Weekly schedule updates, Celebrating twelve years of Spector in my life, and how I almost owned a red Euro5LX instead of a blue Euro6LX

And, it’s Wednesday again! Time for the upcoming schedule. Here’s where you’ll find me in the coming weeks…

NEW BOOKING – Saturday 9/21 – NOVA – The Ashleigh Chevalier Band – LNB Tap House & Grille, 5351 Merchants View Sq, Haymarket, VA 20169, USA

10/11 – 10/13 – Lady Bass Gear will be vending at the Richmond Folk Festival. Stay tuned for details! -www.richmondfolkfestival.org

Month of November 2019 – looks like I’ll be the bassist for UMW Theater’s production of Fun Home. Shows are on; 11/6 (Pay what you can preview), then 11/7-11/10, 11/14 – 11/17, 11/21 – 11/24.

NEW BOOKING – 12/14 – playing bass for The Spotsylvanians Community Chorus – 7:00pm

NEW BOOKING – 12/14 – The Ashleigh Chevalier Band – The Colonial Tavern “Holiday Ham” – 406 Lafayette Blvd, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 – 9 PM

NEW BOOKING – 12/15 – playing bass for The Spotsylvanians Community Chorus – 2:30pm

Also of note to folks local to me; Soften the Glare is coming back to the area, so I want to give them a shout out here….looking forward to seeing them play again! #warwickfamily #softentheglare

Sept 21 Riffhouse – Chesapeake, VA

Sept. 27 Bull Cock & Swine – Stafford, VA

Sept. 28 Orion Studios – Baltimore, MD

Last week, I celebrated two one year artist anniversaries with Nitewalker Bass Guitar Tube Preamps and GHS strings. Earlier this week, Ananda had her “birthday”…well, her adoption day into this household.

And this popped today in my Facebook Memories. Twelve years ago, today, I brought my first Spector bass home from Chuck Levin’s Washington Music. This is the blue Spector Euro6LX that has become my number one bass.

And interesting story here; the first Spector that *could* have come home was a beautiful red Euro5LX. I found that one first at Chuck’s AND I loved the tone. I was seriously considering dropping the 6th string over this Spector Euro5LX I had found. My current bass at the time was a heavily modded Ibanez 6 string.

I hesitated on putting the red Euro on layaway because I wasn’t sure how I’d come up with that kind of cash. I called the store 2 days later and the red Euro was already gone. The pain of regret set in…lesson learned. So I went on the Washington Music website and found a pic of a Euro6LX bass…it wasn’t on the floor when I visited. Apparently it was in storage in a back room. The photo was a badly overexposed picture, so the bass was a very unflattering shade of washed out greyish purple. But it was a 6 string and it was the same model. And the pic was obviously a bad pic…but I had no idea how bad it actually was or wasn’t. So I made the call to ensure it was in stock, and then drove out. 90 minutes later, Tim Fizer, the sales person who worked with me, brought the case out and opened it. I was so pleasantly surprised at the beautiful blue/purple/plum/indigo chameleon shades that greeted me…it almost seemed to change colors with the lighting. Blackish blue in dim lighting, all the way to tropical ocean blues in stronger light.

I plugged it in, and was even more pleasantly surprised. This had all the mojo of the red Euro5LX with the configuration I preferred. People were stopping by the bass department to hear me play. Case closed…this one was NOT getting away. I put $100 down and left, and wondered how I was going to manage to pay this thing off. Various doors opened over the next few months. The salesperson at Chuck Levins helped out. He let me know I had a good build year on the Jack Casady bass I already owned…I had a model made in Korea prior to the manufacturing plant moving to Indonesia. I sold the Jack for what I paid on it. The parents of a student purchased the Ibanez 6 string, so I know that went to a good home. Finally, the sales person realized I worked at Pickers Supply after I dropped the $100 downpayment. While I signed the paperwork, Tim was flipping my credit card over in his hand, looking it over. I was starting to wonder if there was a problem. I handed him my paperwork and he said, “Why didn’t you say it was you…that’s not the price you’ll be paying for this bass. I’ll call you Monday with the real price.”

Apparently he had been talking on the phone to my manager at my store (Pickers Supply) days prior to me purchasing this bass. My manager, Pete Mealey, had been giving me rave reviews, so Tim treated me as an employee at his own store. I sold some basses, including that coveted Jack. Then my grandfather passed, leaving me a gold coin that I sold to help fund this purchase) and it came home. Lastly, Tim handed off a Spector gig bag after I completed the purchase. Everyone who helped in some way with this bass coming home signed the backplate.

This is from the day it came home…

Little did I realize this instrument arrived at the beginning of the many adventures that were soon to follow. That bass has traveled all over the country with me in overhead bins on airplanes, in the back seat of rental cars, and as a passenger in two incarnations of SuperVans! Version 1 (dark green) and version 2.0 (the current red Dodge SXT). This bass has paid for itself many times over, and has run like a tank. The neck rarely and barely moves no matter what part of the country we fly to.

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As always, many, MANY thanks to all the companies who support me in my endeavors…Spector basses, NS Design, LightWave basses/Willcox Guitars, Warwick amplification, Gizmotron LLC, Lathon Bass Wear, Nordstrand pickups, and Guardian Pro Cables.

Thanks for making it to the end of this post, and hopefully I’ll see you at a show…let’s make some memories! Much gratitude to everyone who made it out to last week’s shows – Alex Rodríguez, Chris Welborn, Caroline Ayers, Karen Young, Joseph Miller and Anna, my college roommate Matt Jones, his fabulous wife Nancy Jones, and a whole crew of new friends they brought with them to the Cider fest. I do know it’s hard to get out to a show when folks have so much to do anymore…so thanks for making the time and coming out!


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