Shop Talk: My Bass Guitar

I bought my bass for about $350 in 1990 from Gand Music & Sound in Northfield, IL. Don’t look for the store- it’s gone. The bass is a Hohner B2A which is a copy of the much more expensive Steinberger, the popular headless bass prominent in the late 80’s.

I’ve played this bass on every album of mine except my 1989 debut. I love it and it plays great. Who cares if it’s cheap. In prep for the new album though, I have decided to get some new strings for it. You’re really supposed to change the strings regularly. If you don’t, the sound becomes rather dull and muddy instead of bright and shiny. I broke a string once and replaced that, but the other strings are the ones that came with the bass when I bought it 28 years ago. I think the muddy bass had really become a part of my signature sound over the years. Creative choice? No. Laziness. But it still worked great in the context of the songs.

If you’re a regular reader you probably know by now that I’m trying to get higher quality recordings, especially now that I’m working toward a new album. The new strings are just one part of my quest.

My influences on bass are the more melodic players: Andy Roarke from the Smiths, and whoever was playing bass in Soundgarden. Go check that stuff out!

Can’t Stop The Now...

More To Explore

Nightlife

Step out of your crisp blue winter evening and into the wild swing of Archibald Motley Jr.’s Nightlife; a vivid portrayal of the hip nocturnal

TECO APPLE: Antarctica [NFT Remix]

William Is é a nova encarnação do artista multimídia de Chicago William Steffey. Sua carreira na produção musical começou aos 11 anos, quando recebeu um gravador

Alt77: Hot Rod Stigmata

There’s something campy and demented about William Steffey’s Hot Rod Stigmata that reminds me of the Butthole Surfers if they could stand still for enough