Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

With today being a holiday from work (yes we both have full time jobs) we had a delightful visit with Alan Bartram of the Del McCoury and the Travelin’ McCoury’s.  Alan flew in from Nashville (Southwest, $50 up charge for the flight case) with his flight case to pick up his 1939 American Standard that he auditioned a month ago.  The bass was all tuned and ready to go.  The first few notes were met with an “ahhhhh” it sounds better then I remembered.  Then some serious scales and slapping.  Yep this bass is heading to Nashville, music city USA.   

Ahhhh, those first notes

Some serious scales and slapping

The bass is a keeper.  Smiles all the way around.

Getting packed into the SBS flight case

Ready for that long journey home to Nashville...yeah baby!

Alan said he is working on a banjo album with Robbie right now and borrowed a 1950’s American Standard for the recording session.  He can’t wait to get this bass home so the band can hear his new sound.  He plans to take the bass to the Opry and play on stage…that is so very cool.  I am sure if he runs into Kent “Superman” Blanton, the Opry house bass player they can geek out test driving the American Standard.  Kent is a huge fan of the American Standard basses and maintains the American Standard and King Mortone database and website. 

http://www.amstandard-kingbass.com

 

This was a delightful day and we hope to have a great jam tonight to make it just down right awesome.

Merry Christmas everyone.  This has been a fantastic year for collecting basses, restoring some tired vintage basses, meeting new friends and making some wonderful music.

We look forward to 2012 with great anticipation. 

Wendy & Lonnie

Stanleytone Banjo #25 of the 50 first edition gold plated from 1984

Lonnie spent most of the day Saturday working on the Stanleytone banjo.  He disassembled the banjo so he could clean all the parts and polish the gold plating to a glistening shine.  The banjo was dirty and had a film of dust, dirt, and sweat; it needed a good over all cleaning.  The metal parts cleaned up really well.  The tuners were loose and the tail piece was not adjusted properly. 

As Lonnie reassembled the banjo he put on a new Five star smooth white banjo head.  He is making a custom fit Snuffy Smith bridge by taking the excess wood out of the bridge.  He has a gram scale and knows just about how thin to make them for the best tone.  He keeps checking the head tension to let the new head settle in before he makes too many tweaks.  The banjo has lots of potential; Lonnie will keep playing around until he finds that sweet spot that brings it to life with the classic Ralph Stanley sound.

The banjo before disassembled

Frank Neat (banjo maker) with Ralph's name

The serial number, this banjo was finished 11/19/1984 and is #25 of the first 50 gold plated banjos custom made for Ralph Stanley.

With the resonator back off you can see the 40 hole tone ring and fancy engraving

The outside edge of the resonator.  Fancy Birdseye maple with gold sparkle and ivory binding

Fine engraved tail piece

Top is original bridge that came on the banjo.  Middle is Snuffy Smith bridge before detailing.  Bottom is Lonnie's Bart Veerman red dot bridge...it is a little piece of art.  Beautiful well crafted banjo bridge.

Lonnie at work.  He loves to take something old and make it look as good as new.

The back of the neck with out the tuners.  The banjo is a reddish pink brown.  It is very bright an showy with the gold sparkle resonator binding

After re-assembly.  The new Five star head needs to settle in before final tweaking begins.  The banjo looks so much better cleaned up. 

Popeye is going home…

Today was jubilation day; Popeye is finished and heading home.  The King Mortone restoration took about eight month of on again, off again efforts to get it back into to fine playing condition.  After a nice leisurely visit with Mike and Sharon today, a few thumps on Popeye and a good meal…all is well.  Popeye got the full Bass Monkey treatment and is looking good and sounding great once again. We know he will be appreciated and will make some fine bluegrass music.  It sounds like his first jam will be later this week.  We are anxious to hear how the bass is receipted by the band members.  This was a great bass project for two wonderfully nice people.  

We are moving along to the Stanleytone banjo next.  Stay tuned!

Its official…the King Mortone bass is completed

We took the bass out Thursday and Friday to our local jam and it was a big hit.  I am always amazed at what folks pay attention to.  We no sooner had the bass out of the gig bass then the questions started…

That’s a new one. 

Where did you get it?

It sure is pretty, I like that dark finish.

What year is it?

How does it sound?

What’s the U.S.N. stand for on the back?

Wow…that thing sounds great.  I can hear it all the way in the bathroom.

Is it for sale?

I like it, bring that one back any time!

And it goes on and on.  The bass looks and sounds great.  It was a joy to play and even more of joy to watch the grin on Lonnie’s face grow larger with every question I answered.  First time out with a new bass is always a challenge especially when it is a three hour jam.  You never know how it will sound in the mix of the other instruments and there is no opportunity to make adjustments.  You need to play it through, no matter what.  The bass seemed a bit tight early in the evening but once it warmed up, the strings settled in the bass really began to open up.  With some serious play time this bass will be a boomer…I liked it! 

At the end of the Friday night jam a gentleman I never saw before came up and began to ask questions about the bass.  Come to find out he was a retired Navy guy and was really enamored by the U.S.N. carved in the back of the bass.  We had a very nice conversation and he was delighted to know this bass had a past life in the Navy Band and was singing proud again. 

