Yamaha manufactured a range of great full-hollowbody guitars and basses loosely based on the Gibson ES-335 in the late 60's and early 70's. Many of these nearly identical instruments can be found re-branded under other names, but the Yamaha's seemed to be trimmed out much nicer! Build quality has always been pretty great in Japan, but these older instruments really are incredible compared to other production instruments of the time. Serial #'s of the era aren't as consistent as I'd like, but it appears this instrument was built between 1968 and 1972.

This SA70 model features two humbucking pickups, full binding (body, headstock, neck and f-holes), deluxe neck inlays and robust open gear tuning machines. A unique feature of the SA line are the f-hole inserts: The holes have an internally mounted, thin-plastic membrane which helps to reduce feedback at low volumes. It also keeps a lot of dust and debris out of the body cavity! The short scale and subtly tapered neck make it an easy player! The fully adjustable floating bridge has a metal cover perfect for holding foam for a more 'muted' tone!  

This SA70 has style for days! What initially caught my eye was the sharp, Rickenbacker-esque body horns and the great pearloid inlays!

I did invert the bridge pickup to move the polepieces further from the bridge. This simple modification added noticeable 'oomph' to better match the neck pickups' broad tone. Otherwise, the only changes I made were the foam in the bridge and a set of D'Addario Chromes flatwounds!

Tonally, it covers a lot of ground from thumpy neck-pickup "old school' to hollow 'tic-tac' type tones with a pick and favoring the bridge pickup! It's also possible to manipulate the effect of the foam mute by adding pressure to the metal bridge cover.

For a bass that's over 40 years old, it really has aged well & everything still works perfectly! The 'pickup balancer' works backwards from convential pan pots, but this is consistent for Yamaha SA's from this time period. 

 A super fun bass to play & a great vintage 'find'! (This is one of the least expensive instrument purchases I've ever made!) 

Dig that asymmetrical headstock and huge tuning buttons!

Basic sound clips! All clips direct to ProTools through nothing but an Aguilar DB900 Direct Box. No eq, compression or post processing on anything you hear.

1st Neck Pickup. Big, full and naturally wooly!

2nd Bridge Pickup. Same lick, but with the bridge pickups brighter and pointier tone.

3rd 50/50 blend of both pickups in context of a track I threw together. Bass mixed far too loud to hear the instrument better!

Tech Talk:

No longer in Production.

Strung up with D'Addario ECB81 Chromes Flatwounds at D'Addario

If I've settled upon an argument for new strings (see below what exactly I mean by "new").  It's probably best summed up thusly: "I can easily make a new string sound convincingly 'old' but I haven't yet found a way to make an old string sound convincingly 'new'!"  Yeah, yeah, yeah...there's always plenty of these lying around!- I know there's no way to make a brand new string feel and sound exactly like a 20-year old set of flatwounds, but I can get close enough that no one's going to be able to tell above the cacophony of those darned electric guitars! ;-)   A little careful eq (via my homemade "super-secret" passive tone box - details coming soon...) and attentive right hand technique & I can make my freshly-strung Jazz Bass sound old-school in a heartbeat!  Plus, I can pivot on my heels and have a bright, modern 'stringy' sound ready to go without ever putting the instrument down!  That's the benefit of a fresh string, baby!

Now what exactly do I mean about "new" strings?  Well, honestly, I usually don't love the sound of bass strings just minutes after installation.  I'd estimate it takes me (with my technique and less acidic sweat) an hour or two of playing time on a set of Nickel Roundwounds before I think they're in the 'perfect' state:  Bright and modern, but with a full fundamental and stable in terms of tuning.  Flatwounds are an exception, in my opinion - they sound great at first, but keep getting better for months!  Eventually flats settle into a pretty perfect equilibrium before they just get too stretched out to intonate well.  Depending on playing frequency and environmental factors (hot summer festival sets come to mind with sweat pouring all over the poor defenseless strings!), I'll probably change most of my roundwound-strung basses every 3 or 4 months.  Flatwounds, on the other hand, last at least 2-3 years or more for me (sometimes, much more!).  I love flats, but they just aren't perfect for as many styles/genres/situations as roundwounds are. 

