Jamming with the Troll, Boughner and DeVos Group at the Calder Plaza for the Grand Rapids Art Festival in 1975. Note the stock pickup covers on my '69 Precision. Also note that I used to have hair! The amp I'm using is a Traynor YB1A with an 18" Traynor cabinet. I kind of miss coily cords, don't you?
Jazz Trio work with John Catzere, and Evan DeVries. Small group stuff is nice because you can hear so well - leading to nice musical interchange
I use a small 100w GK 200MB amp for the smaller jazz gigs. I love the GK because it's light enough to carry it with one hand, and it is loud enough to carry a small room. 1x12" speaker.
In the '70s I played with Juniper Bear - a Fusion group here in my home town. This was our logo..
This is my fretless. Active pickups, and an ebony neck thru the body, makes the Yamaha BB3000AF fretless bass really sing!.. It's a sweet little thing to play! I use Rotosound strings, and tend to favor the bridge pickup. The bass has active pickups, and gold plated hardware.
This is my "big" rig. A Hartke 3500 amp with a Hartke 4x10XL speaker cabinet. Transparent & Loud, the Hartke has both solid state, and tube preamps. I also have a Carvin 1x15 speaker cabinet that I sometimes pair up with either the Hartke, or the GK amp
Life-Long Friend and Monster Percussionist Ric Troll. Ric and I have played together since high school. He's always been a musical inspiration to me. When we play together, it percolates.... Ric is an expert at floating time, which makes it fun to be playing bass with him.
My Friend Jeff Boughner could make a Strat SING! Jeff played with me on and off since 1975. Jeff also played with Blue Nebulae. Unfortunately, Jeff left this earth in 2007, and he's been missed by all his friends ever since.
Here I am playing a gig with my friend Alan on my Peavey Cirrus 5 string. To be honest, I used to think Peavey basses were junk. After all, I played a Fender Precision bass since I was 16 years old! But once I played the Cirrus 5 string in the music store, I just fell in love with it. It's longer (35"), graphite reinforced neck makes the low B string sound much better than any other I've played. And the neck thru the body has incredible sustain. The other thing that blows me away is how quiet the pickups and active preamp are. No HUM even cranked ALL the way up.
Playing at Tallmadge Studios with the Rhythm Comedians. This is my Christopher DB50IT 3/4 scale upright made in Bejing. I use a KTK pickup system, and Spirocore strings.
Here is my mid-sized rig - a new Eden WT-300 head which is a hybrid - tube preamp, and solid state final. The speaker cabinet is Ampeg's new "Portaflex" 1x12 + tweeter. They use a new rare-earth magnet assembly and Finnish plywood to make it light. It really rocks, and weighs only 23lbs. It also comes with a suitcase style pull-up handle and wheels in back. Nice and portable!
This cabinet continues to amaze me as I use it to play bigger and bigger rooms. It has not yet failed to handle things. Congrats Ampeg!!
