New Bass

Gear geek alert. Proceed with caution.

Well I finally did it. It was a couple of weeks ago but it's never too late to talk about new gear! I finally went out and bought myself a new bass and man am I pleased. I'm actually a bit surprised too! I've been wanting to pick up a second bass so I can leave one at home while I travel. Then I'm avoiding the hassles at the airport with my "technically oversized" bass flight case as well as the pain of carrying one around with me and trying to squeeze it into overhead bins. Although since we've been recording the last couple of months I have been doing those exact things!!

Anyway, what I have been looking for is a Fender Jazz bass which is pretty much the standard really when it comes to basses. That and the Fender Precision. I had my mind set on a reissue 1960's Fender Jazz but I couldn't bring myself to spend that much money on a bass, or save long enough to have that much money. I don't like to own instruments that I feel like I have to be sooo careful with, otherwise I wouldn't want anyone else to touch it. That 's just not cool.

So I decided to look through the basses online yet again and found something I thought I should go to a store and try. Well I did and I bought it. It's a Geddy Lee signature Fender Jazz. I've always been hesitant about the Jazz basses because I thought that they just didn't look good. I've since changed my tune and learned to appreciate them but I really dug this one because of the black inlays on the neck. Plus Geddy Lee is Canadian (singer and bassist for Rush), his initials are GL just like mine, the price was right, it was all meant to be. And since I've had it and recorded a bunch of our newest songs with it I am quite pleased with my purchase. Plus as you can see below, it looks pretty dang good on me! (photo MarySue Strong)

So there you go. My story on the new bass. I don't expect you'll see me playing it too often live unless we are in Ontario or if I just feel like changing it up a bit and dealing with the airport crap. This is my keep at home and practice bass, and recording bass too I guess.

With all that said I hate to leave out my friend for the last 4 years my Warwick FNA Jazzman. Yes let's review a picture or two of this beauty shall we? This one will always sound great and it will always be somewhat special to me as it was my first real good sounding bass.

Man this picture is more beautiful than I realized. Nice work by whoever took the photo on getting that beautiful Mac in the foreground. John Mays was this you?? You do have an eye for such things.


Anyway, I guess I should get back to learning YYZ now.

GL