A-Basses and Albey Balgochian

Recognize that the majority of the posts on this site have dealt less with music and more with gear, but, you know what, fuck it. That's where our heads are at right now. In two months time we'll be posting studio pix and tour pix and cock shots and evs for you to check out. But now? Gear.

Unfortunately, being a bassist means that one is fundamentally an unhappy person. Unhappy that yer not the guitarist and don't get guitar solos, unhappy that yer not the drummer and doesn't get to smack shit up, unhappy that yer not the singer and doesn't get laid. Well, actually, there is the quasi-rare SINGING BASSIST category, which is like being a bastard, red-headed stepchild who still gets laid but is unhappy about it. What? See also: Sting, Geddy Lee, Lemmy, Paul McCartney and other control freak, type-A musicians who have a tendency to over-analyze their output. So I guess this analogy doesn't really work, but go with me here.

ANYWAY, so many basses over the years. The early years infatuation with the almighty Fender Jazz Bass, the mid-period "Slappy da bass" with Music Man Stingrays, the "I wanted to play fucking guitar in the band" directionless period where a fucking Yamaha was inexplicably purchased. Now? The A-Bass period.

A-BASSES.

The story is so long that I don't know if I can recount it. In short: Albey Balgochian = world renowned bassist learns how to build custom basses by learning how to build and fix violins -- truly difficult skill, if you consider it. In any event, famous bassists like Stanley Clarke and Foley and Darryl Jones buy those basses and LOVE THEM.  Albey opens up his own company (working closely with Darryl) calling it TADA: A-BASSES.  Ridiculously amazing instruments emerge.  Then, after doing this for a few years, he stops doing it.  Clearly being in the music instrument production business is more hassle than its technically worth -- and, somewhat famously, it was taking time away from his true love: playing. A-Basses is subsequently retired, eventually the Darryl Jones license goes to Lakland for a few years, where it was mega-popular.  Through all this, it is worthy to note that Albey is one of the nicest human beings (and one of the most amazing bassists -- he plays with Jazz legend Cecil Taylor in NYC) alive today. Whether you're hanging and talking about bass, or rapping about afro-cuban funk music or talking about pizza.

Anyway, so I was walking through the East Village one day, where I lived at the time (and hope to live again, soon), headed to oysters and champagne at some bar whose name escapes when I saw an A-Bass sitting in Guitar Man in the East Village -- Albey, who also lived in the East Village had apparently dropped it off, trying to move it out of his inventory.  Specifically, this was a vintage 1996 A-BASS prototype that he had worked on with Darryl as a DJ prototype (later produced by A basses then Laklans). After screaming off to two ATMS to take out enough money to cover it, and the wife's buy-in, this A-BASS was mine.  And it was a doozy.  When I first picked it up, the action was too high, the strings were flatwound, and the thing was HEAVY.  But when I plugged it into the store's small amplifier the thing just sang.  Also, the finish was beautiful and the birds-eye maple neck was like nothing I'd ever seen nor played.  Leo Quan badass bridge.  Basslines pickups.  Hipshot tuners.  All pretty standard fare...but for some reason, with its dings and dents and character, it just fuckin SMOKED.

Since I loved the proto so much, I eventually got the nerve up to reach out directly to Albey, via email, to see about the possibility of having a new, custom bass made. Albey eventually responded and invited me to NYC to discuss the project. He had too of his basses laid out, a fretted and a fretless. We hung for a loooooooooooooong time, talking about music and, of course, bass, and stories about the company and Darryl and Cecil Taylor.  I got the impression that he was sort of interviewing ME for the bass, to see if I was the right "fit" for the instrument.  Of course, he would deny this, but I actually like the fact that you sit down, talk about it, and work it out.  He had tons of materials left over from the old company, and some new stuff, and could put together a bass for me, sure.  In fact, he had one last remaining nitrocellulose hand carved body that he could work on for me.  I, of course, jumped on this after seeing some iphone pix from his studio in Boston.  A down payment was issued. The rest, as they like to say, is history.

The above bass is the freaking AMAZING thing that was produced from this project.  Suffice to say, this picture only partially does it justice.  Not only is it beautiful, a swamp ash body, capped flamed top, Aero Pickups, passive controls, and a rare and unique fretted EBONY fingerboard, but its the best sounding bass I've ever heard in my life.  To hear this roaring through GODZILLA, my 90's vintage Trace Elliot stack (more on that some other time) is like hearing THOR accidentally drop the hammer of the gods from the top of the Empire State Building onto a massive kick drum.  Um. Or something like that.

In any event, to sum this post up, A-Basses are the only basses that can produce the sound in my head. They're the only basses I wanna play because they're perfect. As the logo clearly states, A-Basses SING.