As you may already have noticed- I am an enthusiastic D'Addario string endorser!  I've been given strings at one point or another by just about every major string manufacturer, but I keep going back to D'Addario's.  They have a reliable, very consistent product and make just about any kind of string for any instrument.  I use a wide variety of D'Addario's starting with my favorite all-purpose "go-to" XL Nickel Roundwound bass strings.  D'Addario Chromes are my flatwound of choice for their incredible stability and bright, scooped tone when settled in.  I've just recently started experimenting with D'Addario Halfrounds on my hollowbody Ibanez (see Gear Review: Ibanez AGB140 Bass) & I really dig them!  I've also switched over to a new product on my acoustic bass guitar: D'Addario EXP Reds coated copper-plated strings (available soon): An outstanding coated string with a distinct "earthy" sound!  Watch for a column on my heavily modified Epiphone Rivoli using D'Addario Black Nylon Tapewounds, they really should be the standard string on any short-scale hollowbody bass!  I also use a variety of other D'Addario guitar strings such as Pro-Arte' classical nylon strings, EXP 16 coated acoustic strings and various XL Nickel Roundwounds for electric guitars.

There's only one special case in my instrument arsenal that has "old" strings on it - a 1978 Fender maple-board fretless.  For whatever reason, the decades old monel-steel flatwound strings tht came on it just work great on that particular instrument.  I actually re-strung the bass when I bought it, played it with the new strings for a couple of days & then fished the old strings out of the trash!  There's just some weird x-factor with that bass & those old, dirty strings that works best.

Bottom line?  New bass strings just have more tonal options than old bass strings.  In an industry that demands a chameleon-like ability to jump from old-school to new-school sounds at the drop of a hat, new strings make it possible!

Ibanez makes an extremely affordable line of archtopped hollow and semi-hollow guitars and basses.  This 'Artcore' line is surprisingly varied and one of the most consistent values in the current new instrument market.  This AGB140 bass cost me less than $300 brand new!  What first attracted me to the bass was honestly purely aesthetics- the bound f-holes, single cutaway and transparent rootbeer finish all just plain looked cool & different.  The single humbucking pickup in an odd position also intrigued me as to how the instrument might sound...

 As it turned out, the bass has a very cool, roots-rock tone!  The humbucking pickup is very powerful (it's entirely passive but has a much lower impedance than typical humbuckers) and has a strong midrange emphasis.  Honestly, the instrument is a bit of a 'one-trick pony', but it's a good trick!  The artcore fits well in rock contexts and works particularly well with overdrive and distortion.  Being a semi-hollow instrument (there is a solid centerblock) it doesn't feedback uncontrollably & howl - but it does sustain more and interact when you get up close to a loud amp.  Bitchin'!

The Artcore line's construction at these extremely low price-points really is remarkable.  The finish, binding and hardware were all perfect off the showroom floor.  You really get a lot for your money!  I did, however, need to overhaul the electronics with a proper bridge ground, better pots and a higher value tone cap.  The last 4 or 5 frets in the treble register also needed to be leveled down a bit (typical with glued-in set necks).

Speaking of the neck - it's worth noting that playing this bass feels, well,... weird!  It features a standard long scale (34" from bridge to nut) but the body is somewhat compact and the neck joins it at the 17th fret.  The archetypal Fender style bass joins at approximately the 11th fret (based on the upper horn extension).  This adds up to make this Ibanez feel very long.  I doubt a shorter or younger player would really take well to this Artcore bass.  I'm 6'4" with particularly gangly limbs & I still feel like I'm stretching to play a low 'F'!

I recently tried some D'Addario Half Round strings on this bass & I love them!  They retain the same rocking attack with a pick, but lend a slightly darker response when plucked fingerstyle compared to regular round wounds while sustaining more than true flat wound strings.  This AGB140 was just a tad too 'bright' sounding & the Half Rounds compensated perfectly!

Tech Talk:

The AGB140 is no longer made, but there are a couple of short-scale basses currently in manufacture: Ibanez Artcore Basses

Sporting a set of D'Addario ENR71SL Half Rounds: At D'Addario.com

This is an ash-bodied 5-string Precision with maple neck and deluxe appointments including ultralight tuning machines, abalone inlays, deluxe bridge and an active 3-band onboard eq.  This particular Deluxe Precision 5 is one of the earliest Fender made with Bill Lawrence pickups, a 9 volt preamp and 5-in-a-line tuning machines.  I love that I have an example with the 5-in-line headstock- it looks a little more 'classic Fender' than the 4+1 arrangement adopted soon after.

The obvious departure from a 'normal' P-Bass (other than the extra string) is the big humbucking double-J style pickup in the bridge position!. This extra pickup is what drew me to the bass in the first place.  It has a unique, very un-Fender'ish sound quality to it.  Burpy (like a Jazz bridge pickup), but very throaty and aggressively mid-forward.  It has a bit of the 'jazz fusion' type voice to it, but with a fuller bottom end.  While definitely not a pickup for a classic Fender-tone purist, the Lawrence bridge humbucker has a great sound that's very much all its' own!  

