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....or did I just get lucky?


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Greetings all.

It's been a busy couple of months. Took on a position as bassist AND artistic director (not musical director) for

a big event in Abu Dhabi with Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis. Will discuss more in future posts.

What I'd like feedback on is this. I have a 4 string 1997' Stuart Spector bass (Czech Republic). I bought it new in 97'. I had it set up when I bought it and it never needed adjustment afterward. I moved to Santa Fe, NM (7,000 ft above sea-level and zero humidity) in 2006 but didn't play it for at least a year. When I finally pulled it out for a session it was still perfect. I haven't had it set up for the 10 years I've been here! Then, I took it to Abu Dhabi this April, expecting to need major adjustments after a couple of days at sea-level and intense heat and humidity. It was still perfect even after carefully changing my strings from wound to flats. I wouldn't have thought this possible. Thoughts?

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sounds like the mojo of sante fe affects you in a positive way! curious as i am unfamiliar with your bass, but i have an older guild 12 that has a double truss rod configuration and i believe one could do chin ups off the neck and it wouldnt budge... despite agressive alternate tunings the action remains rock steady... reminds me id rather be lucky than good, phil... ; )

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as far as to whether or not im any good? well... thats purely speculative to begin with let alone defining exactly what this means. example, does the number of instruments played enter into the equation? is it balanced by proficiency levels or degree of difficulty inherent in the particular instruments performed upon? (shakuhachi vs native flute?) how do we tally up the results? what scale do we agree upon for delineating the degrees of proficiency? do we allow extra credit for humanitarian efforts or random acts of compassion? humor? styles, disciplines, non-western scales/ timings, improvisation, ad naseum....

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My take: That bass is 20 years old! Any changes it was going to go through, it has already gone through. It's stabilized. Any moisture that was in the wood originally is long gone.

 

Think of it the same way as paint drying, or a stained glass window whose base is thicker because it's a liquid and it flows...just very, very slowly, and over centuries. Although your bass didn't take quite that long :)

 

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in truth mr anderton all matter is illusory... nothing more than energy slowed to the extent of appearing solid to our wonderful, yet extremely limited sensory input and processing system... all that we perceive as matter is actually continuously moving energy... moving to entropy? ( i dont understand entropy as a mashup of possibilities as much as it being a piece of a much larger pattern that we cant comprehend due to our human limitations)

a step further in a different perspective :

from one indigenous perspective, that guitar is still the tree from which it was made... not a part of, but a representative of, the whole... (the dna in its cellular structure will bear me out on this). it is still alive, contains all the "medicine" of that energy and will someday return to the dust from which it sprang forth... all things are alive... all life is sacred...

 

im sure there are as many truths as there are stories... are any more real than the next?

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...I wouldn't have thought this possible. Thoughts?

 

 

Since you're not storing the bass outside in the elements, the actual environment it's been residing in all this time has been more or less a comfortable environment where the humidity and temperature levels are not what they are outside.

 

Besides, a well-sealed, thick, bass neck isn't going to do much of anything if the humidity changes and a well-sealed electric solidbody bass or guitar body basically isn't going to do anything at all if the humidity changes. On the other hand, an acoustic instrument would be under a lot of stress if the humidity levels down to 20 percent or less.

 

Of course, something such as a Switch Vibracell electrric guitar or bass, or this Composite Acoustics acoustic guitar isn't going to flinch a bit if the relative humidity level is 2 percent or 102 percent. sm-suprised

 

 

ox-top1.jpg

 

ox-neck1.jpg

 

ox-all.jpg

 

 

Switch Innovo Bass

innovo-i.png

 

 

 

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