This is me! Back in the day. I loved all those pedals. They were the latest and greatest. I had this pedal board made for me by Paul Rivera. Yes, same guy that makes the Rivera Amps. He used to make customized pedal boards for all the whose who, and… me too. It also came in a road case where some rack gear attached that interfaced with the pedals. It was a stereo board with effects for the melody side of the Stick and effects just for the bass side of the Stick. It was a lot of fun, made lots of great sounds and… was heavy and no fun to move around. Fortunately in those days the acts I played for had road crews and a semi truck to move all the gear. The dog (Petey) drove with us. When I could – I’d take the family on the road. Pete (The Dog) loved the pedal board because when that came out, he knew it meant “Road Trip”!

I knew my wife was a keeper when one day we had to take the road cases to a certain place for the truck to pick up. I had a very large amp. road case we had to get in our van. Looking at the case and how we would get it up into the van…, my wife said, as she kneeled, “Push it over onto my back and I’ll stand up and hoist it in!” And…. so I did. Lol. Ohhhhh she’s a trooper.

My favorite pedals were the Boss Chorus, Electric Mistress, Memory Man, Small Stone Phase Shifter, Mutron Octave Divider. Now all calssic and wonderful plug ins. The Octave Divider was fun however when you got down to the low bass “E” it would warble and not track as well. I figured, heck now that its a plug in I bet they fixed that. Well, they did a great job as usual, emulating the exact sound and dial functions it had even right down to the warbling imperfections. Oh well, I guess they wanted to be true to the pedal.

Notice the ‘flat top’ on the Stick. Now they are rounded. I wanted a unique look to mine so I had Emmett put a crescent indentation at the top of my later Stick. That one was a good Ol’ Iron Wood Stick. Fantastic bass sound. Back then they didn’t have Grand Sticks with 12 strings only the 10 string models. I owned two Sticks prior to that one when even the pickup housing was ‘wood’! Oh it was a great look in comparison to the modern look of then and even now.

I find being in the Music industry an even more exciting time now. The access to a professional home studio, high end gear and quality of sound so much more attainable. I’ve always had a studio even back in the days of “Tape!” However if I was making a recording for release back then I’d have to go to a “Pro” studio and spend $250.00 for 15 minutes of tape, just to start. Then studio time, engineering, mixing and mastering. Then… spend it all over again for the next recording. Now, no tape (though it did have a lovely sound all its own).

My home studio uses the same computer and plug ins the Pro studios use. I can do most of my sessions from here. I only move to another studio if the project needs large rooms or I’m mixing/mastering. The home studio is a great tracking studio for all the instruments I play, electric and acoustic bass, NS/Stick, Grand Stick, strings (cello, viola etc,.).

When the project is not mine and I’m hired for a session, I then track my parts from home then depending on where the session will be mixed, I send my tracks their via the internet. I do miss visiting other studios but there is great advantage in being relaxed at home and trying different things. Back in the day, studio time was very expensive and taking time to try stuff wasn’t the norm. You went in knowing what you wanted to have recorded especially for Film and TV. I like being able to take the time to experiment. Being creative is what music is and was all about for me.

What has changed for you over the years that you have been playing. What is it that moves you musically to want to create and go through the recording process?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.