Lady Bass Music News – 4/30/17- part 1

Thanks for joining me here! Things have been busy, so I’ve got quite a few news items to run down. That being said, I think this will be best served as a two-part blog. I’ll try to do this as succinctly as I can. Here goes…

It’s been a great week of news about former students. One student has announced that he is going back to school working on his master’s in composition at Bowling Green State University. Congrats to Stephen Hennessey on that opportunity and decision. I keep hearing great things about his progress through the grapevine.

Another great piece of news from Drew Brunson. I attended his senior recital at VCU a few weeks back and was blown away at his continued growth on double bass. He’s worked very hard and has become an outstanding musician. I was talking to folks in his inner circle at the reception; his roommate and his mother were both commenting on his work ethic. It shows. I’m very, very proud of him. Today, he announced he was accepted on scholarship to grad school at Eastman. Congrats Drew!



Adding to that, Drew’s band, the Dharma Bombs, will be releasing their new CD on May 11th. (If you are in Richmond, swing by the Camel and check it out!).

In other news, my trio rolls back into action on May 6th. The lineup is the mighty Bart Balderson on drums and the talented JB Hope on guitar. We will be playing in a lineup of musicians that includes the looping, grooving, “oh so smooth” sounds of singer-songwriter Scott Varney, Austin Crow, Josh Trump, and Ward Warren. There will be an open stage at the end of the evening, and I know some talent is coming to light the show up. I am seriously looking forward to hearing all these folks perform.

Many thanks to Will Robinson for opening his home to an all-day house concert event we’ve affectionately nicknamed “Will-Stock”. This event is located in Fredericksburg, VA. The event is May 6th, rain date is May 13th. If you’d like to attend, shoot me an inquiry at lady.bass.music@gmail.com and I’ll get you more info.

In other news, I’ve resumed work on this project bass. The (originally) unfinished body came from a builder in Brazil. The neck was harvested off another bass that had clearly taken a beating. I kept the neck and sold the donor body to pay for the neck. Today, I got the bridge mounted. If you want to see “work in progress” pics, check my Facebook or Instagram pages.



Body; burl Brazilian walnut top over Brazilian mahogany with a wet sanded tung oil finish. That took me a bit of practice to learn how to do it so it would look this good. Many thanks to my dad for teaching me how to wet sand car finishes in my teenage years.

Neck; an old Warmoth birdseye maple neck with rosewood board, scalloped brass nut and Schaller tuners.

I’ve never owned a jazz bass before, and I’ve never built a bass before (plenty of guitars though)….so I figured I’d knock two items off the bucket list at once.
I’m waiting for when the rest of the parts arrive to continue working now. The new pickguard, knobs, electronics and the like are all in the mail.

I’ll get part 2 of this news update posted tomorrow or the next day. Stay tuned!


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *