Welcome to Dave O’s Wall-O-Bass!

The details of the instruments pictured at the left are placed next to their pictures below.

From left to right we have (top row):
Rickenbacker 4001
Gibson – Epiphone Jack Cassady Signature
Fender American P-Bass Deluxe (passive)
Oscar Schmidt acoustic- electric
Hofner “Beatle Bass” (1960’s)
 
(bottom row):
Dan Electro long horn (barely visible)
Gibson – Epiphone EB-3 (long neck)
Fender Jazz Bass 1973
 
(what I’m holding):
Fender 1961 Precision Bass
This is the P- Bass I played during all the years I was with We The People….At every gig, and on every recording the band made.  I’ve also used it on quite a few recording sessions since then. 

 It NEVER disappoints!
 

This is a Rickenbacker 4001 from the 1970’s

 It’s cherry red, and has really nice binding on the neck, and the body.
It’s wired for the dual “Ric-O-Sound” outputs.
 
There is something wonderful about the sound of the Rickenbacker.  Even if you pick it up and play it without an amp, the sound will still make you feel like Chris Squire…well sort of.
 
I have a dual input pre-amp and processing set-up that I designed just for this bass.  It’s pretty easy to get it to sound just like Yes or Rush.  I don’t know what the Ric folks do with these basses, but there is something wonderful about the pick-up’s and how they interface with the body of this bass.
 
The neck-through-body design gives tremendous sustain, and it plays great.  I only use RotoSound strings on this bass…it only seems right.

The Epiphone Jack Cassady Signature

I’ve always had a soft spot for acoustic basses.  This one has a very warm, woody sound, and can still be played with a pretty loud amp without feeding back.  The fit and finish are really nice on this bass, and it plays very well.

I’m not really sure what the 3 position rotary switch does.  It certainly makes the sound a lot different.  Seems to boost the frequencies at 50, 100, or 250 depending on where you put it.

I’ve been through several different sets of strings on this bass trying to come up with something appropriate.  I’ve settled on Fender flat wounds for now.  Sounds really deep with those, and there is no squeak like the round wounds.  Acoustic basses seem really sensitive to that. 

This is a USA Fender Precision Deluxe

(early version)

All the Precision Deluxe basses Fender builds in the USA these days are active pick-up versions.  I’m not a real big fan of active pick-ups, they always seem to sound overdone.  I was very happy when I found this earlier passive version P-Bass Deluxe at a music store in Cape Girardeau.

This is presently my favorite bass.  The neck is perfect for my short, fat fingers, and the action is very low with no rattles or buzzes.  It’s the best playing bass I’ve ever owned or played from any manufacturer.  The neck is slightly narrower than my old 61 P-Bass, but not as narrow as the J-Bass.  It just fits my hand perfectly.  My son and I go around endlessly about which is better.  He prefers the J-Bass for several reasons.  I guess after over 30 years with a P-Bass hanging on me, it’s hard to get used to anything else.

The sound of this bass is really great now.  I traded out the stock neck pick-up with an old 1960’s P-Bass pick-up I had laying around.  The factory neck pick-up was just too bright.  No need for that with the bridge J style pick-up on this bass.  The old 60’s P-Bass pick-up was just the ticket.

I think I’ll add a bridge cover to this bass, just for looks.

The through the body bridge is a nice touch.  It probably improves the sustain some.  It does have a little better sustain, and the volume of all the notes is more consistent than from my old 61 P-Bass.

The amp in the background is one of my favorite practice and recording amps…the Ampeg B-100R combo amp.  The blue diamond covering looks cool too.  The sound is similar to my vintage tube Ampeg B-15n, but not quite the same.  It will play a lot louder than the B-15 will though…with 100 watts it should.  The B-15 is lucky to make 40 watts at clipping.

Oscar Schmidt Acoustic Electric

This bass uses a bridge pick-up, as most of this style do.  It is active, and the sound is quite good.  The single tone control takes you from deep bass, to bright treble.  A pretty good design…that’s saying a lot from someone who doesn’t really like active basses.

I liked the faded, non symmetrical look of the body on this one.  The store I bought it from discounted it very heavily…they thought it was a “blemished” bass because of the splotchy look of the finish (the factory probably did too)…I thought it gave the bass a much more “vintage” look.

The neck is nicely bound, as is the body.  It plays very well.  The only complaint is that it is prone to feedback, and needs more frequent tuning than a solid body, but that’s to be expected from a fully acoustic big body like this.

Hofner 1960’s Beatle Bass

This is an original Hofner Beatle Bass from the 1960’s.  I’ve played quite a few of these, and most are very UNimpressive.  They all seem to rattle a lot, and sound like a cardboard box with strings.  This one was an exception.  The neck is the older finished on the back design, and it’s still quite true.  After a little bridge work, the innotation is pretty good all the way up the neck now.

