Nick -
On the Kramer 650B... Let's see, my first bass was the Fender Telecaster bass from the late 70's. I had the first model which was a reissue of the original Precision, with single-coil pickup and a totally slab body. The previous owner had stripped the kind of weird beige thick-skin paint that they had and it actually looked pretty good in natural except for a big seam in the body wood that wasn't in the middle. I didn't like the P- or J-Basses of that age (mid-70's), and the Tele bass was even clunkier, but was the right price at the right time.
My second was a Rick 4001 in Jetglo black. It looked really cool and was nice to play, but didn't really sound great. I've played good Ricks from that same period, and mine was definitely not great - a lot of those 70's Ricks have a really wimpy sounding bridge pickup and I think my neck was on the flexy side too.
My third was a Gibson EB-3L, which was the long scale EB-3. It was really well made and really comfortable to play, although it had horrible balance on a strap. Only one tone, as you mention, and it was the wrong one for me. I wish I still had that one though. I never should have sold this one. I bought an EB-3 many years later (this was a 60's one instead of 70's) and it's good for what it is, still sounds sort of bad, and wasn't as pleasing to play as the long-scale one.
I got the Kramer next. I remember visiting Evanston, IL to look at Northwestern while in high school, and stopping off at a music store for a few minutes there. They sold Travis Bean, which I had seen in magazines, but never in person (I grew up in Iowa). I really liked that bass. Back at home, I asked our local little store in Ames, IA about getting a Travis Bean. They couldn't do that, but signed up as one of the original Kramer dealers. I got the 650 there, after playing a 450 that they had. I liked the way it felt and played, but the amplified sound was never that great, very thin compared to the unplugged sound.
I got a Stingray around 1979 or 1980 and basically used that for many years. It's funny, this turned into a very valuable Stingray over the years, but just like the Rick it was not a particularly good one tonally.
By 1983 or so, I got my first Modulus and that's been my main thing since. It's kind of funny, I have *many* Modulus instruments including many very fancy ones (thru-bodies, 8-string, even a 12-string), but my favorite one these days is the very first one I got which was a Modulus BassStar neck on pretty vanilla kit P-body with an EMG pickup. When I was more actively playing, this simple guy didn't lend itself well to complicated playing, but as I've gotten older and slower, I've really circled back to this one.
David Fung
