Fender '51 Precision Bass Reissue

I am a guitar player. I am a guitar player. I am a guitar player. What's going on you ask? Why does he keep repeating the same thing over and over again? It's because I have to keep reminding myself what it is that I do. For some reason I keep going out and buying mandolins and keyboards and basses and, lately, DRUMS. Why? I just sell them in the end. The truth is that I like to have this stuff around to record with. I can throw a quick, albeit sloppy, bass line down so I can hear remotely how it's going to sound. Keyboards? Well, it's fun to try to add strings and Hammond B-3 organ sounds to just about anything. Mandolin? If you've read previous entries here you already know how embarrassed I am about that. Drums? Don't get me started.

This was a very nice bass. It's definitely not a Squier picked up for cheap to pretend to play on recordings. This is the real deal. And you know what? That probably explains why I sold it. I do have this thing...this complex...about not being good enough for some of the equipment I end up with. And I feel guilty and I sell it to someone who "deserves it" more than I do.

There is no reason in the world for me to own a nice bass.

A $65 Memphis P-bass copy from the late '70s is bass enough for me. Currently I own a black Squier P-bass that I picked up at the Swap Meet for a mere $45. And it plays great and looks pretty good too...well, now that I sprung for the black pickguard to make it look a little less "Made in Korea."

So what about this '51 Reissue? Man, what a nice instrument. I've said it before (just yesterday) and I'll say it again...the Japanese Fenders are the best. They are my favorite. They always "feel" right. I'm no bass expert (but I play one on TV...yuck, yuck), but if I were to buy another good, quality bass, this is what I'd look for. First of all, I love the classic styling. How much more iconic does it get? There is this bass, a sunburst Strat, and a blonde Tele with a black pickguard. There are your three Fender icons. It features a single coil pickup, which probably scares some "real" bassists off. I know the bassist in my band looked a little skeptical when I first pulled it out of the case. But after a few minutes plugged in, he was converted. I know from reading on the internet that a lot of people replace the stock pickup with a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder (I think that's the one), but I left mine stock. The only thing I changed on mine was the cheap black plastic pickguard. I don't know if it was the same as the one from '51, but it just seemed flimsy and cheap to me and I couldn't get past it. I replaced it with a 3-ply BWB pickguard and was much happier. That 3-ply black pickguard always reminds me of Springsteen and his Tele, even on a bass.

This one was a casualty of the black Ehlers Jumbo mission I was on (see below a couple of posts) and I sold it to a dealer who was looking around on Craig's List. He was actually thinking about keeping it for himself, but that could have been a story...as if it mattered to me anyway. If I had the luxury of affording a nice bass I would definitely buy another one of these. If you are looking around yourself, see if you can find one. Maybe not as versatile as some basses, but when it comes down to it, you're just supposed to be back there holding the song together, making me sound good up front. Now do your job!

Fender Contempo Combo Organ

I know...it’s not a guitar. But it is made by Fender and, like most of the things I write about, it’s no longer in my possession. Fender got into the combo organ business to complement their already popular Fender Rhodes business and produced the Contempo from 1967-1971. I won’t try to get into the history of these or describe the sound other than it fits right in there with Farfisas and Vox Continentals. There is plenty on the internet about these keyboards. The significance of this particular instrument is that it’s the very musical instrument that made me open an eBay account and basically begin my downfall as a guitar owner.

One Sunday I headed the 20 miles towards San Diego and paid my $1.75 and entered Kobey’s Swap Meet, held at the now antiquated San Diego Sports Arena. There are always a few guitars of at least some interest and a couple of pedals if you’re lucky, so it’s usually worth the trip.

Last time I went down there I missed a silverface Vibro Champ for $20 by about 26 seconds. Doh!

Anyway, I walked into the Swamp Meet and within 5 minutes came across this Fender Contempo combo organ. Hmmmmm. “Does it work?” The guy shrugs. “Have you tested it?” The guy shrugs. Shrugs? That’s not even a correct response. Oh, wait. He doesn’t speak English. Okay, how much? “Twenny dolers.” SOLD.

I’m not sure why, but the law of averages at a Swap Meet are that, if you are going to find something really cool, it’s going to be heavy and it’s going to be within the first 5 minutes of arriving so that you have to carry the damn thing around with you if you want to keep going. Otherwise it’s a trip all the way back to the car to put it away, and that wastes valuable swap meet time. Today I opt for taking it back to the car. I didn’t really find anything else of interest that day except for one guy who had a sign that read “Going out for business.” Shouldn’t everyone there be going out FOR business?

