Silver bass post practice report

Before heading to rehearsal tonight, I played the IS bass a little. Yesterday, after I took it apart and put it back together, I plugged in and found that the input jack was a little weird. The signal was super low, despite it playing fine earlier in the night. I fussed around with it and it seemed fine.

When I tried it again tonight, it did it again. I had to crank both my Ashdown and Orange amps to hear it, which wasn't right. I tried a different cable and got the same result. It wasn't until I jiggled the 1/4" end that I heard the full signal.

I had dinner in the stove so I took my e-screwdriver (what a delight to have) and undid 13 screws in no time at all. I redid the washer and nut for the jack, moving the textured washer underneath the pickguard (I didn't clock where that went yesterday when I put it back together). After that, I put it back together and tried and it was fine. All fixed, I guess.

I ended up taking Goldie as a backup in case the jack fritzed out at practice. (dinner was fine, btw: Costco black cod in the oven)

Rehearsal was fine. Robb was a little tired and it showed in his playing; I think his brain was fried (he said so himself). We were all super loud, but none of that mattered because the new P sounded very good. It seemed to ring clear and true, and I really liked that. The intonation may be a little wonky, some notes sounded a little pitchy at times, so I'll check that out before the show.

As I thought, it was a little neck divey, but while I'm playing, it doesn't matter. It's when I'm not playing, but it's easy enough to put a hand on it to keep it steady.

I may have to pick up a new strap for it this weekend, will hit up Guitar Center or something. I don't like the b/w Fender strap I got with the MIM P a few years ago.

Overall, the bass was great and I will be excited to play it at the Embers show on Saturday. Maybe I'll switch out the pick guard for the black one... who knows??

NBD: 1997 Fender American Standard Precision Bass

Long story short, had some gig money and wanted a new bass. I wrote about it here: The Waiting is the Hardest Part.

It finally arrived today, after a lot of impatience by me. And even then, I had to wait a few hours to get home to check it out. Luckily it was sunny and warm out, and the front entry wasn't in full sun. Nevertheless, I got home and brought it in and opened it up.

Shipping delayed one day because seller had to find a box

Original Fender case from 1997

Inca Silver straight out of the case

Back side looking great!

After dinner and watching the Seahawks look crappy until halftime, I took the bass downstairs to give it a closer look. I did play it and it sounded like a P bass. The seller had some zingy roundwounds on it and they sounded fine. Volume and tone knobs turned smoothly and without issue.

The body is pretty spectacular. There is a little mark just under the neck plate, there's a finish scratch right under where my right arm would rest when playing, and that's about it. No major dings or blemishes. The headstock has a little marking on it and maybe a few nicks, but for a nearly 30 year old bass? It is in excellent shape, very happy with its condition.

I did take it apart to look it over more in depth, let's take a look.

Neck pocket date, June 25, 1997!

Can't really make it out, but maybe June 11, 1997?

It was a little furry under the bridge, so I took it off

Backside of the bridge

Used some guitar cleaner to get off the gunk

The cavity wasn't shielded at all, but the bass is quiet so I left it

My apprentice was blocking my workbench

After cleaning it up and playing a bit

First impression of the bass when I picked it up was how heavy it was! Weirdly so! But when I picked up the buttercream P, it felt the same in my hand. However, when I strapped up the new P, it definitely neck dived. Just hanging it on my shoulder and releasing my hands, that guy wants to point at the floor like a divining rod. But once I played it, it wasn't a big deal.

Speaking of playing it, the action was pretty low. For a heavy-handed player like me, I think it was a little *too low. I raised the saddles a half-turn on each allen screw and that seemed to make it better. I didn't touch the truss rod yet as the neck appears pretty straight via the eye test. Just playing through the Orange amp, it sounded great. All notes seemed to ring true and the string-through bridge offered nice sustain.

I do like the red tort pickguard but I might have to pick up a matte black pickguard to swap out down the road. We'll see. Looking forward to playing it with Embers tomorrow night and possibly at the gig. Let's see how it does!

Stereo Embers back at it!

Since the Embers stopped playing together, we've been keeping in touch. Timmy joined Planets earlier this year for a few songs and now we're in full swing for our reunion show, next Saturday, at the Sunset.