While the extra humbucking pickup is sort of the Precision Deluxe's hallmark, the neck-position split-p pickup is totally traditional.  Ever since modding the instrument myself (see below), the stock neck pickup retains all of the nuance, authority and thump that Precision pickups are known for.  It's a great sounding bass with 2 very distinct voices!

I recently swapped out the stock active-only Fender 3 band preamp with an aftermarket Aguilar OBP-3 onboard preamp.  The new preamp retains the same basic control scheme as the original Fender unit- but with a couple of additions:

a) The Aguilar pre has a push/pull switch on the volume pot that puts the entire instrument into passive (no preamp) operation.  I definitely prefer how passive basses interface better with pedals, preamps and other outboard gear.  Installing the passive option on this bass not only gave it better compatibility with 'traditional' outboard gear, but it also made the neck pickup sound much more like a normal, old 4-string Precision pickup!  

b) I wired my Aguilar OBP-3 with 2 selectable mid-band eq centers (again, via push/pull pot).  The Aguilar lets you shift between either 400hz or 800hz.  I believe the original Fender pre in this bass was centered close to 400hz, which when cut significantly made the output very low and it's broad 'q' lost too much punch.  The Aguilar's narrower 'q' and selectable frequency makes the preamp a lot more useable in context!  the Bill Lawrence double-j humbucking pickup

Tech Talk:

Identical model no longer available, but the current evolution of the Deluxe Precision is:  see the new model at Fender

Aftermarket Aguilar OBP-3 Preamp:  read about it at the Aguilar website

Strung up with D'Addario XL-170-5 Roundwounds of course!  D'Addario.com

This stack-knob is now my main touring bass, as well as seeing a lot of session duties.  The early 60's "stack knob" arrangement (dual volume & tone) adds a second capacitor which lends a subtly 'darker' overall tone to the bass.  I generally run everything wide-open and it sounds amazing!  Tight, punchy and a little less aggressive than my '57 Precision - plus I can dial in that archetypal bridge pickup 'burpy-tone' that lots of bassists dig, but I usually stay away from (personal taste).

I played a lot of Jazz basses before I found this one.  I even played many of this identical model, but for some reason the neck on this instrument just felt perfect in my hands.  It's a little deeper, but still narrow at the nut- slightly more 'U' shaped than 'C' in cross-section.  I don't usually play with the covers installed (picture above), but it certainly 'classes things up' for photo's & let's face it- I need all the classing-up I can get! ;-)

While I haven't owned this '62 reissue very long, it has accompanied me on many shows across the U.S., Canada and Europe.  Despite increasingly cro-magnon treatment by airline baggage personnel, she's held up beautifully and rarely requires neck adjustments due to changing climates.  That's a relief with such a thin neck! (Pun-intended for the tech-oriented among you!)

I haven't experimented much with aftermarket pickups yet on this Jazz & I really love the darker sounding electronics, so I think they'll stay.  I have, however, installed one of these ingenious Hipshot detuners on the 'E' string. (note tuning key with additional lever below) It's a clever little device that changes the tuning instantly & accurately of the string it's connected to.  I generally keep it tuned so that it drops my 'E' to 'D' with a flick of the lever.  It's more of a live-performance convenience when I either want to hit a big, deep low note at the end of a song, or am playing a tune that has guitar-driven drop-D licks.  The device functions perfectly & lowers and returns the pitch accurately in a fraction of a second.  There's a trick to setting the detuner up, but it's easy and detailed in the installation directions that come with detuner.  The engineers at Hipshot make really useful devices for bass and electric guitar that function well, are intelligently designed and even open up creative potential on the instrument.  Hipshot is also great at returning emails and phone calls regarding installation and they offer custom modifications when needed.  

There's really only 2 basses that a professional working bassist needs, in my opinion- a good Precision and a good Jazz bass.  My Fenders are serving me well on stages and studios around the world.  I'm thankful to have them!

Tech Talk:

American Vintage Reissue '62 Jazz

check it out at Fender.com

 Strung up with D'Addario XL170 Nickel Roundwounds 

at D'Addario

 Utilizing the Hipshot BT3... Check out the line of Hipshot Bass Xtender keys

at Hipshot Products, Inc

 I also use Schaller-style straplocks on all of my performing basses:

now distributed by Fender

I recently upgraded this bass with a set of Jason Lollar's great sounding replacement vintage-style pickups. It's the same essential tone, but clearer, louder and with a lot more low end! 

