Legendary: Bass of Doom and day 32

It is no secret that Jaco was a troubled man.  Mentally unstable and an abuser of drugs, Jaco's reputation for being troubled was only matched by his virtuosity as a bass player.  In a spark of this inspiration, he pulled the frets out of his Fender with a butter knife, filled in the holes with plastic wood, and then coated the board with epoxy.  He had just invented the modern Fretless bass.

I waited to talk about this bass till after I had said something about the "Tool" vs "Art" views people have on instruments.  Jaco definitely fell in the "tool" category.  All he cared about was the sound that it made, and so he had several basses over the years depending on the sound he wanted.  His most famous though was a 1962 jazz that he defretted, now called "The Bass of Doom".  Jaco was reported to have drug it around by its headstock, letting the body scrape on concrete and tile floors.

In the mid-60's, the broadcast company CBS bought the Fender company and started running it like any other business.  They started gutting out the higher quality parts and started substituting bulk supplies of wood, cheaper grade hardware, and cutting corners on assembly.  The 1962 that Jaco played was a Pre-CBS Fender, of which the Jazz bass is the rarer type, as the P-bass, Stratocaster, and Telecaster had been made in the 50's, and in higher numbers.  It is of the most valuable and expensive bass types in the world.


Shortly before Jaco met his death, his bass was reportedly stolen from a park bench in New York.  Jaco was never one to cherish the instrument, and simply left it there while he did other things.  The bass disappeared for many years until someone brought it into a shop in 2007 to sell it for some cash.



How did the bass disappear so easily?  Well it was almost always photographed in its 70's and 80's condition.  In 1986 the bass was broken into chunks.  For five months a luthier put it back together.  They had to use maple vaneers on the top and back of the body to add stability.  This radically changed the look of it.  There were also other rumors.  There was confusion over if the bass had been lightly spray painted purple by the mentally unstable musician in his later years.  Also, there were many look alikes by the early 90's, as the color was common, and so were the modifications that Jaco had popularized.

The guitar resurfaced and Jaco's family went to court to get it back.  The most recent bassist for Metallica was a huge Jaco fan, and spared no expense to help the legal proceedings go toward the family of Jaco.  It is still owned by him, though the family can buy it back at any time for the price Robert Trujillo payed the family.  It is reported that Robert has let many of Jaco's famous followers come over to admire and play the bass.

Day 32

I"m continuing to make progress in my chord work.  I'm picking up the chords fast, but being able to switch between them accurately or fast enough for a song is taking time.  I am doing better than I ever imagined I would, but then again chords have always been the bane of my music progression.

I have an envelope filter that I bought for use with my bass guitar.  It is a cheap one, but regarded well among several people since it can be used for bass or guitar.  Years ago was the last time I plugged it into my guitar, and I don't think I got a single usable or musical sound out of that combination.  That's why it took me years to try it again.  I'm happy to say that my skills have definitely improved since the last time.  I had a lot of fun with it, and its definitely something I plan to do more often to lighten my spirits.  An envelope filter is sort of like an auto-wah.  It is dynamic in its execution, so if you pick hard, you get a quick and snappy "womp" but if you pick lightly and slow you get a "woooooooomphh".  If you mute the strings, you get a sort of poppy sound like opening a wine bottle.  Its an essential sound for funk.

I have begun to find power chord areas on the neck that I really like and sound decent through a clean, kind of acoustic setting.  I'm mainly saving these sounds in my head for when I don't have to substitute power chords, and use real chords.  Its a kind of "saving for later" thing I guess.  I have a few sound recordings of things from before this Rocksmith challenge started, and as I have progressed, so too have these sound recordings progressed.  They've gone from a wide open, tons of incorrect notes, to a more focused, smaller amount of incorrect notes.  Still, I think they are sounding better as time goes.