Check it out:

I’m pretty stoked to see these getting some mass-market play. When I saw this flyer the first thing I though of was Fritz Brothers and their “F.B. Bass”, which is a hand-crafted copy of the K5965. According to more of their marketing material, the current incarnation of Kay Guitar, Inc has pegged Mr. Fritz to oversee production of this ‘reissue’ line:

Any Kay purists reading this have probably already taken note of the fact that these ‘reissues’ aren’t vintage-correct because they sport the “Kelvinator” headstock instead of the more plain headstocks of the original 5965’s. But I’m not complaining - love the Kelvinator. It’s big, bold, and perfectly gaudy:

MSRP on these puppies is $1k. Based on that, I’m assuming they’ll be made in Korea. Price includes fitted hardshell case. See this catalog page for more specs:

I’ve got an email in to Kay to get some more info. If/when they get back to me I’ll post an update.

The K5965 “Pro” Bass isn’t the only thing Kay has up it’s sleeve. They’re also planning a reissue of the K5970 “Jazz Special” Bass! YES! The Jazz Special is my favorite Kay design, complete with Kelvinator and all:

I have no idea when/where/how these things will be available to consumers, but as I find out the info I’ll let you know.

I guess if the second pickup is legit, the model would technically be an EB-6D?

Either way, it’s a rare bird indeed:

Here’s the link, for as long as it lasts: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270244556826

I’ve been true Radiohead devotee since ‘97 or so, when I bought a copy of OK Computer after hearing Paranoid Android on the radio. I remember the first time I listened to the album - I was vacationing at my Aunt’s house for the week. We had made a trip to the mall (or some other record-selling establishment) where I bought the album. As soon as we got back to her house, I anxiously opened the cellophane and popped the disc in her nice Hi-Fi. Airbag……”this is amazing”. Paranoid Android……..”still amazing”. Subterranean Homesick Alien…….”umm….this is not exactly rockin”. Exit Music……..”hmm, this drags. maybe this album isn’t as great as I thought it was going to be.”

Now, before you crucify me, these were the thoughts of a fifteen-year-old, who for the last two years had been listening to a LOT of Nine Inch Nails and just about any other heavy, pounding, hard rock / industrial stuff he could get his hands on. (Exit Music is now one of my favorite Radiohead tunes.)
But I liked ‘Airbag’ and ‘Android’ so much that I kept coming back to the album. After several listens, the genius of it hit me. I can honestly say that my copy of OK Computer is the only CD that I’ve worn out since I started buying CDs in the early 90’s. And I take immaculate care of my CDs.

Before OK, I was a casual fan - I loved “Creep” (as any angsty teenager would), and thought the singles from The Bends were okay (I didn’t get around the buying The Bends until after OK Computer was out).

In the years between 1997 and 2000, I would take trips to Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Greensboro or anywhere with a decent record store in search of Radiohead import singles and albums. Then in 2000 I discovered Napster and started downloading any Radiohead oddities that I could find. When Kid A came out, was in line at 12:01am to by my limited edition copy.

Heck, I actually paid for my download of In Rainbows.

In short, I consider myself a devoted fan.

In 2001, I had an opportunity to see Radiohead live for the first time. August 11, 2001. It was going to be glorious day. We drove from North Carolina to Washington DC for the show. We were stoked. I have a picture or two that were snapped in my Jeep on the way up there. We’re happy! We get to the park - it’s a hot but beautiful day outside. We make it inside the park and stake out a spot on the ground.

Oh, what a horrible journey it turned out to be. A little before the opening act was supposed to come on, the clouds rolled in. No biggie, right? The ticket says rain or shine. I don’t mind getting rained on if I get to see Radiohead. Then the rain starts falling. And the lightning starts crashing all around us. And the skies opened up and what occurred next was a deluge of rain that can only be described as ‘Biblical in proportion’.

