6/8/2024, Sunset Grooves at Beacon Arts Fair

Did a quick jaunt across the water today for a show. A small outdoor arts fair, taking place in a little courtyard off a side street in Seattle. Weather was nice: warm and overcast. I had spent a few hours in the morning doing yardwork, pruning some bushes and trees, and then it was time to jump in the car for a 20-minute drive into town. That went well, except for the 10-minute backup due to a crash on the bridge. But, I digress.

Behind the awning we didn't use. I stood close to where the PA speaker is.

I was pleasantly surprised to have some people show up to the show: Marci, Cass & Kim, Mike & Amy, and then Andi and I think Jen (?). Otherwise, it was whomever was at the fair, people walking around, and the like. There were some folks in the tent and chairs across the way, but overall, turnout was a little sparse.

For the first time in a long time, I had no G&L bass with me. In fact, since I got my SB-2 in 2007, I think I've always had a G&L at a show. The SB-2 was my main bass for close to 12 years, until I got the gold L1K in 2019. Then the Gold was #1 and pretty much still is, despite me getting a second L1K (the Hog) in 2023.

Anyway, today, I brought two Fender Precisions: a black 1999 with Custom Shop 62 pickups and a buttercream 2020 Player with Mojotone 70s Clone pickups. Over the past week or two of owning the butter bass, I have been putting it through its paces at practices and in recording to the PC. I have come to the realization that I just bought a $900 P bass, when the $400 one I had at home sounds nearly the same.

The good news is, they both sound really good. The differences are subtle, but there, and probably not noticeable to anyone but me, and even then, just barely. Regardless of that, though I dialed in the black P, I ended up taking the butter P for its maiden voyage.

The basses and the borrowed gear on the chair behind (TC Electronics > Carvin 15).

After talking to Dusty last week, we were concerned about the sound situation as we learned that the outboard mixer only could do 4 channels or something, and we need 5. After arriving and talking to the sound guy, I decided to not use my IEMs and instead use a floor wedge and earplugs, and then a borrowed TC Electronics head and Carvin 15 for bass stage monitoring. It took a bit to get set up, but we got rolling soon after our glorious 2:30pm start time.

Playing the butter bass is something of a revelation. I am usually a hard hitter on the strings (fingerstyle). I didn't realize it until someone had mentioned it to me on a video or something; I never gave it a second thought, it's just how I play. With the butter bass, the action is low, which means any super hard hitting is mega noisy, which for some of the yacht rock songs, is a no-no. With IEMs, it allows me to play lighter, but without them today, I definitely played lighter anyway. My hands aren't as tired afterward and I feel all powerful when I do it, it's hard to explain.

Additionally, those Mojotone pickups have really sharp corners to them. No rounding like the MFD G&L pups, and the Fender CS pickups seem to be a little less sharp. Something about these Mojotones is very unique and though I probably won't cut myself on the edge of the pickup (it is plastic, after all), it's a little uncomfortable to hit it too hard, so I'll be careful.

Playing without the IEMs wasn't too bad today. My earplugs allowed me to tune into my inner voice when singing, and the floor wedge helped to support that as well. Surprisingly, the Carvin 15 and the TCE were super adequate behind me. I didn't have it too loud, as I didn't want to blast it out in the crowd, so I did have to stay in certain sweet spots to have best monitoring of my bass.

And that bass sounded really great! With my Zoom B2Four on the floor, I have a different sound or amp mod dialed in for each song. Overall, I felt great about how it sounded through the Carvin into my earplugs. It was sort of a "set and forget" type scenario, which was awesome! No goofing around with knobs or anything, just play and sing and enjoy the day.

We had a few dancers and got a few tips. We will get paid in the next few days for a few hours of our time today and I think it was well worth it. It may not result in future shows, but we got great feedback and it's always super fun to debut a new bass, play some great tunes, and be outside to enjoy the fresh air.

Unbeknownst to me, the butter bass matched the yellow in my shirt perfectly!