Hello Members,
Greetings from Mandan (just across the Missouri River from Bismarck) North Dakota. For those of you who have seen the movie Fargo, you may also refer to our state as Nord Dakota; as this pronounciation is more commonly used here. For those of you needing to look at a map, Nord Dakota is just above Sow Dakota. I'm going to try to keep this short, but it probably won't be. Oh well, here goes.
I have 'lurked' on this board for a year or so and finally signed up in July; just after I acquired my first Alembic. Alembics have captured my interest for over 30 years, but I never thought I'd own one. So, I took the plunge and purchased a used Orion 5 string. You can see my serial number request in that thread - 99OW11968. (BTW - A belated thanks to Mark, the 8 String King, for his kind response and to Mica for looking up the history.)
I have been playing electric bass for (lets see..) about 43 years. Wow, that's scary. My current arsenal consists of a vintage 1968 Hofner violin, a Fender 50th anniversary jazz 4, a Yahama (strung as a tenor), the Orion 5, and (you guessed it - I couldn't stop at one) a signature deluxe custom 5 string I just purchased new from Will Gunn Guitars. For those of you familiar with the Featured Customs, it is the November, 2000 bass, the Coco Bolo Fantasy that Will had built for himself. He never got around to playing it (he did admit to about an hour or so of very careful tuning), so I am the first original registered owner of this absolutely knock out bass!! Even though the bass was built in 2000, I am its first owner other than the dealer and it comes with full factory warranty.
Just lucky for me, Will decided to sell it a few months ago. I had been wrestling with ordering a new 5 string with the classic taper neck. After all of my years playing 4 strings, I found the normal size neck of a 5 string a little too wide for my small hands (no jokes please). And, although I very much enjoyed the added versatility of the 5 string instrument and the lower 4 notes provided by the B string, I had difficulty from about the 10th fret up.
Over the years, I have had opportunities to see Jimmy Johnson and others play with classic taper necks and as far as the fret board was concerned, I was sold. But, I was very concerned about the string spacing for my right hand. I'm a finger plucker; don't ever use a pick; and rarely slap or pop.
The classic taper 5-string neck widths are 2 at the nut and 2.5 at the 24th fret. The Coco Bolo Fantasy custom (I should say, my Coco... is 1 13/16 at the nut, and 2 11/16 at the the 24th fret. The neck feels like a 60's P-Bass; only with 5 strings instead of 4.
After many emails and phone conversations with Will Gunn, he convinced me that the Coco Bolo Fantasy was what I wanted. He was right!! Will, if you happen to read this post, thank you very much for your outstanding guidance and advice. This guitar is simply stunning to look at and even better to play and hear. My feet haven't hit the ground since I opened the box.
I'm sure I'll have other questions and comments later in other posts. But the only thing I need help with right now is advice about how to handle the situation with my wife After all of these years, she's fairly well adjusted to my eccentricities (sp?), but I think I may have reached her limit. How many of these things do you really need, Dean?
Another nice thing about buying a Featured Custom is I don't have to post any pictures They're all here:
http://www.alembic.com/info/FC_willg.html I'm looking forward to many years of making great music with my new Alembics and to interesting, fun, and informative exchanges on this Board with all of you.
Best Regards,
Dean
