The Greatest Bass Story Ever Told.... (i hope)

[cyoungnashville]

greetings brethren. i have been one of you for many many years. way before dudley routed out, and strung'd up the intranet. i shall not lie brethren, i lost my way for a while, but then... one day... a miracle... a voice calling out to me in the studio. it wasnt the typical thundering god voice thats been so completely overdone by everyone but god, it was smooth, and mellow, and calm, but i could still hear it over my headphones, for low i was caught in the very act of manipulating a pbass with flats and thusly had absolutely no midrange to compete with this almost half whispering diety. and i said.. YES LORD??? IS THAT YOU??? and he said.... no dumbass, it's derek... we need to talk about your tone. a tad bit embarrassed, but way totally extremely relieved to be off the god hook, i quickly recomposed some cool and replied "oh, yo dude, what up?" we got right down to business. i was in such a major tone rut and wicked state of decay and disrepair that rules had to be broken. documents were shredded. antique auto specialist were summoned. bp was chloroformed. fedex ordered to go to defcon 1...... and alas', after what seemed like weeks , magically, mystically, mysteriously.... the despair became passion. the vision became concrete. the prototype became top secret classified and code named "7-6-florentinecaddygold". deadlines became futile. bass players became patient (reluctantly), and finally...... the unheard of became.... reality. and ups claims that it will be here tomorrow. behold..... "DEATH-STAR"

 

[Big Poppa]

That is a beauty...Does Cloroform help with halitosis?

 

[cyoungnashville]

That is a beauty...Does Cloroform help with halitosis?

no, but if u mix in a bit of kaluha, youd swear it was a white russian.

 

[Grand Wazoo]

BP, I tell you a story....

Some wives tales are in fact true:

Sicilans love their garlick, sadly their women loath the aftermath of such large intake of it, to the point where it made their eyes water in disgust, after confiding with their local witch doctor in the ancient Greek village of Cefalu, this so called "stregone" came up with the discovery that chewing fresh fennel bulbs was a God send in helping to clear all kinds of halitosis.

To this day people from that region still grow copious amount of fennel in their gardens.

 

[cyoungnashville]

by the way bp. the first song i ever played your bass on sold over 11,000,000 records. so i fixed it. im real real real glad to b back. these classics are the best basses i have ever played.... period. i already have another black one sitting right next to me.

 

[bovinehost]

he said.... no dumbass, it's derek

Derek is almost as scary as God, let's face it. You ever seen his Deep Purple guitar act? Hoo, "Smoke on the Derek", man.

That's a purdy happening finish on that bass. Good to have you around, CY!

Jack

 

[MK Bass Weed]

I have no idea what the hell you guys are talkin' bout:

But what the HELL is that gorgeous color???

 

[Infidelity]

I have no idea what the hell you guys are talkin' bout:

But what the HELL is that gorgeous color???

Word.. What is that color.?

 

[Big Poppa]

Fran I was just playing with words I have babies breath....If you can find babies that smoke cigars.

 

[Big Poppa]

OK I cant help myself....Knee Jerk prevailing urban legend and mindless quotes and it must be true I read it on....

Lets talk about one trick pony....That is the stingray's cross to bear...It is so untrue but if you get a guy who only dimes everything then I guess if you ignore the tone controls its true.

Listen to Ed Freidlands review of the classics. It is so unfair to call the sting ray that....ed debunks it...Tony levin does every day

 

[cyoungnashville]

I have no idea what the hell you guys are talkin' bout:

But what the HELL is that gorgeous color???

hahah. let me translate the story into less biblical proportions. basically, i am a studio bass player in nashville, and have come full circle back to where i accidentally started from regarding my main bass. i had one bass when i first started playing professionally. it was a white stingray w a crazy figured birdseye maple neck that a dear pal, and bandmate at the time, lincoln brewster, basically bought for me. i dug it and thought it sounded good at the time, but without much experience, or even any real skin involved in paying for the damn thing, i didnt fully appreciate what a beast it was. i eventually sold it and got all into the vintage thing, the gourmet thing, things with too many strings, yadayada. lately i had been feeling that i just wanted to get a little bit more attitude / growl / clarity to my tone. and then the first record i ever played on "you were meant for me" by jewel, came on in the car one day, and i was like..... WTF???? thats the tone im looking for!!!! it was the original stingray straight into a console hahah. i then started shopping off the shelf at guitar center and found one that was real close to what i ultimately wanted. i bought that one on the spot and have been playing it at work daily with a big sh!t eating grin on my and the engineers face. gc pro was kind enough to hook me up with derek and the gang at ebmm, and they were graciously willing to take it all the way for me. this is what we came up with...

it is basically a really simple lightweight stingray classic with a custom color and matching painted headstock. i asked them to pull the lightest weight ash body, and kinkiest featured birdseye maple neck they could find. ultimately i believe we came in at 8.5lbs. ill have an exact number tomorrow. for the color i asked them to match my favorite car ive ever owned and drive daily for the last 15 years until it caught on fire a few days ago hahah. it is a 1976 cadillac fleetwood brougham. the color is called 1976 cadillac florentine gold. no major damage to the caddy, and she will be back on the road again soon. sorry for the cryptic nonsense in my first post. i felt that after we worked this hard to bring the bass to life, it deserved a grand entrance and a bit of folklore. its been a really fun process for me putting this bass together with derek and co. i know it is a true one of a kind and hope stays in my family forever. this thread is getting printed out and kept with it.

