It's like seeing your kids all grown up...
... well that probably is over egging it a bit but this month sees the superb Guitar & Bass magazine featuring Flat Eric's incredible collection of basses and guitars.
Now look at the cover...
I've made that as big as I can... see bottom right... the collection in question... now look closer (sorry) in the middle of the first standing rank? (I've added the picture now it is available to help... ) My old Peter Cook bass that I owned from sometime in the early 90s when I saw it languishing covered in dust at the back of a clutter of basses in the old Unisound shop in Chatham until I sold it to Eric a few years back after he saw pictures I'd put of it on a vintage guitar forum. After I'd bought it from the guy at the shop, actually handed over the readies etc., I told him that Entwistle had played Peter's instruments. The guy said "Oh should we have charged you more?" I smiled as I left with it. It probably was the best made instrument in the whole shop! However I'm not a bass player and although it did find itself onto some of my home recorded efforts over the next dozen or so years when it lived with me it often sat on the wall or in a rack or a case doing very little but humming gently to itself. My son used it briefly when about 16 he suddenly kindled an interest in music and joined a band. Also it saw a little action when I was in a band called Tripwire around 2002/3 and the bass player used it for a song in drop D to save retuning his Jazz. I subsequently bought a five string Ibanez off a guy at work and sadly it sat getting even less use which wasn't right for such a piece of guitar history. Eric was keen to get an Axis for his collection so I struck a deal with him and off the old girl went via ParcelForce to a new home. Eric has now got a 6 string Axis to match with it which is cool as it had been living with my six string sibling too. I'm glad it isn't lonely any more. There was a pang on regret seeing it there with someone else in the magazine, all guitars do become part of me if I own them for any period of time. However when I read in the magazine that Eric "get's such a buzz playing it live" I knew it was in the right place, treasured by someone who truly appreciates it is a great, rare beauty and also someone who is using it as it was intended to be.
So here is a picture of it with it's sibling when in my very humble collection from a few years ago... And as a post edit... the picture with it in Eric's Collection alongside his 6 string Axis.
Now look at the cover...
I've made that as big as I can... see bottom right... the collection in question... now look closer (sorry) in the middle of the first standing rank? (I've added the picture now it is available to help... ) My old Peter Cook bass that I owned from sometime in the early 90s when I saw it languishing covered in dust at the back of a clutter of basses in the old Unisound shop in Chatham until I sold it to Eric a few years back after he saw pictures I'd put of it on a vintage guitar forum. After I'd bought it from the guy at the shop, actually handed over the readies etc., I told him that Entwistle had played Peter's instruments. The guy said "Oh should we have charged you more?" I smiled as I left with it. It probably was the best made instrument in the whole shop! However I'm not a bass player and although it did find itself onto some of my home recorded efforts over the next dozen or so years when it lived with me it often sat on the wall or in a rack or a case doing very little but humming gently to itself. My son used it briefly when about 16 he suddenly kindled an interest in music and joined a band. Also it saw a little action when I was in a band called Tripwire around 2002/3 and the bass player used it for a song in drop D to save retuning his Jazz. I subsequently bought a five string Ibanez off a guy at work and sadly it sat getting even less use which wasn't right for such a piece of guitar history. Eric was keen to get an Axis for his collection so I struck a deal with him and off the old girl went via ParcelForce to a new home. Eric has now got a 6 string Axis to match with it which is cool as it had been living with my six string sibling too. I'm glad it isn't lonely any more. There was a pang on regret seeing it there with someone else in the magazine, all guitars do become part of me if I own them for any period of time. However when I read in the magazine that Eric "get's such a buzz playing it live" I knew it was in the right place, treasured by someone who truly appreciates it is a great, rare beauty and also someone who is using it as it was intended to be.
So here is a picture of it with it's sibling when in my very humble collection from a few years ago... And as a post edit... the picture with it in Eric's Collection alongside his 6 string Axis.
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