Hi, all. I signed up about a month ago, just in time to buy Michael Pallas?
Spoiler. It arrived a week ago, so now here?s my intro. Here?s a picture first.
I know from having read other threads that some of you have experience with other instruments. Maybe you?ll get a kick out of seeing my new bass next to my old bass and even older contrabass.
On the left, you?ll recognize the bocate-topped Spoiler. In the middle is an 82-year-old Buescher bass saxophone. It has just over a two-octave range, starting at the fourth fret Ab on a four-string?s E. On the right is an 89-year-old Conn contrabass sarrusophone. It has just under a two-octave range, starting at the second fret Db on a five-string?s B.
I started out playing sax in 1961, when rock and roll bands had saxes. Since I went to college in the early sixties, I had to learn some guitar---as you folks of a certain age will remember! I played a Fender P by ear in pick-up bands for a few years after graduation, but traded it in for a sax just before I got married.
Parenthood put music on hold for a while, until about twelve years ago. After starting work at Loyola College as a professor in the information systems department, I started playing baritone sax in the school?s jazz ensemble. Two years after that, I started playing bari and clarinet in
Moodswings, a Baltimore area big band.
After the last dozen years as a sax hobbyist and collector, I got interested in bass again. My oldest son has a Rick 4003 and my number three son has an Epic. I liked the Epic better than the Rick, so I hit the Internet and ended up here.
Right now, I?m working my through Rufus Reid?s ?The Evolving Bassist,? at the suggestion of Moodswings? bassist. I don?t know about this bass clef thing; I think my brain must be getting full!