Tim had reached out a few months ago to see how we felt about it; we'd be playing with Seola Station and Golden West (with Kim Virant, Kathy Moore and Patrick Porter, among others). I felt a little goofy about having a reunion show for a band that was broken up for only 4 years, but I guess people wanted us, so that's sort of cool.

The show at Conor Byrne with Tim went pretty well, we sold it out, after all! He jumped on for a few Embers tunes and then played Holiday Daydream with us. It was fine and fun. Since then, we've been in touch, really ramping up the last few weeks. We've been discussing a set list, but the truth is, it's not like we have 30 songs to choose from. We'll get a set for maybe 14 songs at most, so we'll play all the regular songs, but are also dusting off some songs I never did with the guys, like Tomorrow, Nearly Forgotten Show and Ways of the World.

Last night, we met up at Tim's space in Belltown and ripped through 8 or 9 songs. I got to play through Andy Stoller's huge GK rig, with 2 410s stacked on top of each other. I brought ol' Goldie along and it sounded so aggro with some overdrive. As usual, we were super loud, but it felt great to dust off the songs and hang with the boys.

We played each song twice, except JYD and Boom. We'll hit the rest of the set tomorrow night and likely go top to bottom a few times next week. And by the time we go next Tuesday, hoping to have the new bass on hand to get some reps!

I recorded last night's stuff and it was definitely fine. Need to clean up some notes and stuff, all of us do, but for a first time back together, it was great.

The waiting is definitely the hardest part

I have been a bad boy again. With a few gigs under my belt and about $800 in fun funds as a result... I've been looking at basses again.

I was keeping it chill, though. Mainly looking at getting a "true" LB-100, with a matching body and neck, not a mongrel like the one I got in January (though it is a killer bass!). I was thinking of that to justify getting another bass. Keeping it on the cheaper side, looking at the Tributes, with an Olympic White/maple neck in my sights, free shipping, for $439, which was the cheapest one I could find.

I would've preferred the rosewood neck, but those are long gone and this is what's out there.

Then on Saturday night, I was scrolling around eBay and happened across this guy who was selling a Fender American Standard P bass, in what I thought was also Oly White, but with crappy pictures.

Could this be Oly White with terrible white balance?

I took closer looks at the photos and fired off a message to the seller about it after asking Copilot a bunch of questions. The bass is from 1997 and looked to be in fantastic shape. Seller had great feedback over something like 4000 transactions. All the case candy was there, original case, and the best part? Priced at $950. Searching on Reverb and Copilot, it seems any American Standards were going for $1300-1500 or so. This guy wanted $950 + $30 for shipping.

I was prepared late Saturday to make an offer of $900 and see what he'd say, but I wanted to sleep on it, so I did.

Come Sunday morning, I saw someone else had made an offer and after thinking about making a $925 offer, then making said offer, I said f-it and hit the Buy it Now button. This was after he said it was actually a silver-colored bass, which meant it was Inca Silver, a color offered by Fender at the time, which also made the bass an even better deal!

YOLO baby!

I waited until Monday night to ask for a tracking number as I didn't get one. Apparently the seller had to go get a burly box to put the bass and case into. It shipped out Tuesday morning and it's estimated to come in Tuesday next week. That will give me two rehearsals with the Embers crew before our big 9/12 reunion show at the Sunset.

Can't wait!

2026-08-15 Planets in the Ocean at the Tractor Tavern

Made this on Canva

We were offered this show a few months ago and were pretty excited about it. I know nothing about the Divorce but both Cass and Robb had played with them a bunch when they were in Dear John Letters. Evidently they had a great draw in the early 2010s and played a bunch of great local shows back then.

I showed up at the Tractor around 6pm and double-parked behind a car that was already there. The Tractor has a loading dock in the back that they lock once the show starts. It makes things really handy to not have to find parking elsewhere, but it can be a bit challenging to get all the cars in there.

Cass and Robb were already there, as was Robb's awkward friend, Chris. Some of the Chimestone dudes were there as well. Good to chop it up with Cass for a bit. We talked about our plan for our set, less talking (for me at least; he's not on mic), and how we were going to play our new song, "Tourniquet."

I didn't know what to expect as far as crowds go, but as the doors opened, it seemed like Chimestone was having a good draw. I think all 5 of those guys are NHS grads, and their crew travels well. It seems like every time we play with them, they have a good crew showing out.