We end up being forced out of the park by security and told to wait in our cars. As we’re trudging/running up the hill to the parking lot / mudhole, there is as least 8″ of water rolling down the hill into the valley we’re exiting. Lightning continues to crash, causing a tree to our right to explode. My wife actually felt the electricity from the tree explosion run up her leg. We made it to the Jeep (Cherokee) and piled in. At that point we realized the rain was coming down so hard that the seals on the Jeep doors had given way to the rain and there was now a 1″ puddle of rainwater resting on the floorboard. With all the water we’d soaked up on the way to the Jeep, the seats were now soaking wet as well.

We spent a good while in the Jeep before learning that the concert was officially called off. It’s still raining. As we finally make it to the parking lot exit, we picked up some poor chap who had been sitting in the rain all this time. We took him back to downtown DC before heading to our hotel room.

I managed to book a hotel room in a semi-sketchy part of the city, and didn’t really want to leave my windows down or car unlocked overnight. So I didn’t. When I went out the Jeep the next morning, the windows were fogged up from the inside. Suffice it to say that the Jeep had a bit of a ‘funk’ for the next few years until the mildew smell finally dissipated.

So anyway, the ‘01 Radiohead-DC trip was a total bust. After that, I decided I would never again make travel plans for a band. Even Radiohead. Unless the somehow resurrected Johnny Cash. I’d travel to see that…….

Fast forward seven years. Radiohead announces their In Rainbows tour, and Charlotte, NC is on the list. YES. I know I wasn’t the only one with that sentiment, considering my tickets were towards the back of the covered seating and I was on Ticketmaster vying for seats at 10am sharp the day they went on sale.

Finally, finally, finally, I see my heroes play a concert. Ed’s GQ style. Phil’s grin. Johnny’s Starcaster. Colin’s under-appreciated bass. Thom’s unmistakable voice. For real, playing and singing on a stage that if I had the inclination and security-bypassing ninja skills to make it to, I could have stood with. It was as close to a religious experience that I’ve had at a concert. For some, it probably was the most religious experience they’ve had.

If you haven’t managed to catch a Radiohead show over the last sixteen years, I highly recommend you do before you die. I’m glad I managed to.

Setlist:

1. All I Need
2. There, There
3. Airbag
4. 15 Step
5. Nude
6. Sail to the Moon
7. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
8. Myxomatosis
9. Idioteque
10. Morning Bell
11. Videotape
12. Optimistic
13. Where I End and You Begin
14. You and Whose Army?
15. Everything In Its Right Place
16. Bangers + Mash
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1:
18. Go Slowly
19. Talk Show Host
20. Exit Music
21. Planet Telex
22. House of Cards

Encore 2:
23. Paranoid Android
24. Reckoner

The only thing that could have made the night better for me would have been to hear Climbing Up The Walls. But that is in no way a complaint. Personal highlights of the night were There There, Myxomatosis, You and Whose Army? and seeing Radiohead play Talk Show Host and Exit Music back-to-back. Talk Show Host does weird things to my brain. Makes me wonder if I’m invincible.

Garrett, thanks for coming to the show with me.

Zac, wish you could’ve been there.

-Brandon

My vantage point (cellphone pic):

Yours truly, waiting for the sun to go down and for the Liars to get off the stage:

Photos from the show, taken by a few folks with better vantage points than myself:

Photo by Hyphen1982

Photo by Hyphen1982

Photo by Hyphen1982

Photo by Hyphen1982

Photo taken by Crystal Floyd

Photo taken by Crystal Floyd

Photo taken by Crystal Floyd

Looks like someone over @ Danelectro had the same idea I did, or took my advice. (I’d like to think it was the latter.) At this year’s winter NAMM, Danelectro unveiled the “Dano ‘63″ guitar and bass models. The guitar is a pretty faithful rendition of the two-pickup Silvertone 1457. To throw the bass players a bone, they’re releasing both long (34″) and short-scale (30″) models!

The basses are (probably) made in China, but I haven’t confirmed that fact - I’m guessing China based on the $299 price tag. It does look like they’re using the ‘nicer’ Dano hardware on these instruments (mainly an intonate-able bridge instead of the vintage-spec non-adjustable rosewood saddle version).
Unfortunately, they did not carry over the funky 6-in-line headstock that the old Silvertones had.