 

[cyoungnashville]

OK I cant help myself....Knee Jerk prevailing urban legend and mindless quotes and it must be true I read it on....

Lets talk about one trick pony....That is the stingray's cross to bear...It is so untrue but if you get a guy who only dimes everything then I guess if you ignore the tone controls its true.

Listen to Ed Freidlands review of the classics. It is so unfair to call the sting ray that....ed debunks it...Tony levin does every day

with all madly due respect sterling, dime-ing the knobs wont even make it a one trick pony. i can move my right hand an inch forward and turn the effin thing into an upright. LITERALLY an upright. ive faked more than one producer out with that gag. take the exact same eq settings and move my right hand back to the bridge and digg into it with a pick and the upright is now spitting snarling growling ripping ur face off. thats some lame ass sh!t if thats what theyre saying. maybe they are really unwittingly describing their own limitations on any instrument. like saying boeing really screwed up on the 737 cause everytime i try to fly one it f***ing crashes. furthermore, anyone who even thinks in the terms of "well the bass only has 2 knobs and does one thing" has already proven themselves an idiot. theyre not even in the game enough to know that the bass isnt even the instrument... I AM! .... i play it... not it plays me. its a tool! im making the sound. if your bass is the source of your tone... you aint there yet cat. i dont want a bass to effect me, i want a bass that can and will do exactly what i tell it to do. that leads us back to why im even on this forum right now in the first place. i pushed my wonderfully beloved passive circuits as far as they could possibly go. but it wasnt enough for me, I wanted to go further, and had to move on to a machine that could keep up with what i hear in my head. and the immortal stingray classic IS IT. it reproduces, with subtle nuance, or pure ferocity, the entire spectrum of all the frequencies possibly deemed musically usable for bass guitar, and in my opinion, a good many extra that i shave right off if im anywhere near a guitar or hihat hahah. i can tell u this, that one stingray classic that i pulled straight off guitar centers shelf has single handedly replaced about $25,000 worth of vintage lumber, and then on top of it lets me go new places they never could. i think if anyone ever comes at me with the "nice bass but bit of a one trick pony" b.s. , im just gonna look at em and go, "yeah... it does one thing.... everything i tell it to do."

 

[strummer]

Awesome Story, and a truly awesome bass!

 

[7broccos]

ONE fine bass ,how is Lincoln these day's?HE is one FINE player

 

[JayDawg]

I think Lincoln is a great guy. We play some of his worship music in our church. Everlasting God is a definite favorite song of mine to play.

 

[oli@bass]

Wow! Great story, sharp looking Classic!

 

[Colin]

this thread had me confused at first, now I understand.... I think. Great bass, great story

 

[Chuck B]

Great story indeed and a nice bass!

 

[Big Poppa]

YOu arent offending me...I get it. ONe of my earliest infleunces or mentors was Jack Marshall...Pretty much the first session cat in LA. He produced Peggy Lees Fever, Wrote the Munsters Theme...Produced all of Howard Roberts classic jazz guitar albums...did the transcriptions for Christopher Parkening...(His son Frank is a movie producer Et Raiders just about every big movie) When We moved to Newport in 67 we were trying to go to sleep but this crazy Jazz was coming from the neighbors house....My Dad says..."That sounds just like Ray Brown!" Who are these guys....WE crashed the neighbors jam session...They welcomed us...It was Ray Brown , Howard Roberts Jack Shelly Manne and Jack Sheldon.

SO that is for you old people...but for those who dont know the names...this was serious LA Mafia

I was talking to Jack about guitars.....I was 15 and wanting something...He said "Sterling....its in the hands and heart....the soul"......I looked at him kind of crazy and he said " Howard Roberts can the worst guitar in the world speak"

SOrry for the rant again but you can take a recipe out of a cookbook and have 10 people cook it and all will be different. I mention the diming because it goes hand in hand with the not trying to understand all the nuances that create tone.

 

[bovinehost]

maybe they are really unwittingly describing their own limitations on any instrument. like saying boeing really screwed up on the 737 cause everytime i try to fly one it f***ing crashes.

That is the funniest thing I've seen all week. Plus I just love reading your client list. "Megadeth, Jessica Simpson...." You don't often see those two paired up.