LeftyBassist.com

Groovy!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Musicman-Ernie- ... 461099d35b

I remember seeing that bass back in the day.

Mark is a member here, maybe he'll comment on this one.

I didn't realize that. What's his username?

I love it!
Perfect bass to play gigs in San Francisco

Sold by a Dallas pawn shop. Wonder how it ended up there.

When I first saw this post, I thought it would be his ATK....

MARKWHITE

That would make sense^^

Sure, but people just as often use online handles so it was a fair question.

Well well, Look at that, instead of ending up in the Ben Harper "music Museum", that thing made it to Ebay. How funny is that? Well You can't really trust people nowadays, no matter what. At least I didn't give it away for free, other wise there would be some ass kicking in Dallas today.
Ever since I went to playing only jazz basses, I've been getting rid of all my other basses. Basically donating them for cheap. If anybody actually pays 2k for that bass I will be shocked. If anything they should be giving that thing away for free or for a box of donuts. By the way, that was the back up bass to the actual main rainbow music man that I still have. Back when I thought you actually needed a backup bass.

Hi Mark. Interesting, can you elaborate more on the story about this bass?
Thanks!

Well that's pretty much it. Music man finally got around to making lefty basses and that was one of four I got at the same time in Manny's, three were painted after I got them, two rainbow, one yellow and I left one of them the original black. I think I used that bass a few times on stage, but I could can't remember which shows or for how long. I mostly used that other rainbow Music Man for everything after I got tired of that stupid ATK bass. It's sad but those Ernie Balls never really did it for me sound wise, but it was one of the few basses I set up perfectly so it was hard to put down. I finally got around to setting up my Jazz basses after hearing one of them on a old David Letterman show. I basically set up my own basses by taking off the neck and sticking some paper in there to get the tilt just right. I didn't have to do that with the pink jazz bass since it has that amazing tilt thing built in. Anyway I got contacted by an old spin fan on facebook and he wanted to know if I had any basses to donate to this Ben Harper museum, he actually paid me a nice price so I don't really care about it being on Ebay. Being a lefty it's hard to get rid of basses, so I'm stuck with these things for now. I'm only using jazz basses for the rest of my time on this stupid planet. I have no Idea what I was thinking when I stopped playing them.

Same for me. I love the feel and look of my Musicman basses and sometimes try to force them to work in certain bands, but my ears want to hear a Fender Precision or Jazz when I play and every dalliance with a different brand usually eventually fizzles in favour of a Fender bass. Which makes me wonder why I keep buying basses that aren't Fender or Fender inspired at this point. But I sure keep buying them in the face of common sense.

That being said, I write on my Stingray a lot at home. It's great for that.

I just bought a stingray off a member here. I really like it, but I always find myself thinking like you Andrew. I'm a Jazz guy primarily.

I remember seeing Mark with the yellow StingRay circa 1993-1995 in Hallandale, Florida (near Miami). I never forget the bright yellow bass, and the stack of Hartke cabs pumping behind him every time he stepped on the octave pedal (I think that's what it was). The cones looked like they were going to pop put of the cabs. LOL. I wasn't a bass player yet back then (I was still only playing guitar), so I could say that was one of those inspiring moments when you go, "oh, I want to do that." And sure enough, I became a full time bass player after 1996 or so.

About Sting Rays, after so many years of looking for the perfect bass, I'm perfectly happy playing all types right now. I have a P, a J, a StingRay, a fretless hollow with piezo, a Beatle bass, and a Sadowsky modern. So, pretty much one of each. No matter how different the sound between them might be, I always end up sounding like myself - for better or worse.

My favorite sound is a P, but I sometimes feel it gets lost in the mix when playing live (I usually want/or need more articulation). I love a Jazz Bass, but I feel everybody plays one. I'm really diggin the punch of Sting Rays, and how the stick out in the mix just a bit.

Anyhow, nice to see you here Mark. You are a badass, man.

Thanks man, that Yellow music man was fun, but that wasn't a octave pedal, I don't use pedals at all, Maybe it was a tuner.

Well here are my two main basses now, I found an old Music Man saber in LA, I took the pickups out and put them in these two jazz basses and you can switch from Jazz bass to Music man. That pink one sounds exactly like an old Music Man bass, it actually sounds better than any Ernie Ball that I have right now.

Thanks for poppin' in Mark. It's great to have some inside history from those who are making it

BTW

For you MM SR lovers, I know the early SR are the real deal but anyone with expérience with those have checked the early Sabre as well? I think the Sabre basses are some sort of well-kept secret isn't it?

That's an Alembic/Modulus BassStar neck on that bass, isn't it? I used to have a bass very similar to that - I called it The Green Monster for its tone and sustainability - lefty Jazz with the righty graphite neck. I spoke to Geoff Gould at great lengths about that neck and it's another one of those "I wish I didn't sell it" basses that I could never replace. That's one of the reasons that when I began building basses I had my necks built by Moses.

I also also a Mark White / SD story. One time I was at some amusement park near Boston where the SD were playing. The whole band was walking toward me and as I went over to say hello to Mark, being a fellow lefty, Mark put his finger to his lips in a "shhhhh" sort of motion, and so I stopped. Guess he didn't want to be outed in public.

pete