And for some reason they stiffed the bass players on finish options - you have your choice of Aqua, Black or Redburst if you want a long scale, but only Redburst if you go shortscale. The guitars have eight retro color options.

I’m gonna have to give one of these Dano ’63’s a test drive once they actually hit the market. Musicians Friend has them on preorder with a shipping date of 7/2/08. Music123 has them listed for sale with no mention of wait time - so they may be in stock already. Numerous eBay sellers also have preorders up.

View Danelectro’s website for product information: http://danelectro.com/bass_ss_red.html

If anyone has a chance to give these puppies a test drive, please post here with your comments.

Check out my new-to-me mid/late 60’s Klira Twen Star 356:

I bought it with these old tapewound strings on it. Haven’t had a bass with tapewounds in over ten years…..forgot how cool they are. The neck on this bass is awesome, and plays like a dream. Plus the bass has 40 solid years of player wear - naturally ‘reliced’.

This bass sounds great unplugged. The quality of the craftsmanship really comes through in the acoustic sound. This particular model has a bolt-on neck, so now I’d really like to try one of the earlier set-neck models.

Unfortunately the electronics and pickup rings are shot. I know for sure that the neck pickup works, and the bridge pickup reads 7.5k on the multimeter, so it should be okay. The pots, switch and jack will need replacing.

A cool thing about these basses (which I didn’t know until a TalkBasser pointed it out and I pulled off the control panel) is that the pickup leads where wired to 1/8″ mono plugs. The control panel and electronics were assembled, and the volume pot was integrated with two jacks. Once it came time to assemble the bass, the pickups were mounted and simply plugged into the control panel before the panel was screwed into the body. Pretty smart…….

So if you know of somewhere I can pickup a few spare Klira pickup rings, let me know!

The cream w/ red racing stripe is pretty nice. I wonder what the other four colors were?

Auction links:
Blue w/ White Stripe
Cream w/ Red Stripe

This is a super rare ’60s Danelectro Coral prototype Vincent Bell style 60s prototype bass guitar. I think that this was an experiment. Basically the folks at Dano took a guitar body and put a Wasp bass neck on it. Please see the last pic, it’s of a prototype sitar with the same type of plastic lable.

I’ve used it to play gigs, and it’s a real attention grabber. I always get looks and comments from other musicians.
It’s so big that I’ve named it “The Boat”.

Here is some history from its previous owner…

…in 1986 Chris Lukasik (now deceased) and I went to Cecil Gullickson’s(now deceased) warehouse in Orlando, Florida and found two of these (I sold the other to the bass player for EmmyLou Harris). Cecil had bought a lot of the defunct Dano inventory and moved it to Orlando to market his then very novel guitar synthesizer(actually used by Steve Miller on an early album). His synth did not become successful as did later ones marketed by Roland, etc. and we bought his inventory. I kept this all those years, sold all the rest. I don’t think there were tuners on it in 1986. I have forgotten the history of the tuners, and one of the pickups I think went dead over the years and chris replaced it, can not remember which one.

The bass makes use of a Coral neck married to an archtop acoustic guitar body with two Dano single-coils mounted in the soundhole. I bet this thing sounds awesome. On to the pics:

Auction Link: VINTAGE 60s CORAL DANELECTRO ACOUSTIC ELEC. BASS GUITAR

Yesterday this beauty showed up:

Direct Link: Warmoth Cherryburst Beauty

Bookmatched swamp ash on swamp ash. Would be the start to an awesome semi-hollow project.

I’d like to thank everyone who’s stopped by and commented, and all those that have sent emails with your questions, comments and pics of your awesome basses. I’ve let this site languish for a while and I need to pick it back up again. Your emails will be responded to soon.
So here’s to a good 2008!

or This much?

Seems to me that Schaller needs to start cranking these puppies out again….