First of all, thanks to all for the warm welcome. It's easy to tell here that great minds wallow in the same gutters!
Jonathan, I will be working to get some pics posted in the not too distant future.
Earl, the '98 Rogue was simply a great find. I was traveling in the Phoenix area on business and misread my itinerary for the flight home and found myself with an extra hour to kill. As I was heading to the airport I spotted a Guitar Center just off the interstate and decided that would be as good a place as any to kill the time. Lo and behold, the Rogue was hanging there. After some negotiations, out came the American Express card and the bass came home with me. I was nervous and holding my breath while waiting for the luggage to come out at the baggage claim in Hartford as the flight went through Philadelphia and they have been known to lose an entire plane load or two of luggage there. I had to put my find below as it was too big to go on as carry on and I couldn't even buy it a seat as the plane was full. Eventually it made its way out onto the belt and I was so relieved I nearly forgot to collect my other bags. The part I didn't understand was this '98 was still hanging there in February of 2000. It hung there for an entire year? Inconceivable! My good fortune.
Paul, a Boston area Alembic convention would be a lot of fun. Possibly illegal to have that many crazed bassists in one place, but fun.
the other Paul, don't worry about your grasp of American geography. I don't know exactly what happened to the place all the Flemish painters came from!
Valentino, your grasp of American geography is better than most of the natives!
Joey, your assumption on the 8-string is pretty much right on. Mine is strung with the octave strings on top. I'm not sure this is the proper way to string it but it worked out OK for me. I used it on a recording project and then laid down a track with the Rogue on top of it. I then asked to be credit with playing 13 strings of bass on the song. I know I couldn't find a set of RotoSounds for it around here. Perhaps our European connection can assist in sourcing these? On a related side note, the guitarist I have worked with for years took a 12-string guitar and removed the standard strings leaving just the octave strings. He called it a high strung guitar. It gave quite an interesting sound.
I have a question I would appreciate everybody's input on. Would it be worth updating the electronics in my 20 year old Exploiter? Not that this bass doesn't sound good. It does. It's just that improvements in the electronics world happen so quickly and 20 years is a long time. Would a new e package make a dramatic difference in the sound? Unless I sell off the better part of my collection I can't afford the new limited edition Entwistle model so the electronics would be a more affordable and practical solution. What do you guys think?
Thanks again for the welcome.
John
