fender USA pickups in the Vintage... a very marked difference! Before it had a nice enough sound, even if not very "Jazzy". Now it's clearly a Jazz. I was surprised it made so much difference. It sounds a bit "woody". It reminds me of a roadworn Jazz a friend of mine has. Do they have the same type of oickups? The strings are pretty old, over a year I'm told, but it still sounded pretty good tonight at rehearsal. I will play with this on the gig on Friday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle psychosis Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 [quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1346278244' post='1787530'] The strings are pretty old, over a year I'm told, but it still sounded pretty good tonight at rehearsal. I will play with this on the gig on Friday [/quote] I changed them after I broke a string at a gig...I looked in our calendar and that was back in April 2011! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 [quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1346312109' post='1787673'] I changed them after I broke a string at a gig...I looked in our calendar and that was back in April 2011! [/quote]Still pretty new then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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