Ibanez Artcore AFB200 hollow body bass guitar

Bought this one last year and finally had a chance to play it a bit more.
It's a short scale bass with a fully hollow body. Thicker body than my Gretsch and with a deeper acoustic sound. Pickups aren't great, but the bridge pickup seems pretty usable. I'd like to change all the electronics in it for more flexibility. As it is, it has a pickup selector switch (which I don't like) and volume and tone. Maybe some ThunderTron pickups from TV Jones would improve the sound.. Don't know if they'd fit though.
All in all, it's fun to play and can walk some badass jazz.

Gibson Thunderbird 5 string Bass

The coolest looking bass ever! Sound is HUGE and punchy! Lots of sonic difference between the two pickups and both are quite useful.

Fender "Victor Bailey" 5 string acoustic bass guitar

This bass sounds great!I Today I will be taking it to change the nut and put on a high C string instead of the low B.
But.. There is an issue with string output with the piezo pickup in the bridge saddle. VERY uneven between strings. Also, the fishman preamp-eq-tuner that is built in makes some noise in certain positions. Otherwise very comfortable and fun to play! Super nice to have around the house!
UPDATE: Not quite as fun as the four string.. But perhaps this has something to do with the strings. I use the phosfor bronze on the 4 string, but no one makes a five string set of these, so I have half wound D'Addarios on it now.
I contacted Fishman about the preamp and they told me that Fender has them make this super cheap model to put in these basses and the best thing to do would be to replace it with their regular model preamps. Same with the pickup. They don't even use this type of pickup anymore (since like 1990!) but since it's cheap, Fender uses it to keep costs down. There should be an option when you buy it! It's such a pain to find out all this crap after you buy the bass. So I'm having Fishman build me a custom sized pickup for the 5 string (they don't make the new pickups that long) and a new preamp. I also bought a new pickup for the 4 string, but this one is off the shelf, regular size.

AERO Pickups

I just got my Ibanez Artcore bass back and it now has the Aero pickup installed. One word: Monstrous!!
What a sound! It is so full and strong and even. I don't believe I have ever felt so comfortable playing the bass guitar. This pickup is aggresive and very responsive. Look at the Ibanez bass post to see how it looks in the bass. I'm waiting for the G&L bass to get its Aero installed and I'll comment about that later.

Larry Pollack runs Aero Pickups in Hilo Hawaii. He makes the pickups himself, with a small team of helpers. I did a bunch or internet research and kept coming up with Aero, so I called Larry and told him what I was interested in. He was very helpful and patient explaining everything and listening to my frustrations with my current pickups. End of story is that he delivered exactly what I wanted. I've been waiting for something like this for 20 years. I think I'm going to be replacing most of the pickups on my basses with these. Monstrous, I'm telling you.
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OK, the G&L L1505 is back with the Aero pickup in it. This pickup is a different model than the one I put in the Ibanez Artcore bass, but it does the job in a similar way. It improved the sound of the G&L immensely. It sounds more full in the lower register and the high C string has more depth to it as well. Very even throughout.
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I will be getting replacement pickups from Larry at AERO for my Fender Mustang bass and for the EUB1 Eastwood fretless bass. Will comment soon.

Walter Grabner Clarinet Mouthpieces

Walter Grabner is a super nice guy who makes some outstanding clarinet mouthpieces. I use his pieces on all my clarinets. I did some research on the internet a couple of years ago, frustrated by the mediocre clarinet mouthpieces I was playing. I kept getting hits for Walter's products, so I gave him a call and we spoke for over 30 minutes about all the variables that are involved in the making of these pieces. I explained what I was looking for in my sound and he listened and made recommendations. Walter is a professional clarinet player as well as an expert repairman. So I was in good hands. I first ordered a bass clarinet piece and when I got it I was very satisfied. It was better than anything I had played up until then (Vandoren, Selmer, Bill Street...). It was so good that I decided to ask him to make me another one as a backup. Well, as often will happen with hand made products, the second one wasn't the same as the first. It was a LOT better! I couldn't believe my ears! I once described it to Walter like it's as if the mouthpiece is playing the clarinet. That's how much it helps me (and trust you me... i need all the help I can get on the clarinet!). I took advantage of Walter's return/repair policy and sent the first piece back to him and explained what I wanted it to do. He worked on it and sent it back and it is VERY close to the second piece in sound. Both are equally excellent mouthpieces that I probably don't even deserve.
I then asked him to make me a Bb soprano piece and he sent two for me to try. I fell completely in love with one of them and the other was very good, just not at the level of the first one, so I sent it back. I then asked him to make me two alto clarinet pieces and they were both wonderful from the start. So I own five of his mouthpieces and I am very happy with his work and his great professionalism.