Teddy shared his bass rig, I was happy to use it. One less thing for me to be bringing around on a long day to begin with. He also had a beautiful Stingray that he was going to play, which ended up sounding just as good as it looked.

Teddy's rig and bass

Chimestone took the stage and played a competent set of REM-ish rock and roll. Frontman Jake came out on fire, working the stage with and without guitar, singing expertly. Ted on bass was solid throughout, tasty notes and playing all set long. Jonathan Plum, of course, was so solid as well, also adding killer harmonies during the songs. Paul was stellar behind the kit, driving with power and energy. I don't know the other guitarist's name, but he was great as well, tasty leads and playing. Enjoyed watching and hearing them for sure.

Chimestone at work

During Chimestone's set, we hooked up with a local photographer named Ian who had been sent by our bud Will. I asked if he'd be willing to take some non-performance pix of us and he agreed. We went to the loading area and stood/posed by some dangerous looking stacks of pallets while he snapped away. He ended up taking a bunch there as well as during the show. Hope those turn out to be cool!

We took the stage after Chimestone loaded out. Had to switch drum sets, but other than that, no big deal. I gave Dave the sound guy my IEM transmitter and he got bass and vocals into my ears. Had the bass rig on stage turned up as well and with hardly a word, Robb started into "Unraveled." Everything sounded great to me in my ears. Robb's vocals and guitar were loud enough that I didn't need any of his signal to the IEMs.

Unlike last show, I put the wireless pack on my strap and it was not going anywhere. My IEM receiver was opposite on my left hip, which would reduce any interference. I have new silicone ear tips from some old Skullcandy earbuds that create an awesome seal and didn't leak like my foam ones would if I smiled or laughed, so all my gear was working as it should. Until my left earbud popped out during "Unraveled." No worries, after the tune, I put it back in and we were golden.

We continued the set with "The Loud Silence," and then our nemesis from last show, "Nomenclature," and those all went off without a hitch. Robb or I didn't say much until after that song, so it was sort of refreshing.

We worked our way down the list and we were doing great. We sounded good, mistakes were low, crowd liked it and our energy was high. All the songs were fine until we hit "Holiday Daydream," where Robb forgot to do the chorus and went straight into the second verse. He's done that before, so we'll have to mention it again. Aside from that, though, everything else went well.

The last song was our new song, "Tourniquet." Robb brought it in a few months ago and it pretty much wrote itself. Over the past two rehearsals at the Rock Rooms in Ballard, we've really worked on it. It's pretty much a 3-part song: riff, verse, chorus. I'd like to come up with a bridge at some point, but it came together quickly and plays well. We may do have Tim jump on it when we play the SE show next month, but we'll see.

Got off stage and the Divorce jumped on after us. A very tight and pro 4-piece. A bit emo, a bunch rock and they looked great doing it. All 4 dudes were great musicians and the songs were well-received. They drew a nice crowd and had people singing to all their songs. At some point during the set, Robb made his way right up front and was pumping his fist and jumping along to the tunes!

The Divorce

During either of the other bands' sets, I chopped it up with Steve and Salena a bit, as well as Cass. We all got a laugh out of Chris and his tendencies. He means well, but I don't really want him to be running merch for us; one of us can handle that. He can help Robb schlep gear back and forth, I don't need his help with anything.

Got some props after the gig. Kim and her cousin gave me the best compliment, digging the white denim jeans I picked up the day before at Goodwill! Jimmy, the bassist in the Divorce, complimented my playing as faster than he can do; he has a Geddy Lee Jazz with a skinny neck to be able to play faster. We felt great about our performance, likely one of our best ones in a minute.

Had to beg Steve and Salena for pix. I think plenty of people took pix and video, but gotta be patient. Chris Elko was there and should have a video for us soon. And Ian's pix will be sent out soon I'm assuming. Other than that, felt great about it all. Sold a couple of limited pink LPs as well, so that's a bonus. We got a check for $566 (surprise!) so overall, a great night.

Next up, Cupcake on 9/11 at the Blue Moon?? Stay tuned.

2026-08-15 Sunset Grooves at Snohomish Block Party

Gig 1 of 2 on this day. We were booked a few months ago after I had already had a gig booked with Planets. Luckily, it was early enough that I could do both.

Marci and I left around 12:30 and, on the way up north, drove by her new school for a minute. Then it was another 20 minutes or so to the Snohomish air field, where the Block party was held.

