Bass

I am a musician in part of my life, and as a musician I focus on the bass as my main instrument. When I first started with music, it was with voice singing in choirs when I was young. Unfortunately, I became self-conscious and decided that singing wasn’t “cool”. I did continue singing in the school choir for a time, but it was only in early high-school did the bug bite again.

I was inspired by my oldest sister to learn guitar, classical guitar mostly. I did try my hand at electric guitar but I didn’t have the “attitude” or rather, it just didn’t fit me. Classical guitar was much more to my liking until a friend (my drummer for the past almost 35 years) asked me whether I could play the bass for his band. I figured that it couldn’t be too different from classical guitar, so why not?

It truly is my instrument, or rather it’s the instrument that most aligns with who I am and my aesthetics. Over the years, I’ve been slowly unlearning much and opening myself up to new ways of approaching music, thanks mostly to inspiring players like Michael League, Gary Willis, and Victor Wooten. Victor’s book, “The Music Lesson”, continues to have a huge impact on me and my approach to music.

I’ve had several basses over the years and I still have my first bass – a slightly beaten up cream Rickenbacker 4001. I was (and still am) a huge Geddy Lee fan growing up – I enjoy the fact that we share the same birthday if only to remind me that the bass chose me. My main bass is a Roscoe 5-string that I picked up from my friend Dave Freeman, who owns Club Bass in Toronto. I’ve had this bass for close to 25 years now and I absolutely love it.

My industrial design aspirations have led me to build several things over the years, mostly art and other sculptures, so when the idea of designing & building my own bass popped into my head this past year, I realized that it was something to listen to.

I’ll use this page to document my process over time. I know that if I truly wanted to, I could devote all my hours to completing this, but I know that isn’t realistic right now. So, this will also be a study in patience for me as well.