Walter also made me a barrel for my Bb soprano clarinet. It is a beautiful piece of Cocobolo wood that really evened out the sound of my R13 and gave it some extra warmth. I shipped him my clarinet and he custom fit the hand reamed barrel to fit and tune perfectly!

You can check out Walter Grabner's products here: www.clarinetxpress.com

Cosme López Mandolin

Venezuelan Luthier Cosme López made this mandolin for me in 2003. I asked him to make the finish darker than usual and I love the way it looks. I always seem to ask for a darker finish!
This mandolin is very easy to play and has a marvelous sound with plenty of volume.
The Thomastik flatwound strings make it sound very sweet.

Weber Mandocello

I had the guys at Weber make me a mandocello in 2003. I asked them to make it with a darker finish than their regular instruments and it turned out beautiful. It's a lot of fun to play. It reminds me of a Venezuelan bandola. It is tuned in fifths just like a cello: C-G-D-A.
Its acoustic sound isn't as deep as I had wished. Probably because the body is quite shallow. To reproduce sounds in the cello register you need a larger body (like that of a cello!). But it has a piezo under the bridge saddle so it can be easily amplified.
I have Lute strings on it. They are flatwound Thomastiks. I prefer the mellowness of the flatwounds for instruments in the mandolin family.

You can see more about Weber instruments here: www.soundtoearth.com

My Pedalboard

I have this super cool pedalboard for my bass guitars. It's all EBS equipment and a great Peterson strobe tuner. The board itself was made by Mike Ruskin at NYC Pedalboards.
These are the pedals:
-Valve Drive: An extraordinay tube preamp. It can simply warm up a dull bass or take it way the fuck out with some drop dead bass overdrive.
-Multi Drive: Bass distortion pedal. Has really nice distortion for bass. But for soloing i prefer the overdrive of the Valve Drive.
-MultiVerb: A great reverb pedal for bass.
-MultiChorus: Chorus pedal made specifically for bass.
-OctaBass: Bass octaver that can shake your soul.
-Bass Tremolo: Subtle tremolo that I'm still trying to figure out where to use.
-Bass IQ: Funkiness in a pedal.
-Peterson Strobe tuner: the most accurate tuner out there, with true bypass.

The photo says it all. Badass!

Here are the websites of the products used in my board:
www.nycpedalboards.com
www.ebs.bass.se
www.petersontuners.com

UPDATE: I got two more EBS pedals. The Tremolo and the BassIQ. New pedalboard pic soon...

RPC Saxophone Moutpieces

RPC mouthpieces are made by my buddy Ron Coelho in Washington State. He is a sax player who worked with the maker of Lamberson mouthpieces and has a great ear for this work. Ron is constantly searching for ways to make the pieces sound the way he likes and his references for the different horns are impeccable: Alto: Cannonball Adderly; Tenor: Dexter Gordon; Baritone: Gerry Mulligan. These are for his vintage sounding mouthpieces (the ones I use), but he also makes models with a more modern edge. I have one of these modern ones for the Baritone and I love it. I have a hard time deciding what I want the bari to sound like between the Mulligan styled piece and the Brignola styled piece. Another positive thing about his work is that he tests each mouthpiece for several hours to make sure it meets his expectations. He also will take a mouthpiece back and work on it for you for no extra cost, until you are satisfied. He's pretty cool like that.
The drawbacks to ordering from Ron are the interminable wait to get your new mouthpiece and the fact that you must pay up front. I have waited up to a year for some of my pieces. Granted, I own 3 alto pieces, 3 tenor pieces, and 3 Baritone pieces made by him, so I wasn't desperate. But it does stress your patience.
I wish Ron would make some soprano pieces, but he hasn't been doing that lately. I use Springer mouthpieces for the soprano. I have two, and I also have a couple of Vandoren V16 #7 pieces that I like a lot. Patrick Springer is a really nice guy who is very interested in your satisfaction as a customer. I have an alto and tenor piece made by him as well, but it's his soprano pieces that really shine!
I just bought a nice Yanagisawa metal tenor piece that I'm sort of liking too... Hasn't replaced my RPC, but it is different in a nice way.