Lollar Pickups

Charting songs is one of my most ubiquitous tasks as a 'hired-gun' bassist.  It seems I exist in a constant loop of performance, recording, charting, performance, recording, charting...  Charts, if you're not "in the know", are basically a musical shorthand road-map that allows a player to quickly digest what's happening in a song that they aren't very familiar with and enable them to play along in real-time.  Charts are indispensable in recording sessions and used far more than you'd guess in live concerts (the art of using charts in a live performance is learning to use them so the audience has no idea at all that you are!).  For the record, I'm a compulsive 'over-preparer', but sometimes I simply don't have the time to memorize dozens of songs for an impromptu, one-off concert.  As my friend & colleague Andy Gurley says: "They won't remember if you used charts, but they WILL remember if you screwed up!". Good point, Andy!  It's worth mentioning that I use and recommend the Nashville Numbers System when charting.  It's an excellent system for virtually all popular styles of music!

The GT-R1 combines, in a single unit, a bunch of tools that make learning music extremely easy and convenient!  It has a decent stereo microphone for capturing rehearsals or for recording song ideas as they form.  It only takes a few seconds to power up & start recording.  You can even overdub additional parts on top of your recorded track.  The GT-R1 also lets you plug in & use headphones- again to record, play along with music on the device, or just practice.  A full suite of amp emulation lets you get a decent tone and there is a feature-packed metronome with pretty great drum patterns to play along with in a myriad of styles.  The built-in tuner is accurate and convenient.  The GT-R1 really shines in it's ability to play back music you are learning at different speeds (without changing the pitch).  It also can transpose what you are listening to into any key!  An easy to use 'loop' feature is helpful when learning tricky passages.  Tascam pretty much thought of everything!

As I stated above, the GT-R1 falls into the "jack of all trades master of none" category.  It's sound quality is good, but not amazing;  it's metronome is robust, but there is no tappable tempo; the amp emulations are serviceable, but not inspiring; etc...  Still, this little box does so much & does these tasks well!  The battery life is very long and can either charge plugged into the wall or over USB.  The GT-R1 has a removable sd card for even more flexibility and storage options.

Overall, the Tascam makes my life as a professional musician much easier!  I used to have to bring a separate mp3 player, headphone amp & laptop if I wanted to accomplish everything that this hand-held unit does.  It's truly amazing!

Tech Talk

Tascam GT-R1 available online or stores everywhere!  product details at Tascam

My GT-R1 on the job!

That right there is 300 all-tube watts being pushed through two 15" pa speakers (I blew up the original drivers long ago and replaced them with the burliest replacements I could find - see tech talk below).  It's as loud and mean as it looks!  I do a tune-up (biasing, clean out the coarse debris) about once a year in my garage.  I usually knock a lot of stuff off the shelves- I may have taken a few serviceable years off of the water heater in the garage as well!

I'll be honest, Fender wasn't my first choice for bass amplification.  Even after securing an endorsement deal from them around '98, I didn't even think of asking for an amp.  That all changed after playing a big street festival in Memphis in 1999.  Fender was sponsoring the event & supplied all of the backline amplification.  Around that time, Fender had just acquired the SUNN brand & all of it's designs.  They had one of these set-ups on stage & I fell in love instantly!!! Originally branded 'SUNN', Fender soon re-badged them as the Fender Bassman Pro series.

This Fender 300pro and 2x15 cabinet isn't just loud, it also has tone for days!  Despite it's insanely intricate preamp design (usually not a good thing), it really has a phenomenally 'classic' fundamental tone.  Broad, warm and unusually immediate for an all-tube amp.  The 300pro's clean channel is actually, well,... CLEAN!  Many bassists used to SVT's distorting at high volume are usually surprised at the headroom that the Fender has.  

Then there's the blendable 2nd 'dirty' channel.  It's aggressive, folks!  At higher gain settings, it actually get's fuzzy (in a good way).  Coupled with the 300pro's ability to blend in an infinitely variable mix of the clean channel- you've got magic.  I can go from a stout, warm clean sound to a nice lightly-overdriven purr and then all the way to all-out crunchy sag!  It's great, it works and it's footswitch controllable.

The eq is very powerful, but I rarely use it.  The flat settings just sound great as is.  Sometimes in a boomy room I might roll off some lows, but usually it just sits right flat.  I use the 300pro's dual-band compressor section to limit the highs a bit.  The di output works great & sounds clean, but I prefer using an independent di (see future post on my custom DHA di).

This remains my primary touring & mid-to-large stage setup.  Unfortunately, the Fender 300pro isn't as ubiquitous as it should be - so when I fly I usually rent a classic SVT stack.  I'm always psyched when the backline rental provider has my 300pro though!  It's a killer bass amp!

