G.A.S. - A Tale of Two Basses...

[r_a_smith3530]

I stopped in at one of the local guitar shops this evening. I looked at a number of different bass guitars, including a Gretch Electromatic short scale, a MiM Fender Deluxe Active Jazz Bass, and a G&L Tribute L-2000.

The Gretch, with its short scale, is kind of cool, or cute, depending on how you look at it. It is the bass that you can drag just about everywhere because it's no bigger than your average guitar. It has a single mini humbucker, along with volume and tone control. I don't know if I see it as a serious bass though. It's sort of like a practice amp.

The Fender Deluxe Active Jazz Bass is pretty cool. It's all black and has a one piece, custom pickguard. The fretboard is rosewood. It sounds really nice, and has that cool jazz look to it. I'm not sure if I like the all black treatment, but I imagine that it would grow on me. This bass is used.

The L-2000 is the Premium version, with a nicely grained swamp ash body instead of alder. It also has the rosewood fretboard. It is a tone monster, that's all I can say! You have a volume, treble, and bass knobs, then you have switches to select which or both pickups, series/parallel, and passive/active/active with treble boost.

Although the Gretch is cute, it's not cute enough to bring home, so that leaves the Jazz and the L-2000. Yes, I'm stopping back in at the guitar shop tomorrow. One of these is bound to become my newest axe! Stay tuned to see which.

[Tone2TheBone]

Make sure you take pics Rob.

[warren0728]

yes...we need pics!

ww

[r_a_smith3530]

I had to work late and didn't get to the guitar shop last night, but I'm going to try for tonight. They had a cute little tweed Epi bass practice amp there too. They wanted $75.00 for it.

[warren0728]

cool...if the epi bass amps are as good as the epi guitar amps you will be very happy!

ww

[r_a_smith3530]

UPDATE! I have temporarily shelved the thought of picking up one of these two basses. Although the Fender sounds nice, I'm not a fan of the narrow Jazz necks, and I just know this will end up living in the case, barely seeing the light of day. Eventually, I will probably build a jazz style bass, using Warmoth parts and a P Bass neck. The Tribute is sweet, but I've decided that if I'm going to get a G&L bass, then I'm going to get a G&L bass.

So, I am going in a slightly different direction. Of my guitars, my G&L S-500 seems to be the least played of my instruments. I've given thought as to why, and the only thing that I can come up with is the single coil pickups. My most used six string is the Peavey, and it's usually switched to either the PAF, or the PAF and the hot side of the SD Hot Lead.

I have decided to try trading off my S-500 to someone in exchange for a Leo era (pre-dating Leo Fender's death in 1991) G&L L-2000. After discussing my options with several other members of the G&L Discussion Page, I believe that this is my best course of action. To that end, I've placed an ad in the Marketplace section of the GLDP.

http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/MARKET/messages/8738.php3

[warren0728]

good luck on your quest rob....keep us posted!

ww

[r_a_smith3530]

As of right now, I've had offers of a black '89 L-2000 with rear mounted controls (with the body supposedly of Poplar), an '85 L-2000 in Mahogany (front mounted controls), and an '84 SB-2 in Flame Maple with a burst finish and maple board neck. The first design SB-2 featured two J-style MFD single coil pickups. This style was only manufactured from 1984-1986, and I'm guessing that there were less than one thousand of these made. After that, the SB-2 went to MFD versions of the P-J pickup combination. I've also had two people offering to buy my S-500 outright for an unspecified amount, although these are folks well versed in the guitar's value.

Back in 1993, without realizing it, I bought a ten year old guitar that today is becoming a collectible. It has more than doubled in value from what I paid for it back then. Folks are saying that it will more than likely do the same (or better) over the next ten years.

Prices on Leo era bass guitars have kept pace as well. Of course there is a reason for that.

Leo Fender invented the electric bass guitar with the introduction of the Fender Precision Bass in 1951 (check one of these out, you will be surprised!). Nine years later, he would trump himself with the introduction of the Jazz Bass. After leaving CBS/Fender, Leo formed CLF Research, and through this company, designed what would become known as the Stingray bass guitar for Music Man. In 1979, after some serious business problems with Music Man, CLF was dropped and G&L was formed. One of Leo's first designs for the new company was a bass guitar, the L-1000. The pinnacle of Leo's design effort is today seen in the L-2000. It is said that Leo spent his last day on Earth putting the finishing touches on a new bass instrument (actually a baritone guitar). Leo designed some of the most influencial bass guitars to ever be built (G&L never built his final design).

The L-2000 sounds just so fantastic, and I want one badly!