What has the earth to do with air?
They seem a most unlikely pair.
Just look to the horizon, where
they touch for miles, but cross nowhere.

What has the sky to do with land?
The ground will never understand;
it may find heights, but none so grand
as air seeks without thought or plan.

What has the earth to do with air?
Look to the fields and roadways where
when mixed with diligence and care
their children grow beyond compare.

What has the air to do with earth?
It gives it life and fire and mirth;
and just beyond the sight, gives birth
to flowers that cost a penny's-worth.

20 JUN 2007

So, here's my latest setup for bass (and one which I'd be willing to endorse officially, should there be any interest):

I have always been a Fender bass man at heart. Although I started out playing OPB (other people's basses), like Hagstroms and Kays and Epiphones, the first bass I purchased (in 1979) was a late '70s short scale Musicmaster (like the Jaguar which is now available), from which I upgraded to a Musicman Cutlass II (the 80s version of the Stingray designed by Leo Fender, with dual pickups and a graphite neck). I had a Kramer acoustic/electric for a while as a novelty, but relied on the Cutlass for over 10 years. I downsized for a few years, however, and ended up buying a standard Fender Precision as my next instrument until I lost it in Hurricane Katrina. The Epiphone EB-01, although pretty cool to play, was a mere stop-gap measure until I could return to Fender bass -- which I did recently, solving my Precision versus Jazz dilemma with a hybrid that does both.

I currently play a maple fretboard Fender Precision Bass Special, which has a P-bass body, a J-bass neck and active P-J pickup combination that's been upgraded with a Badass II Bridge and equipped with Rotosound Swing 66 Strings (which I've used on all my basses from the beginning). Although I love Kustom amps for guitar, and for the longest time relied on both Gallien-Krueger heads and cabinets, and Sunn bass heads, I'm now opting for relative portability and running through a
Behringer BXL3000 Ultrabass Amp.

Effects? I used to run a lot of them. Of all the effects I've used since the mid 80s, the only thing that I've come back to is the Electro-Harmonix Bassballs envelope filter unit. I might add other toys: for wah-wah, I always use Cry Baby. For everything else, I prefer Electro-Harmonix.

To find again the solid ground,
the pulse beneath the surging song
that lends its subharmonic sound
to all that hear and sing along;

To seek the strings that touch the heart,
that plucked, would shake the listening spine
and signal for the dance to start,
to find grape deep within the wine.

To sense the beat within the vein
and chart its course from start to end;
so feeding soul and bone and brain
with food that causes hurt to mend.

To find again the fertile earth
where roots run down and deep, unseen,
for nutrients that may give birth
both to what will, and what could be.

03 JUN 2007