Check out Ron's stuff here: www.saxmpc.com

Gloger Woodwind Necks

I've mentioned Karsten Gloger's work elsewhere in this blog, but I thought I'd add a special entry for his work since it's such a big part of my sound.
I have Gloger necks for my Selmer Alto, Borgani tenor, Yanagisawa Baritone, 2 of them for my Selmer Baritone, and 2 bass clarinet tubes.
I highly recommend his work. The main issue with these is the high cost and the long wait. Since they are completely hand made by a highly talented craftsman the cost and wait are to be expected. I will probably eventually ask him to make me a tube for my alto clarinet and perhaps a neck for my Borgani alto sax.

Check out Karsten's work here: www.gloger-handkraft.com

Kurzweil PC88 Piano

I have a Kurzweil PC88 keyboard with weighted keys and some super nice sounds. This I keep in NYC, because it was way to large and heavy to bring with me. It is very comfortable to play; just like playing a real piano.
For my Midi work here in Caracas, I brought a M-Audio Oxygen 61 keyboard. Much easier to travel with and does what I need.
UPDATE: Kurzweil was sold on eBay.

Traps Bass Drum

I special ordered a 20 inch bass drum from Nigel at Traps drums in the UK. They make these drums with just two rims that sound pretty darn good. I wanted a low sounding drum that was easy to move around and not too boomy, to play along with my snares. I play it with sticks a la Trilok Gurtu. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to make all this work in the Venezuelan Merengue. It is usually played with a snare drum playing a repeated pattern in 5/8 time. I'd like to develop this a bit more and see if I can come up with something interesting for my compositions in this style.

Check their stuff here: www.trapsdrums.com

Ludwig snares

I also have an old Ludwig snare drum from the 1960s made of wood (with a trippy sparkle finish) and a new Ludwig Chrome Supra-Phonic snare (shown here).
The old Ludwig I keep in NYC. It has a snappy sound to it and a certain wood~ness
The Chrome drum has a nice warm sound and contrasts nicely to the other two wood snares I have here in Caracas.

Noble & Cooley 14X7 Snare Drum

I bought this drum in 2006 through Drummer's World in NYC. I asked them to make it a bit darker than usual, but otherwise nothing special. Well, there is everything special about a Noble and Cooley drum. This snare is amazing. Easily my favorite snare ever. Very versatile and powerful, with a warm, deep sound. I replaced the snares on it and fitted it with some Pure Sound snares. Wonderful.

More about Noble & Cooley here: www.noblecooley.com

Brady 12X7 Snare Drum

I had this drum made for me by the Brady company in Australia. It is made of an exotic Australian wood and is made from blocks that are glued together. I chose to make it smaller than most snares (12 inch versus 14 inch) to try to get a tight sounding drum, but I made it very deep (7 inches) to give it a little more low end. The end result is a drum with a very specific sound. It has a nice crack to it when pushed and some very nice overtones. I like that it is very different than my other three snare drums. I'll be using it to create contrast with the other snares in some of the Venezuelan music I'm planning on recording.

The Brady website is: www.bradydrums.com.au

Amplifiers!

I own a Mesa Boogie Walkabout 12 inch combo. It has a tube preamp that really warms up the sound and it can deliver at med-high volumes. It has a passive down firing 10 inch woofer that moves some air close to the floor where all those bass frequencies like to live. It works. I've used it with both electric and upright basses and it works with all, but I prefer it with the electric bass guitars.

I also own an Acoustic Image Contra combo amplifier. This is for the double bass in a small room or an acoustic group. I would also use it for some of the hollow body basses (like the Carvin) and the mandocello. It has a very clean and uncolored sound. It is surprisingly bass-y for such a small light amp. It has a down firing 10 inch woofer that really spreads the sound around the room.

