I have actually played this bass. About 10 years ago the owner, Skip Slaughter, was the engineer at Phoenix Studio in Macon, GA, which was the old Capricorn studio but under different ownership. This bass is in dire need of some TLC, but Skip is legit. If you look closely, you'll see that the G string is missing. It may have been gone when I played it. Otherwise it looks exactly the same as it did last I saw it. The bridge is badly tarnished, as is the tailpiece. The knob is missing from the selector switch, and my guess is that the 5-pin and 1/4 inch outs will need serious cleaning or replacement as well. If all this is OK with you, I wouldn't hesitate to bid. I may try, if the price stays low enough, as this bass has personal/historical significance to me. Not only was it the first Series I had ever seen, but I had some good times and made some good music with Skip in that old studio.
(Sentimental Story Alert)
When recording Acoustic Workshop's second CD, I told Skip I wasn't happy with my part on one of the songs, so he suggested we come in early the next day and re-cut it. I spent half the night working on that part. The next day we got everything ready, and Skip told me to just play along with the song one time before we recorded to get warmed up. Unbeknownst to me, he was rolling tape during that warmup. The whole take ended up being a keeper, with stuff I'd never tried before (not even the night before) working out perfectly, and no punch-ins. That song still stands as my favorite example of myself in a studio setting.
There was definitely something magical about that old studio. It always had an almost churchlike feel to it, definitely like there was a spiritual presence in the place. Part of it was just seeing the burn marks on the floor that had been put there by, among many others, Duane and Berry, but part of it was creating music in a room that had spawned some of the finest moments in Southern music, and knowing that we were a part of a tradition that had lay dormant and then been reborn after all those years. Phoenix did not last, unfortunately, Macon being too far from the center of anything to attract much attention anymore.
(End of Story)
Charles
