Really Impressed with a Rick Fretless . . .

jnbass · Post by **jnbass** » Wed May 24, 2006 4:00 pm

from Paul...

jps · Post by **jps** » Wed May 24, 2006 4:36 pm

I have a few Azymuth CDs, great band.

Philip,
FL song sent to you via e-mail!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed May 24, 2006 5:18 pm

Yes Greg, all the older ones had dots on the notes, I have a 72 with them and had an early 80's 4001FL. I think they are using the side markers from regular 4003's. It does sound great except when I automatically go to a dot and play flat. I'm going to have something done with it if I keep it, I'm not sure what yet.

bob_atherton · Post by **bob_atherton** » Wed May 24, 2006 9:44 pm

Bob, why not put your own fret markers on the binding? On my '84 FL I have put extra dots either side of 3rd, 5th, 7th etc. Looked a bit crazy to start with but really works well for me now. We play some dimly lit venues and I never have any problem.

wints · Post by **wints** » Thu May 25, 2006 12:16 am

I just wish they kept them like the fretted versions...

actual_size · Post by **actual_size** » Thu May 25, 2006 3:01 am

Here is a photograph of Chris Brubeck playing a fretless I took during the Two Generations of Brubeck Tour in the 80s

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Thu May 25, 2006 5:18 am

That's a pretty early one too, '72 or '73...

shinynewtoy · Post by **shinynewtoy** » Thu May 25, 2006 5:52 am

Does anyone know of anywhere online that I can check out Chris Brubeck's stuff? It's impossible in record stores around here.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Thu May 25, 2006 7:04 am

J. Gary...the recording of "Alaskan Jihad" is from our second CD, "Squirting Flower" on the Shrat Field Recordings label. The whole CD is mixed down from a board recording of a live show at the Bluebird Theater in Denver a couple of years ago. For that gig, we had bass, drums, two guitars, trombone and trumpet. We also have a vibes player for some gigs (when he isn't on tour drumming with Dressy Bessy), and our tenor sax/bass clarinet player just moved back to town from France and has started playing with us again. That particular tune opens the CD...it wrote itself at a rehearsal some years ago, on the night the news broke that some hillbilly sitting on his front porch shooting at tin cans had sent an errant round through the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. I guess you could say it's our comment on how all the 'Homeland Security' in the world can't make us safe from our own stupidity.

It's kind of amazing that the tracks from that live gig turned out usable at all, since it was the night after Christmas, and the theater owners had let the heat in the building go down for the holiday...of course, it takes a long time to bring the temperature in a big 100-year-old brick building back up, so it was a pretty cold gig. I could see steam coming out of the horns...and of course, I had plenty of help from my bass tech and long-time companion, Arthur Itis...

wints · Post by **wints** » Thu May 25, 2006 7:20 am

John,
Brubeck's is a 69 I believe. Probably one of the first five or so made. It has a bound headstock...

Very Cool......

actual_size · Post by **actual_size** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:30 am

Here are some more recent pics of the same bass.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:58 am

The first picture looks like the original bridge pickup is still in it unless it's the lousy monitor here in work.
Bob, what do you mean by put my own side dots on it? I might have it done professionally but I'm not going to butcher it myself.
All the older FL's had dots on the notes for every note like your's, I have a 72, it gets a bit confusing as you go up the neck, but nothing like they are now, every note down the neck is a little closer to the dot but they never meet, it drives me crazy, the bass sounds great though.
I agree with Andrew I wish they used the old Fender model, 3rd, 5th 7th etc. was very easy to follow and you always knew exactly where you were.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:59 am

Has anyone yet figured out the year they first made them available? I know they were special order for a long time.

jayfbv · Post by **jayfbv** » Thu May 25, 2006 3:08 pm

I saw him playing it few weeks ago. There's been some custom work to it beyond the jazz pickup. There's a what looks like rosewood overlay on top of the bound headstock. fwiw, he was playing with the selector in the middle position.

wints · Post by **wints** » Thu May 25, 2006 4:23 pm

That bass must have looked kinda familiar James...