Hello fellow bassists and lovers of music,
After some groovy gigs, I'm back home and busy making some groovy stuff. I did Cleveland at the Grog Shop with my own band then did the Lenox Lounge in Harlem, NYC with Greg Bandy and Marvin Horne. Here's a taste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-y5SDZVcVQ
Now I'm introducing you to a new page on my website, the CertainDeals page. Of course I'll be changing it from time to time, but please take a look at what just might slip through your fingers unknowingly!
One groovy thing I made recently is a new bass for George Potsos, bassist for Devon Allman and the Honeytribe (Duane Allman's son) loves his newest CertainBass. His favorite #1 bass is his 1964 Fender Jazz bass. If you see him playing a black bass with tortoise shell pickguard and a matching black headstock, it's his '64. If you see him playing the same thing with a non-matching, maple wood headstock, it's our bass. And you won't see any photos of his '64 unless it's in his living room because it never leaves the house now. The new George Potsos bass is his main bass for the road. Am I happy about this? I sure am. Am I surprised? I sure am not. That's how and why I started CertainBass, to replicate bassists' favorites, or, at the very least, make basses like the best vintages basses you ever picked up.
George's bass is now available for you. The Potsos' bass is our lightweight body (bass weighs less than 7.5 lbs) in our Piano Black with tortoise shell pickguard, Bartolini or Fender Original Jazz bass pickups, threaded saddle bridge (early 60's style), '61 Fender Jazz replica neck, thick slab of rosewood fingerboard, "clay" dot inlays and phillips truss rod adjustment at heel. AND I'm introducing this model at a special price for the first five who order: ONLY $843 with stock tuners, and includes my handcut bone nut. Add $83 for cloverleaf style Hipshot Lightweight tuners, $24 for Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups or $32 for Fender 60's Custom Shop pickups (word on the street that they copied Jaco's pickups for this model, and they sound like it). So, yes, call me crazy, but I want to get more of these out there to create a buzz. This is truly a great bass at any price, but better hop on this special price, and get something that could very well become collectable.
I basically started this company for selfish reasons: I had re-fallen in love with my old Fender, my Old Friender as we've been together since '81, my '73 Fender Jazz, maple neck, mother of pearl inlays. But now post-turn-of-the-century, and it's worth enough bread to buy a used car or a really hip bicycle, I got nervous taking it to gigs. I decided to replicate it, and that's how and why I got started. That's Elita #0001 and it's still one of two main basses I play professionally. And I'd rather pick it up than my '73. And I still play my '73 just to make sure. Plus, unlike my '73, I can use modified electronics like hum canceling pickups and my Varitone that the '73 doesn't have (and forget about modifying a vintage bass).
I've been rebuildng and fixing basses since I was 16 (I'm old as baseball now). My first Fender was a '64 Precision. I didn't have much money, and someone tried to refinish this bass and messed it up. So I took it apart and re-refinished it, put it back together, set it up. I couldn't figure out how they held the neck onto the body when you put in the screws so I devised this clamping system that turns out to be some accidental genius stuff. Necessity is the muther of invention. It's still the same build technique I use today, and I use it for the bridge, too.
Can you say MellenCougar? So what happened to the bass? I really wanted a Jazz bass, not a P bass. So there was this guy who had a beat up Jazz bass, really banged up, and we traded. He was in a Bloomington Indiana (Indiana University) band called Roadmaster, this was like 1977. Long story short (too late), his name is Toby Myers and soon after became John Mellencamp's bassist and still is after all these years. And he recently told me that '64 Precision, the first bass I ever refurbished, was used on 95% of Cougar's hits. He still has the bass. It's now painted red and black. I didn't know this until fairly recently, thanks to Facebook.
So those are my stories and I'm sticking to 'em. I hope you all are well and happy. Give me a ring sometime!
Peace,