Playing The Low End...

 I am an active member of the worship band at the church which I attend.

Most of the time I play electric violin and sometimes guitar.

Recently, however, the church has been short on bass players, so the worship leader asked if I might consider playing that instrument once in awhile. 

The only caveat was that I did not own a bass guitar.

Fortunately, the church owns a bass which I was able to bring home for practice, then play during the services.

After doing this a few times, my wife suggested that I just buy my own bass instead of hauling the church one to and fro.

I heartily agreed!

So, I rang my good friend in Denver to find out if he had a good bass for sale. 

This gentleman is an avid music instrument collector, restorer, and luthier. Even though he specializes in restoring and refurbishing vintage tube amplifiers, he also rebuilds and repairs instruments.

Just turns out, he just so happened to have a couple of electric basses that he was willing to let go.

I settled on this one:

This is a Fender MB-5 five string bass.

These were manufactured for a short period of time, but were out-shadowed by the much more popular Fender P-bass.

The unique thing about this instrument is the body.

My luthier friend was not at all happy with the original basswood body, so he actually built a brand new one out of ash.

He explained that he didn't have a wide enough piece of ash to make the entire thing, so he laminated in some thin strips of walnut.

He told me there is a noticeable improvement in the instrument's tonal qualities.

As an added bonus, he threw in a small Ampeg bass practice amp that he picked up really cheap at an auction website.

Thus far, I have played this instrument at half a dozen church services, and enjoy it immensely.

Even though there is a bit of a learning curve for bass playing, I have easily learned the basic two-finger picking  and string muting techniques.

Bass guitar is fun!

Rock on...