A brief introduction: I'm a huge Ashbory fan obviously, but I also really dig the G&L bass guitars. The G&L guitar forum (Guitars by Leo AKA GbL) has a lunch reporter role that I've done in the past on occasion and am also doing this week. I've been simulcasting it on the main G&L Bass forum this week as well, and today only, on Large Sound due to the amount of Ashbory content. Feel free to respond to this on this board or on one of the others. Welcome to the triplecast!
-Brock
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Hello and welcome to the Tuesday Lunch Report, today only on the triplecast!
BadAssBassPlayers.com location:
http://badassbassplayers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=37585#37585GuitarsByLeo.com location:
http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/gldp/messages/37827.php3LargeSound.net location: (here)
It'll be back to the simulcast tomorrow, but there's Large Sound-related Ashbory content today too, so triplecast it is. On that note, some sweet looking mahogany L-1000 pics on BadAssBassPlayers.com from yesterday's report. Oh my!
Check them out.
Lunch:Some two can La Choy beef meal. Warmed in microwave. No drink. Not a spectacular, or awful, meal.
How to become an expert in a musical instrument:I can't tell you how to be the Stratocaster Master Researcher, but I can tell you how to be a known expert in a less common instrument or family of instruments:
1. Care a lot about the instrument.
2. Document the instrument.
3. Share your results.
It helps if you pick something obscure! The more obscure, the lower the barrier of entry. Now in my case, I didn't choose this, but condition #1 above ("Care a lot about the instrument") claimed me. Add in obscurity and I was destined to be known for the Ashbory.
Well, it has now been 9-10 years since I put up
that original page. When the company I was working for collapsed in the tech crash of 2001-2002, I started working on Large Sound (
http://www.largesound.com), the more comprehensive Ashbory resource web site I'd dreamed of building but didn't have the time. I rolled it out and a few months later decided to see if I could get a cut of the sales the site was going to generate. Affiliate sales via Musician's Friend were more expensive to the buyer than what I could do offering the basses directly (by about $50), so I started selling them out of the house. That's what Large Sound Commerce still does today. Shipping (a small volume of) Ashbory Basses around the world. Sweden, Mexico, Australia, Spain! Certainly not enough to make a living from, but the exposure to all the basses is nice... ...I get to see more than I ever imagined. Thanks to the added exposure, there's pages in the Ashbory resources like this:
http://www.largesound.com/ashboryarticle/general/headstock/I would not have had the sort of exposure to instruments to generate a page like that if it weren't for Large Sound Commerce bringing the basses in and out the door. My wife Kelly operates most of Large Sound Commerce these days, which works out pretty well for everyone. I still field the occasional question. It's great to talk with people about Ashborys by email, phone, and on the message board. There's been some interesting project builds too. I enjoy the presence of Large Sound.
Question: Are you known as a sort of expert on something, musical or not, where you get questions from people a lot? What is it? I know there's a couple G&L experts at GbL, heck, I bought my SB-2 from one of them.
Today's non-G&L instrument: 2002 DeArmond Ashbory
Click here for a larger viewDon't be fooled by the small size. The solid silicone rubber strings produce a huge, delightful fretless sound that fretless bass guitars don't match. Here's a sound sample:
http://www.largesound.com/ashborytour/sound/brobob.mp3Ashborys are a love/hate instrument. People seem to completely love them or hate them, and there's very few in the middle. This one is my personal Ashbory. I also have my original Guild but it is retired. Here's a comparison between the two for the curious:
http://www.largesound.com/ashboryarticle/general/comparison/Today's G&L: The 1984 El Toro Fretless Bass Guitar
Click here for a larger viewUnfortunately, this instrument is owned by the Ashbory. It's not that the El Toro sucks, far from it. In fact, I think the extra midrange of that pickup system shines for fretless bass guitar. That El Toro would hold its own against many fretless bass guitars. But for me, it's like ground beef vs. steak. The El Toro doesn't get a lot of attention. Too nice to get rid of, though.
I should note that the El Toro fretless is the only G&L bass that loses in the house... ...and it is entirely due to being a bass guitar competing with an Ashbory. Past that, it is a really nice bass guitar. The SB-2 from yesterday is not the bass guitar champion, but it holds its own very well, enough to require a pickup change for the non-G&L bass to keep up.
All the same, a nice bass in great shape. Maybe someday I'll embrace the sound differences between Ashbory and fretless bass guitar.
Question: What instrument battles do you have going on in your home and what instrument is winning and what is losing?Web site of the day: GGJaguar's Guitarium and Ampeteria G&L Pagehttp://www.ggjaguar.com/gnl.htmGreg has documented G&Ls nicely and I would like to express a "thank you". Heck, he's even answered a few emails with questions. The G&L and other resources he has are wonderful, and
my SB-2 is even out there.
Go Greg!
-Brock
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Topic: Lunch Report Triplecast- 2007-05-08 (Read 1587 times)