I get the Contempo home and plug it in, jack it into my amp and, voila!, it works. Amazing. Now, I’m a guitar player, and this was just slightly before I had some decent recording gear, so now what to do with it? It seemed really cool, but if I sold it for what it’s worth, maybe I could get another guitar! That’s the ticket.

At this point I had heard of eBay, but didn’t know much about it. I cautiously signed up for an account and went through the hoops and finally, a few days later, I’m all set up and ready to go. Of course, if you’ve sold much on eBay, you figure out all the tricks and best ways to title things to get the most views. I did my best, got it listed, and waited. It sold for a slightly disappointing $300, though I’m not sure how much I actually thought it would go for. I probably thought I had the rarest thing ever produced. But nevertheless, the thing sold and I was going to get something guitar related with the money. What I didn’t realize is that something that heavy and fragile was going to cost an arm and a leg to ship. It took about eight thousand feet of bubble wrap to make me feel comfortable and the most frankenstein of all cardboard boxing to hold it all together. When I finally got the UPS bill I realized that I had undercharged for shipping by about $80. Although I still made a tidy little profit on the thing, it didn’t get me nearly as much guitar money as I had envisioned. What it did do was get me going on eBay and basically heading me in the general direction of each and every one of these stories.

Of course, now that I’ve geared up with a nice digital 16-track at home and a small handful of cool gadgets to record with, I can look back at the Fender Contempo and say...”Man, I wish I had that one back.”

Eastman MD-515 Mandolin

Like a lot of guitar players, I THINK I want to play mandolin. I’ve owned about 4 mandolins over time, and I always end up selling them when reality sets in that, if I’m going to take the time to learn to play the mando, I should just use that time to be a better guitar player.

Of the four mandolins I’ve owned, this is the one I wish I had back. I was looking at mandos at Buffalo Brothers one day and the guy who runs their mando department started telling me about Eastmans. I picked one up and the sound was amazing, and the price was very reasonable for what it was. Eastman is an instrument company from China that builds mandolins, violins, archtop and flat top guitars, and maybe something else...I don’t know. But the quality of all of their instruments is astounding.

Most people have some pretty negative feelings about most things made in China these days, and rightly so. However, Eastman is sort of the cream of the crop of instrument builders in that country, and the workers take great pride in their craftsmanship (No lead in this mando!). But, because it’s China, the prices are much lighter on the pocket book than something like a Gibson or a Collings.

The lowest end model they make is the 515, and it was the only one under $1000. That’s the one I picked up, knowing that if I got hooked, at least it would be the cheapest model. I picked it up, strummed a few chords, and I was hooked. As a comparison I played a few other $3000 mandolins on the wall and I have to say that the $899 Eastman blew them away. Not as fancy, but sound is what is important, right? I’m not always the best at following through on that theory, but in this case it was a no brainer. I owned this mando for about a year or so and came to that inevitable realization that I’m not a mando player and never will be (although I currently own one for some reason). It went on eBay to help finance whatever was next on the list, and I can truly say, man, I wish I had that one back.

Yairi Alvarez DY58 Nine String

Uh, yes, that DOES say nine string. Kind of like half a 12-string. Sort of.

When I first moved to California in 1987 I didn’t have a lot of money and I didn’t have much for guitars. I did have a 1984 Ovation Collector’s Series guitar which, at the time, I was pretty proud of. I didn’t know too much about the guitar stores in my area, so one day on my day off I decided to drive around and see what was within driving distance. I ended up in Escondido, which is about 20 minutes from where I lived. There was an okay looking music store on the corner downtown and I parked and walked in. I quickly spied something I had never seen before and then didn’t see again for about 17 years. A nine-string guitar. WHAT YOU SAY? It looked like a normal dreadnought at first glance, then I saw the extra tuners. I thought, “Oh, a 12-string. I’ll check it out.”

When I picked it up I realized that the top 3 bass side strings were single, like a six-string, but the bottom three treble side strings were doubled, like a 12-string. What a great idea! Why wasn’t this more popular? For a rhythm player like myself it makes perfect sense...you can get that nice ringing strum on the highs, but can still dig in a bit on the low end without the doubled effect.