For the show, I brought the gold L1K and the yellow P. No rig, as they had a Fender amp and cab available for my use. We parked and walked to the "backstage" area, which was a tent behind the stage. We were the first ones there and got a chance hang for a few. We met up with the backstage manager, a guy named Tex, who hooked us up with backstage bracelets and cash for food at the food trucks.

Marci and I walked around and checked things out. As we did, the clouds started to thin out a little; it was cloudy and cool when we showed up, but it started warming up for sure. Before long, Marci was overheating a little, so we got some food (meh popcorn chicken) and headed to the backstage area to eat.

By this time, the rest of the band had showed up, so we all hung out for a bit.

Walking in with my roadie

Backstage with the bandmates

The Fender amp was failing and the Aguilar was the backup

I didn't use the Fender and chose to go direct instead. We all had IEMs, except for Eric, as usual. We gave our devices to the sound crew and sat back to wait for them to get set up. It seemed to take a minute longer than usual. The previous band went a little long, and then by the time we were ready, it was 10 minutes past our start time and the sound guys were still messing around.

They had some people announce something and then they announced us, but we weren't ready. So we stood around trying to get things going. Eventually, the guy got audio going, so we started, but our levels were all weird.

I had Marci sit by the audio tent as there was shade there and she was roasting out in the open air. She said the sound guy, Ted (ironically), was muttering that we had too many IEMs and he was "doing all he could" to get them working. Overall, it worked fine for me.

My view from the stage. Marci ended up to the right of the tent.

Before starting the show

Once we were dialed in, I felt pretty good about things. The front of the stage was in the sun, so I kept going back towards Dusty and Eric to stay cool. Luckily, there was a nice cool breeze coming from the north (stage right), so that felt pretty good.

My wireless rig worked great. I'm starting to fall in love with the freedom, and since I adjusted the input, it's been working perfectly. It's a little fussy to get the transmitter on my strap, but once it's dialed, we're good. I do wish the cord was a little shorter, there's a lot of it that just hangs when I wear it.

Had a good time playing through the songs. There were a few people dancing, plenty of people watching, and if the first band was any indicator, we should have sounded pretty good out front.

Despite the monitor issues, I think we played decent. As always, there were some vocal issues throughout, but we made it through.

Forgot to get a picture with Dusty!

The Snohomish people gave us all 2 guest passes, so I got Marci in and also Daniel from work. I got to give 5 more away as no one else had people come, so I gave them to Cy from Cupcake. She said she had a bunch of people going anyway, so I got them to her. They did come, but long after we played; they wanted to see Queen Mother. Sort of annoying, but whatever, free tix are cool. Glad to save them some cash.

I packed up, talked to Daniel for a few, said hi to Kathy, Richard and Patrick from Wild Rumours, then headed home to drop Marci off, where she made me a PBJ for dinner. After that, it was time to go to Ballard.

2026-08-08 Sunset Grooves at Aurora Borealis

When I left for this gig, I forgot the freeway heading north was closed, so all northbound traffic was routing other ways, including down 119th. Added 20 minutes to my drive, so that was great. Luckily it was still early enough that I got there in plenty of time.

Tim was running sound at Aurora Borealis. He was a guitar player for Sunset Grooves before I joined years ago. I hadn't really talked to him, but he was super nice and accommodating to all of us. We got set up and did a quick soundcheck and it was fine.

We were offered another gig in September that I couldn't do, so I reached out to Dave, who played in another YR band in town. He came out last night to check out what he's gotten himself into. He was nice to chat with, so we chopped it up for a few.

Got some food and chowed down, free from the club, then got dressed for showtime. I rolled with the new wireless pack, the pedalboard, Goldielocks and the HOG. I figured I'd play Goldie for the first set, with a couple slapping tunes (Somebody's Baby and Peg) and the HOG for the second set.

Exciting pictures. I need to switch back to the square format, these tall 16:9 style pix are lame.

We started the set and the crowd was pretty chill, as usual. After a few songs, they started dancing. I thought the first set went pretty well. I could hear what I needed to hear for the most part. I kept an eye on the wireless input. With my 2 hottest basses, I didn't want to drop signal due to a fat input, so I dialed it back a little on the pedal. Happy to report there were no issues with signal drop.

First set went pretty much without a hitch. Felt good, get distracted with the screen in the back, projecting us on it like a live heat check. We took a break and then got back on for the second set.