That is the stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.  Every bit of effort and Lonnie’s TLC was worth it. 

Here are some quick pictures from Lonnie during the jam.  He’s not much of a photographer, so I’ll take what I get.

Christmas time's a coming...

The Thanksgiving holiday is behind us and Christmas times’ a coming.

Christmas time's a coming
Christmas time's a coming
Christmas time's a coming
And I know I'm going home

Can't you hear them bells
A ringing, ringing
Joy to all oh hear them singing
When it's snowing I'll be going
Back to my country home

The workshop is all a buzz right now with basses AND banjo’s. We can tell the economy is improving as folks are visiting the website, workshop and the pace of sales inquires is increasing. These are all good signs for our economy…finally. We had a nice break over the holiday with a quick trip to the sunny south. The sky was clear blue and the temperatures in the mid 70’s. What a nice way to extend the fall season and get a break from the rain.

Now, on to the business at hand. The King Mortone is coming down the homestretch. We left off with the G string breaking as Lonnie was bringing it up to tune for some final tweaking. The new replacement string arrived while we were on vacation and it has been installed. Lonnie was busy working last evening on final details with some color touch up and in general “fussing” over the small details. This bass is very close to being done…Mike & Sharon, I know you are tuned in and watching. Popeye will be home for Christmas…if not sooner!

The next small project is some set up adjustments on the 1939 American Standard bass that is heading to “Music City USA” for Christmas. I wish we were delivering this bass in person. We love Nashville and can’t wait to visit there again real soon. The 1939 AS bass is going to live with Alan Bartram of the Del McCoury and the Travelin’ McCourys. The bass is destine for a good bluegrass recording with that old school gut sound. Alan chose this bass as an opposite to his 1950’s Kay M-1-B bass strung with Spiro mediums. The AS should give him a totally different sound and feel for his future studio recordings. We are honored and delighted to have helped Alan find his new musical friend…Harvey.

And finally a new banjo project. Lonnie is not only skilled with basses, making custom finger picks, but he loves banjos too. Especially the Frank Neat Stanleytone banjos. We have a fabulous banjo playing friend who fell in love with Lonnie’s “super tuned” Stanleytone banjo over a year ago. So much so he never forgot how this banjo sounded or played and longed to have a banjo just like Lonnie’s. After a year of waiting and watching the banjo gods have shined down when a Stanleytone became available for sale on the secondary market. 

Lonnie’s friend got the banjo on a Friday afternoon and had it in Lonnie’s hands on Saturday and basically said, “I don’t want it back until it sounds and plays like your banjo”. WOW, there is a vote of confidence and a challenge from an excellent, hard driving, traditional banjo player…sweet! As soon as the two basses are finished he will jump on the Stanleytone banjo project. It needs a good overall cleaning, polishing, detailing, new head, new custom bridge, strings and Lonnie’s “super tuning” adjustments that will bring the banjo to life with that Ralph Stanley arch top RING. The Stanleytone banjos are a limited edition arch top banjo made exclusively by Frank Neat, they must be purchased directly from Ralph Stanley at a performance or find them on the secondary market.  

Lonnie loves a challenge and he has great confidence that he can pull that classic Ralph Stanley mountain music tone from this banjo. If you love banjos, stay tune. If you don’t, come back in a few weeks and we will be back to bass restorations. I think next bass in line will be the 1956 American Standard; this bass will be going to a young bluegrass student studying at ETSU…very cool.

A hydrant sorta day for the King Mortone...

Some days you are the dog and some days you are the hydrant…today Lonnie was the hydrant…SIGHS!
 

He has been pushing hard to get the final touches completed on this King Bass before the holiday.  The screws have proven to be a royal pain in the butt.  Thinning the tops down makes them fit nicely but also make them prone to weakness if you go too far.  Last night I heard more four letter, compound words come from the workshop then I have heard in a long time.  Lonnie was completely beside himself when one of the screws broke off in the tuner plate.  Needless to say I found some house cleaning and dusting that needed done just to stay occupied and out of the line of fire.  Tonight I came home from work and Lonnie was already busy in the workshop still chasing the high spots on that hard fingerboard.  I swear the smallest things will drive you mad.  All of this was capped off with the sound of bringing the G string up to tune…boing…boing…boing…snap…son of a #%+#%.  Yep the G string broke mid tune. 

Sigh…today was a hydrant sorta day…SIGH.

The King Mortone and a loose screw...

I am always saying…the devil is in the details. 

So if you follow the workshop blog you know Lonnie is annul about details and has the persistence of a dog with a bone.  He will play with a piece of metal or wood for hours on end for no other reason then…because he can. 

The screws we searched and found for the King Mortone tuners were the right length, shaft, head shape but the head of the screws were a bit larger then the old one.  Well true to form, Lonnie does not let it stop him…I’ll let the pictures do the talking but basically he filed down the circumference of the screw head so it would be a perfect match to the vintage screws…I think he has a screw loose.  He is a crazy, crazy boy!

Original screw top left, new screw top right

Yeah...this is the genious at work

All things are possible with imagination

This side is done and looking good