That guitar was always in the back of my mind, but I never saw one again. Then one day I decided to Google for “9-string” and came across a posting in a forum from 3 or 4 years previous. I decided to email the address on the post and see if anyone answered. Believe it or not, the guy wrote back and said he had JUST decided to consider selling it so he could buy a nice Martin. He said he’d take $500 for it, which was what he had paid years ago. Deal. When I got it, the pickguard was about to fall off, and the top was banged up a lot more than his description indicated, but all in all it was in fine condition. And it sounded really nice. I have only played a few Yairis in my time, but they all have sounded very nice and probably deserve more attention than they get. I added a pickup to the guitar so I could use it live and I always got asked after a gig what the deal is with the 9-string. Plus I had added a vintage water decal from the Oklahoma Flying Farmers association...not sure what it was, but I THINK it was a group of farmers who enjoyed parachuting. Really.

Despite it’s uniqueness, I ended up selling it to buy something else...it seemed to be most expendable at the time. But I have always kept the thought of a nine-string in my head and have thought that it would be fun to commission a nine-string from my trusted personal luthier Mike Franks some day. Of course I’d have to ask real nice for such an oddity. In the meantime, I have to admit, man, I wish I had that one back!

Ehlers Parlor Guitar #1 (with sound sample)

Up until recently I had never spent more than a thousand dollars on a guitar. And that was a LOT and only once. Then I walked into Buffalo Brothers in Carlsbad, CA and they have a way of convincing you that you NEED a $4000 guitar. I don’t know how they do it. Maybe it’s like people say about Las Vegas...they pump extra oxygen into the air or something weird like that. But somehow, some way, when you leave the premises you start figuring out what you can sell and what you can spend and you start rationalizing the price of Goodalls and Ehlers and Collings and M.J. Franks guitars.

The guitar I fell in love with was a black jumbo, handmade by Rob Ehlers in his little shop down in Mexico somewhere. It simply has the most bass of any acoustic I’ve ever played and I will write about that guitar lovingly at some point. Once I had found a way to buy that Ehlers (oh, I sold MANY a guitar on eBay and Craig’s List to afford it), I happened to mention to Kevin, the guy in charge of the high end guitars at Buffalo Brothers and a big fan of Rob Ehlers, that, if Ehlers ever needed a website built, I’d love to do a tradeout for a guitar and I’d build him a website full of love for his guitars.

Lo and behold, after a few months I got an email from Kevin saying that Rob Ehlers needed a website, and he needed it fast. There was a big-time show of the finest guitar makers in the country and Rob was included in that group. He needed a website built to back up the attention he would be getting from that show. As it turned out, he had built a parlor guitar for himself a year or so earlier, and if I was interested, he would be happy to trade me a website for said parlor guitar. BINGO! I was in before I could type the email, hit send, and wait patiently for the go ahead to start mocking things up. What good fortune!

I began emailing with Rob and what a great guy! This is a man who loves building guitars and limits his production to only about 50 guitars a year to make sure that every single guitar that leaves his shop is to his exacting standards of craftsmanship. I will cut to the chase and say that soon the website was done and my guitar was on it’s way.

Oh what an idiot I am for letting this one eventually get away. Rather than wait until the end to say this, I’ll say it now: MAN, I WISH I HAD THIS ONE BACK! This is a guitar that Rob Ehlers handmade for himself and was his personal guitar for two years. It was the very first parlor size guitar he ever built and it was a a beauty. The top was red cedar and the sides were Indian Rosewood. Now that it’s gone, I realize how comfortable it was to leave in the corner and have available to pick up each night and play while sitting on the couch or take outside and play at the picnic table in between throwing horse shoes. The sound was much bigger than it’s size let on. And the details Rob puts into every one of his guitars is just impossible to describe. Rob is not a household name even amongst those in the know, but his instruments are something to behold.

Now, after waxing poetically about this guitar for paragraph after paragraph I know you’re thinking, “Why did this one get away?” I was stuck. I was in an impossible situation. About a year after building the website for Mr. Ehlers, I struck a similar deal with Mike Franks, one of the top up and coming luthiers in the fine guitar world. I built a website for him and traded out for a simple but outstanding OM-D model...only his SEVENTH guitar he’d ever built. Mike and I became friends through the magic of email and, as luck would have it, Mike had a once in a lifetime opportunity to get his hands on some amazing Brazilian Rosewood. If I could come up with a certain amount of money, Mike could get me the Brazilian that would eventually turn into the back and sides of my “dream guitar.” There was only one option at the time: sell the parlor guitar. I hesitantly put it on eBay and hoped for the best. It sold to a lady who is an orchestra conductor in (I think) Cincinnati. She is a collector of fine parlor guitars and she was more than happy to get her hands on this one. My only consolation is knowing that it’s in a better place. So, I’ll say it again...man, I wish I had that one back!

P.S. My friend Dave Quillen helped me out and recorded a sound sample of this guitar when I sold it. Click here to hear it.