www.mesaboogie.com
www.acousticimg.com

Gretsch Hollow Body Bass Guitar

I bought this at the same time as the Epiphone Jack Cassady bass and it is a very different instrument. I was on a hollow body bass kick and I risked this one without even playing it. Just saw it on their website and ordered in from Guitar Center. My one big disappointment: the pickups. Instead of making these with TV Jones pickups it had some kind of weak assed guitar pickups that sounded horrible. And I mean horrible. Unplayable. It simply wasn't a bass. I emailed Gretsch about this and got no reply. So I ended up contacting TV Jones and got the right pups for it (Thundertrons). The whole problem cost me an extra $600 though! That is shameful for Gretsch! They have since discontinued this model and have an ugly white one but with the right pickups! Damn!
The acoustic sound of this bass is weird and really fun to play. It is growly and sort of nasal but punchy and even as well. I find that I enjoy playing it without an amp more than plugging it in. I'm still not sure what kind of music the amplified sound would be appropriate for... It sounds full and very woody and acoustic-ish.
I still have a problem, though, with the pickup's polepieces not being completely centered under the string, so when I bend a note in the upper register (where else?) I get a drop in the amplified signal. I've heard this in lots of basses with pickups with polepieces, but I guess I expected the TV Jones to be above this. It might just have more to do with the pickup placement being a bit off. Can't change that though. It hurts me that one has to curtail one's musical creativity because of instrumental limitations.
I ended up gutting out all the electronics in this bass; it is passive, but has 3 switches I found useless. Two were for changes in the midrange and one for on-off. Yeah, on-off. Just the switch you want to hit by mistake as you rock out on stage. Then spend 10 minutes trying to figure out what happened to your bass signal! Checking cables, amps, pedalboards, etc... Yeah, that switch was disconnected. Now the three switches are for show only. I use them when I make a mistake during a song... I start to mess with the switches so the audience thinks it was the bass' fault!
It never is.

www.gretsch.com/guitars

Epiphone Jack Cassady Bass

The first Jack Cassady bass sent to me (September 2006) was bad. The neck had more buzz than a beehive in the summertime! I immediately looked up the Gibson-Epiphone authorized repair people in NYC and was lucky to find Paul at Peekamoose Guitars. Paul is a guitar builder who makes some outstanding guitars for outrageous prices. He is very meticulous and detail oriented. He helped me figure out what was wrong with the bass, get it shipped back, and made sure they knew what I expected in the new bass. I really appreciate his help and one day I will buy my brother one of his amazing guitars.
The second Jack Cassady bass I got was perfect! It is hollow bodied electric bass guitar styled after those 1960s Starfire basses and the Gibson EB2. It has a growl in its sound and has plenty of low end and bite. I have it stringed up with heavy .055 to .110 strings and it is a monster. It has a little bit of an acoustic sound, just enough to make it fun to play unplugged, but when you plug it in it will fill the room.

More Epiphone gear here: www.epiphone.com

Eastwood EUB-1 reissue (fretless)

This summer (2007) I bought my first copy of Bass Player Magazine in 10 years and I saw this Ampeg type bass reviewed briefly in it. I checked the website and re-read the review and saw the paypal button and... holy shit! Before you know it I had bought it! They make it TOO easy. For people with G.A.S. such as myself, this is like being a gambler and living between the racetrack and the casino... like being an alcoholic and living between a bar and a wine tasting joint. You're helpless.
But...
I love it! The F holes go through the whole body. It has one passive pickup and the sound is vintage fretless. Warm and deep. The finish on the fingerboard is shiny and seems not to have any dead spots or buzzes. I was only able to play it for a week in NY before I came to Caracas, but I will be getting it here in the near future.
Fun, easy to play and what a looker! I will get girls with this bass!
;-)

You can see more rare guitars here: www.eastwoodguitars.com

Fender Mustang Bass Reissue

I was at Guitar Center in Houston (August 2007) and a cute little vintage Mustang bass caught my eye (it was a faded blue that had turned to green). I played it for a while and really liked it. It felt very comfortable because of the 30 inch scale length, but also had a nice tight sound. I was asking the price and it was not bad for a vintage bass ($900, compared to $2000 in NYC) when I noticed another Mustang in perfect condition. This was the reissue and ended up costing me only $450. As soon as I plugged it in I knew. It was the same kind of sound just a lot louder and more alive. It has these mini P style pickups that are very responsive. Nice, punchy, passive tone. Just what I like. This is no toy bass. It's not a bass for "girls", midgets, or dwarfs exclusively. I mean, if you're a girl, a midget, or a dwarf you'll love it, but there is much to enjoy in this bass regardless of your physique. It feels like I'm holding a strat. I feel like Eddie Van Halen!
In any case... It's really fun to play and easy to practice. Someday I might have Larry make some Aero pickups for it but I'd have to send the original pups to him in Hawaii to make them. Not that it's lacking, just always searching for that better tone.

You can browse Fender basses here: http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?section=Basses