We started with Caribbean Queen, which went pretty good. Then we started Maneater and though I was playing the right rhythm, for some reason I started in the wrong key. Once Eric came in, I figured it out and adjusted. We had a goof up in Don't Get Me Wrong; Jen forgot to come in on the quiet bridge part, we continued on and she came in doing the bridge, so we had to adjust on the fly. She also came in early on Tide is High. Most everything else was OK. I recorded on video and watched a little back. I think the vocals were a little tough, as usual, though hard to say who it is.

Nice comments from folks afterward. I didn't stay to chat much, was tired and wanted to get back home. Only took me 25 minutes to get back, so that was fantastic, I guess.

Next up, Snohomish Block Party on Saturday, with Planets at the Tractor that same night. Gonna be a fun and busy Saturday!

DoDo went home

After I posted the last post, DoDo's owner called me back. I posted about finding DoDo on Threads and it got a lot of reactions. Rather than typing more, I'll c/p that post:

View on Threads

View on Threads

View on Threads

When I answered her call, she had an accent and I had a hard time understanding her, but I think she thought DoDo was still alive. I had to awkwardly break it to her that DoDo was no longer with us, that he had passed on. It took a sec, but she finally understood.

She was understandably upset and I told her I could bring the collar to her, mail it, or she could come get it. Whether or not it helped, I said if it was my pet, though either answer is terrible (knowing or not knowing), I would want to know.

She said she'd pick it up and I agreed to text my address to her.

Today, she texted again and said she'd like to pick up any remains, if I had them. I did have them, they were double wrapped in plastic bags and placed in a closed garbage can for the day. When I got home, I put the remains in a small box and awaited her husband's arrival.

Before long, Bob arrived and I greeted him with the box. I told him how I came about it and tried to gently and tactfully say what I found and how it was not the entirety of DoDo. He asked how much of DoDo was left and I told him.

He said DoDo was his in-laws' cat, but he had been his wife's grow-up-with cat. He said DoDo was 11 years old and had stayed at home after he and his wife married. They didn't know DoDo had gotten out of the house. He was an indoor cat but the in-laws had some friends staying over and somehow, he got out without anyone realizing. Apparently his house is about a mile south, as the crow flies. How DoDo ended up here is anyone's guess.

Bob did ask to see the backyard where I found him. He wanted to pick up the extra fur that was around DoDo's final resting spots. He took some pictures as well.

It turns out that Bob is Chinese, so I busted out my Mandarin to talk to him, though, admittedly, I only understood about 75% of his replies. Enough to get the gist, I suppose.

He did shed a tear and was grateful for my reaching out and assisting with a difficult situation. I'm glad to provide what little closure I could, giving them information to process the loss of their cat.

RIP DODO

Marci left for CO today. I got home and started dinner (reheating leftovers). I noticed a bunch of crows in the backyard, figured they were looking for bugs in the grass (weeds) or something. After eating and feeding Kodo, it was time to take him up.

We got to the top of the hill and right there was the rear leg of a cat. It was small, pink pads, rear leg all the way up to its haunch. Flies and bees on it, I had Koder give it a wide berth.

Further into the grass (weeds), there was a puff of fur and what looked to be a black tuft of tail. I walked towards the chain link fence and saw a little pink collar, no tag. And then just past that was a front leg, just torn cleanly off.

Right about then I remembered Marci texted me when she landed to say that the neighbor's wife had texted that she saw a coyote heading towards our yard. Pretty sure that's what happened back there.

I walked around some more and didn't see anything else. Kodo relieved himself on the other side of the yard and that was that. I brought Kodo down and then washed up. Did some research on how to dispose of 1/3rd of a cat. Basically I have to bag it and garbage it. I suppose I could take it to a vet, but not interested in transporting cat parts.

I put on some gloves, grabbed some garbage bags and went back up. I went back to the collar and checked it out and it actually had a name and number on it. The name was DoDo and the number I called. No answer, but I left a message and it was as awkward as I thought it would be. I said I found DoDo's collar and told them to call me back.

Then I grabbed the big leg in a bag, grabbed the tail tuft and grabbed the front leg, double-bagged, then put it in the garbage out back. Sadly, the garbage was picked up today, so the bits will sit there until next week.

RIP DoDo.

*images of fairly tame cat parts coming up*