I put Fender flat wounds on this bass to try and get the Paul McCartney – Beatles sound from the 60’s…and it does sound like that.  It’s a boxy sounding bass no matter how you handle it.  At least this one sounds like a wooden box, and not a cardboard box.

All the Hofners I know of are short scale 30 inch basses, so don’t expect a really deep sound from them.  The bass is very light, so if your back and shoulder get sore from several hours of a big heavy bass, you might like this one. 

Dan Electro Longhorn Bass

This may be the ugliest bass guitar ever made.  It’s the Dan Electro Longhorn.  In spite of it’s funny appearance, it sounds and plays quite well.  The body seems to mostly be made of some kind of plastic.  It shouldn’t sound good, but for some reason, it does.

The scale is short, like around 30 inches, and the neck is pretty nice.  I don’t play it (or the Hofner) much, cause it messes me up when I go back to the long scale basses.

This one is also very light weight.

The bridge isn’t really very adjustable, but the innotation is pretty close.  If I was gonna use this bass much, I think I’d put a better bridge on it.

Gibson – Epiphone EB-3 (long neck)

The Gibson – Epiphone EB-3 takes the cake for the deepest bass tones I’ve ever heard.  Must be something about the neck pick-up, and it’s position.  This one is also the long scale version of this bass, and I’m sure that helps too.  The bridge pick-up is really needed.  The sound from the neck pick-up alone is to dark.  The mix of the two is really nice though.

Although it’s made in Korea, the fit and finish are really nice on this bass.  I LOVE the transparent red finish.  The neck is glued on, but they did such a nice job it’s easy to mistake it for a neck through body design.

Sustain is very good as is the tone.  The pick-ups came with stickers on them that say they are “genuine Gibson”, and the sound seems to bear that out.  The innotation is perfect after some adjustment of the very nice bridge.

Now if I could only get the neck set-up right on this bass, it would be one of my favorites.  Can’t seem to get the action set low enough to suit me…no mater how I adjust the truss rod.  I think a few frets need to be filed.  I will leave that task to someone better qualified than I.

73 (Reissue) Fender Jazz Bass

This is a Japanese Fender 1973 Jazz Bass Reissue.  I was told the electronics are all USA Fender, and from the sound I tend to think that is correct.  The fit and finish on this bass is very nice, as is the sound…true classic J-Bass tone all the way.

This would be one of my favorites if we could conquer getting the action down as low as I like it.  For some reason, it tends to buzz a lot up near the neck - body joint.  I’m sure it can be corrected by someone better than I at doing the set-up.  May take some sanding of the body at the neck inset to get the neck into the right position.  I haven’t taken the neck off yet to see if there are some spacers in there that could be removed.

This uses the 3 screw mounting for the neck, as Fender (mistakenly) did in the early 70’s.  The body seems to be something other than alder, as the USA basses were.  The very high gloss nitro finish is really nice…like a mirror.

THE Classic!!!

This is the 1961 Fender Precision Bass…the real deal.

I stupidly ruined the value of this bass in the early 80’s by having it refinished in white.  It started life as a 3 color sunburst.  If hind sight were only 20/20.  It was really pretty beat-up after years of play with We The People.  Back then, it was just another old and ugly P-Bass, so I decided to make it pretty…stupid me.

It’s probably not really collectable anyway.  The neck for some reason is a 1964 (see pictures below).  I was told by a friend that’s been Fender dealer for over 40 years that it was pretty common for dealers to swap necks on Fenders at the store back then…especially if the guitar had been sitting around for a while.  This one may have sat in the store for a while, and the customer might have wanted the newer looking rosewood neck.  I think all the 61 P-Basses had a maple neck, so it’s a quick give-away that this one isn’t all stock.  Oh well, at least it’s all pre-CBS Fender.

In spite of all it’s “flaws” this is my second favorite bass.  This baby is solid as a rock!  At one point, it was stored in a closet for 5 years at my mom’s house…much to my dismay when I opened the case, the bass was upside-down (neck down).  This is not the way to store any bass, especially not a heavy one like this.  I pulled it out of the case, expecting the worst (a warped neck).  Much to my pleasant surprise, not only wasn’t it warped, it was still in perfect tune!  A lot of people call the P-Bass with the C version neck a telephone pole to play.  I think there was wisdom in having that fat neck.  It’s still perfect after all these (40+) years.  This bass will almost certainly outlive me.

I still have the original 61 Fender flat wounds that it came with, but they are pretty dead.  I now have a new set of Fender flats on it, and the sound is wonderful…just like that James Jamerson Motown sound from the 60’s.  Especially into the Ampeg B-15n (I also have). 

This old P-Bass, and the Ampeg B-15 have pure soul!!!

 If you ever have the chance to play this bass and amp combination, do not miss it.  There’s a reason those old Motown tracks sounded so huge and fat.