I promised planetguy I'd tell this story when I got around to it.
I did an album back in the mid seventies with an outfit called Millard and Dyce. We played out a lot in the area PA, MD and VA. Finding myself in that happy circumstance was not exactly straight forward...
I’d had a few drinks in a pub on Greenmount Ave. in Baltimore and was bragging about how snazzy I was on bass (I was unemployed at the time). I had a Hofner beatle bass back at the house. Truth be told I was playing a bit of lead guitar backing up a blues artist who managed to get really low paying gigs, occassionally. It was something I guess.
The bartender was a singer in a cover band that was probably the third best in the area then – very hot. He told me he was putting together an original band and would I like to audition on bass.
Hell yeah!
I got home and opened the case to look at my bass and the neck had not just warped - it had snapped. Did I mention that I was broke? I had an audition the following evening – even if I had money I couldn’t get it fixed in time. This was my dream gig and I was hosed!
I took my beloved Les Paul Junior and walked down Park Heights Ave were I’d used to sell bootleg albums- to what were later called 'yuppies'. I sold the guitar in record time and headed over to Livingston’s pawn shop which was the biggest music store in Baltimore then, oddly enough. I looked at roughly twenty basses and nah….So finally this old boy says, “All right. Let’s see if you’re really a bass player…” He went into the back room and came back with a guitar case approximately the size of a coffin.
He opened the case and there was this tragically beaten up bass guitar. The finish was ruined. A nail was driven into the body to hold the strap. I’d never seen one like it – it looked like an electric version of a classical acoustic instrument. It was so beaten up that it looked terrible. I picked it up and nearly started weeping, it such a mind bending instrument and felt so perfect. The salesmen had a satisfied look on his face. He’d wanted it to go to someone who’d appreciate it.
It was an Ampeg with the scroll at the top like an upright bass. It felt so very good and just seemed to be the bass I was to play; and so it was.
I aced the audition and the boys loved the bass. I think they felt it added a certain element of style to our look and yeah, I did too. Of all the gigs we did the one that sticks in my mind was at the Maryland House of Correction (Jessup’s”‘cut”’). A very scary prison. I played the Ampeg through a Kustom head with three fifteens. An inmate hollered, ” Let that bass man do his thing!” For some reason, that was immensely satisfying. I felt it had something to do with the bass I was playing.
Afterwards, the prison guards offered us a plate of Oreo cookies and glasses of milk. It was surreal.
The Ampeg bass can be seen on my profile picture on Band Mix.
Talbot
I did an album back in the mid seventies with an outfit called Millard and Dyce. We played out a lot in the area PA, MD and VA. Finding myself in that happy circumstance was not exactly straight forward...
I’d had a few drinks in a pub on Greenmount Ave. in Baltimore and was bragging about how snazzy I was on bass (I was unemployed at the time). I had a Hofner beatle bass back at the house. Truth be told I was playing a bit of lead guitar backing up a blues artist who managed to get really low paying gigs, occassionally. It was something I guess.
The bartender was a singer in a cover band that was probably the third best in the area then – very hot. He told me he was putting together an original band and would I like to audition on bass.
Hell yeah!
I got home and opened the case to look at my bass and the neck had not just warped - it had snapped. Did I mention that I was broke? I had an audition the following evening – even if I had money I couldn’t get it fixed in time. This was my dream gig and I was hosed!
I took my beloved Les Paul Junior and walked down Park Heights Ave were I’d used to sell bootleg albums- to what were later called 'yuppies'. I sold the guitar in record time and headed over to Livingston’s pawn shop which was the biggest music store in Baltimore then, oddly enough. I looked at roughly twenty basses and nah….So finally this old boy says, “All right. Let’s see if you’re really a bass player…” He went into the back room and came back with a guitar case approximately the size of a coffin.
He opened the case and there was this tragically beaten up bass guitar. The finish was ruined. A nail was driven into the body to hold the strap. I’d never seen one like it – it looked like an electric version of a classical acoustic instrument. It was so beaten up that it looked terrible. I picked it up and nearly started weeping, it such a mind bending instrument and felt so perfect. The salesmen had a satisfied look on his face. He’d wanted it to go to someone who’d appreciate it.
It was an Ampeg with the scroll at the top like an upright bass. It felt so very good and just seemed to be the bass I was to play; and so it was.
I aced the audition and the boys loved the bass. I think they felt it added a certain element of style to our look and yeah, I did too. Of all the gigs we did the one that sticks in my mind was at the Maryland House of Correction (Jessup’s”‘cut”’). A very scary prison. I played the Ampeg through a Kustom head with three fifteens. An inmate hollered, ” Let that bass man do his thing!” For some reason, that was immensely satisfying. I felt it had something to do with the bass I was playing.
Afterwards, the prison guards offered us a plate of Oreo cookies and glasses of milk. It was surreal.
The Ampeg bass can be seen on my profile picture on Band Mix.
Talbot
