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My brother-in-law, Bob Cannon, (Lynn's sister's husband) is big in the vintage guitar market. How big? Really big, especially in terms of the quality and rarity of the instruments he deals with. He deals primarily with guitars as basses are worth only a fraction of their six string counterparts, but every now and then he'll pick up a bass if he thinks it's cool. We were talking a few weeks back and I asked him if he'd come across anything interesting lately and he told me about this bass.

It is a 1967 Hofner 500/1 and here's a link to his website -

http://www.cannonguitars.com

He suggested that I use it in one of my "video things." I thought that might be cool, but what would I cover with it? Shortly after that conversation, Captain Obvious started messing around with a couple of Beatles songs. Yesterday, we all went on a day trip to East Stroudsburg, Pa. (horror store) and I grabbed the bass when we dropped them off on the way home. Originally, I intended to work a little more on the songs during the week with the bass and record next weekend. When I got home last night, I started messing around with it and knew I was going to do the videos this morning because I want to get the bass back to him as quickly as possible. Reason #1 is because I don't want to get too used to it. It's so small and comfortable to play, I'm afraid my hands will shrink and I'll wind up hating my other basses. Reason #2 is because it seemed so fragile and delicate, I feared it was going to splinter into pieces in my hands. I'm quite sure there was no danger of that happening as the bass has been around nearly as long as I have and seems no worse for the wear, but you might have noticed that I'm wearing a strap as an extra added precaution. I'm pretty sure that he subscribes to the "you break it, you bought it" principle.

It's a cool bass, though not at all what I'm used to tone-wise. It has an inherent punch, much different from what I've gotten out of my basses when I've tried to get a deeper, bass-ier tone. I'm playing through GarageBand using the "Studio direct Box Deep" preset. The only thing I tweaked was the volume. There are no fret markings on the side of the neck so, in this case, I'm actually looking at the neck to find my position and not just to avoid looking int he camera.

The song, unlike Billy Shears, needs no introduction. It's "With a Little Help from My Friends" by The Beatles and it's off of their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. It was written by Lennon and McCartney and sung by Ringo Starr.

I had to come back and add this addendum. I was just speaking on the phone with an old, close friend, Andy Morgese. I only refer to him as "old" because I've known him for so long, not because he's old per se. Anyway, he reminded me how he traded a '63 Hofner in for a Peavey T-40 bass - even trade, with no cash exchanging hands. And that is the tale of poor Andy's lament. I did some crazy trades when I was young and impulsive as well. In fact, I traded a brand new Rickenbacker for the very same bass.