Tech Talk

Fender Bassman 300pro check it out at Fender 

Fender 215pro cabinet (loaded with Eminence KappaPro drivers) newer version available now!   

Sort of "uprighty", but with a very focused bottom end and exhibiting a little bit of the classic fretless 'mwahhhh', it's a rather versatile instrument.  I've used it on a bunch of recordings, but it travels well so I've used it live quite a bit too.  Unplugged, the El Capitan actually has decent volume.  It's enough to practice with, mic up and even be audible with another guitarist.  The stock Epi/Shadow electronics sound great and balanced with a very effective 5-band eq.

This is easily the largest-bodied bass I own.  It can be a bear to get your right arm around!  Luckily, I've got long limbs!  I went through a bunch of strings with this bass, but ultimately really like the tone of the D'Addario Chromes flats that I have on it.  The Chromes are higher tension than typical bass guitar strings, but they help the instrument 'speak' a little better.  I had been gradually lowering the action at the bridge saddle to help playability, but some tone and volume started to suffer, so I shimmed it up a bit with a hard plastic shim Epiphone provided.  It's a bit of a tradeoff of tone vs. playability, but worth it.

This is actually the 2nd identical El Capitan fretless I've had.  The original that I purchased in '97 had the neck broken off by airline baggage handlers.  I had an Epiphone deal at the time of the 'airline incident' & they were more than happy to swap out a whole new instrument for me.  Remarkably after over 15 years on the road, millions of miles and hundreds of flights - I've only had 2 instruments damaged during travel.  Not bad!

While not an expensive or rare instrument, this El Capitan is one of the few instruments I'd never part with.  I've recorded some great music with it and played some memorable shows on it. Here's hoping that the airlines have mercy on it!Matt Slocum & I "keeping it classy"!

Tech Talk:

Epiphone El Capitan Fretless   still available from Epiphone

Strung with D'Addario ECB81 Chromes Flatwounds    at D'Addario

This is what I end up recording with probably 85% of the time.

When I first got my Fender deal (1999 I believe), the first thing I asked for was a P-bass.  Every serious bass player needs a Fender Precision, so this was a no-brainer!  Somehow I'd already been playing for about 7 years without one.

Maybe a week after I picked up the bass from Fender, it went straight into the studio to record "There She Goes" with Sixpence.  The bass sounded great straight out of the box!   

There's just something undeniably "right" about the way a P-bass sits in most music.  They aren't the most sophisticated or 'flashy' instrument, but they work!  I would guess that more than half of all popular commercial music has been tracked with a Fender Precision.  Despite having just one pickup and the simplest tone control, you really can easily coax virtually any texture you need.

This '57 P Reissue has a particularly aggressive voice.  It really wants to rock!  Playing with a pick feels perfect with it's wide-C, 50's shaped neck.  Even when toned down and muted it still speaks with authority.  At the same time, it works great on sensitive songs.  I really enjoy playing the '57 on ballads, it creates a wonderful tension - almost like riding an edge where the instrument wants to take off on you, but you have to focus to keep it reined in!

If I had to choose 1 bass and only 1 bass to have, it would definitely be this one!  A Precision can really do just about anything & I'm fortunate to have acquired a really good one.

Tech Talk:

Stock American Vintage Reissue '57 Precision.  check it out at Fender.com

Strung up with D'Addario XL170 Nickel Roundwounds.  at D'Addario

I briefly installed a Lindy Fralin pickup, but quickly switched back to the stock Fender pickup.  The Fralin sounded good, but too "polite".  The bass lost a little of its' aggressive midrange.  Other than a set of Schaller strap locks, it's just like the day I picked it up factory-fresh.

There's certainly a temptation to equate great equipment with great tone and playing.  Honestly, I don't think that is entirely accurate or balanced.  A mediocre player with an incredible instrument is still going to sound mediocre!  On the other hand, a great instrument or device can open up creative and tonal potential that wasn't there before.

I could walk onstage at a Clapton soundcheck, pick up his guitar and play through his rig.  I know I wouldn't sound anything like Eric Clapton.  Conversely, I'm confident that Eric could plug my $80 pawn shop hollowbody guitar into a clock radio & instantly sound great & entirely like himself.  Of course, his musical vocabulary would be limited to the choices that this particular setup limits him.  This 'limitation' can actually be super-cool and generate great results, by the way!

All this is to say that while I am devoting a series of articles to various guitars, amps, pedals, etc... I don't think that gear matters any more than the player.  Arguably, the player is far more important!

I plan on continuing to update this section of justinoscarcary.com with pictures, descriptions, anecdotes and soundclips of various pieces of gear that I use regularly or am reviewing.  I hope you find some value and entertainment from them.