Raising the Bar

[Raskolnikov]

Hey, as many of you may have noticed me bragging about, I now am the owner of a new fretless bass. Now why I bring this up again, (other than the sheer delight of more bragging) is that I noticed something today- I'm having to practice a lot more so that I can do the things I normally do quite easily on a fretted bass. For instance, I have to work a lot harder to play the intro to one of my band's songs because of the tapped harmonics I do- not only does my right hand have to be more accurate, since I have no fret to help sound the harmonic, but my left hand has to be dead nut so that my intonation is correct.
Basicly, my fretless is a wonderful playing bass, but it's pushing me a lot harder than my other instruments do. Have any of you encountered a similar instrument?

[Lordathestrings]

Last Saturday, I bought a no-name, neck-through, V-type guitar at a pawn shop. There's no company name, serial number, or any other markings on it. There's no cover for the truss-rod adjuster in the headstock, and the cover for the controls is missing from the back of the body. The scale length is fairly short, and the neck is almost as wide as my acoustic 12-string. There was no amplifier for me to plug into.

But when I played it in the shop, it seemed to come alive in my hands. I bought it, unheard, for $250 Canadian.

So I got home with it, re-soldered a couple of bad connections at the controls, lined the control chamber with copper tape (for better sheilding), and plugged it into my small practice amp.

OMG! :D This lady sings! :D :D

It definitely takes a light touch, and lots of finesse. There's enough sustain that I really have to pay attention to muting unused strings. The frets are high enough that variations in finger pressure cause slight changes in pitch. The pickups sound sweet and clear if the strings are stroked, but tend to growl and blur on heavy attack. In short - a very expressive instrument.

Now I find that I have to re-learn how to play all of my repertoire. This is a good thing, though, because stuff I haven't been exactly enthusiastic about lately is now coming out in fresh and exciting ways. Who says the thrill is gone?

I don't know who made this guitar, much less where it came from, but its taking me to the next level, and I'm more excited about my music than I've been in a long time. :D :D :D

[Raskolnikov]

Rock on!

[Alberto Allard]

Hi David, I'm here. Well I can remember an special guitar. It was a teisco, I think I allready told you something about it. I was a really strange hollow body green guitar, whit a pair of weird pick ups, and sounded like a portable solid state a.m. radio. Was very stained and the tuners where so heavy to turn that I had to use a tool -don't know the name in english- But was so strange that anything you played on it ringed different, original. One used to talk about classic brands and models, and maybe we are losing a lot of littles monsters were probably there is a new universe.

Hey Hey Ma Ma Rock'n'roll will never die