That's folly, of course. If you're here, you know what Barker Bass is all about. So now we have a blog, a window into our company and, at times, into the scattershot thought processes of the owner.
I welcome your comments, your insights and your questions.
I will post twice a week, usually Monday then Wednesday or Thursday.
Today's shop project is to get three B1 basses in sequence for final assembly and stringup. One is Leo Goff's custom four string fretless (www.leogoff.net), notable for some aesthetic things as well as a little different electronic setup (more about that as we go along), and one will be, at least for a while, one of my players. It has the Graphtech Ghost bridge with peizo pickups, and I want to be with that option for a while so I can build an informed opinion about it. I may also tinker with some other things on that bass, provided they don't muddle one another up.
In creating testbeds there is an efficiency temptation to try several things at once. The result might be a flashy prototype but fuzzy information from the new ideas.
The music in my head today came from the Stolen Sweets (www.stolensweets.com) who played the penultimate Music On the Green concert in Redmond last night. It's that tight harmony, lots of rhythm guitar, slightly swooping yet ratatat music of the 30's. It was so very well done, and the bass player was a Gibraltar back there, and the arrangements were so varied, intricate and clever, that the time went by way too fast. It was in that somewhat rare category where the art of music becomes an illusion in time (like a painting may become an illusion in space) and we were there but not there. It was good to experience that with Linda (Barker) and Rex (Gatton) our guitar player friend and colleague of many years.
And rain threatened. The crowd, however, was bumbershot in preparation. Bumbershooted. Umbrellized. And on went the show.
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2 comments:
I am VERY interested in tracking your results with the Graphtech Ghost bridge with peizo pickups.
Piezo pickups give a bass a character that is a a sonic compliment to the visual image projected by Barker basses. The combination would be nice for settings that expect an upright bass's sound and look but with a modern twist.
Thanks for the input. I'll keep it as an ongoing element in my posts. First priority is Leo's, though, with the stacked pots. All the hard work is done, what's left is the demanding and precise stuff, which I only do when all the green lights are glowing on the Lee Dashboard.
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