Sander Roscoe Wolff

Some time ago I acquired a hand-made custom bowed psaltery. Recently, I recorded

with it. The tracks were recorded in Cubase SX3, and all the processing was done on the computer. I recorded the psaltery part first then, using an old Brian Eno trick, reversed the track so that it was playing backward, and recorded delay with it. The original track, with the delay, were then both re-reversed so that the original track is now playing forward, but the delay is reversed, fading in rather than fading out. All this was then run through the same delay so it has delay coming and going. I then added the two guitar parts.

Ever since, or perhaps even before, I completed the guitar project I’d dreamed of creating a custom bass. Encouraged by the results of the Sandblaster, I decided to undertake a 2nd instrument-building project: A bass.

I originally hoped to create an instrument using similar African Mahogany but, much to my dismay, large pieces of highly figured African Mahogany are becoming harder and harder to find. Old growth trees are now almost entirely gone, sadly.

Anyway, I began to expand my search to include other woods, and even several woods in combination. ( I just had this idea that one solid piece is somehow better… I don’t know if that’s true, though.) Anyway, I have a Taylor acoustic guitar with Sapele sides and back. Sapele is similar to African Mahogany, but it is heavier, darker, and more expensive. Also, like most popular woods, large highly figured pieces are hard to find. So, after many weeks of patience, John of West Penn Hardwoods selected some pieces that, ultimately, will end up as the body of my next bass.

There are three ‘sections’: The top, which is made of book-matched sapele, the middle, which is made of flame maple (soft), and

The book-matched top:

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This instrument was given to me by a friend who got it from another friend who found it collecting dust in her house. According to trusted sources, it is a Hofner Galaxie. There are a number of different models in that line, however, so more specific info would be most welcome.

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This first one is my favorite, so far:

This one is a bit of an homage to the Fender Telecaster logo:

Personally, I don’t think the 2nd one will fit nicely on the headstock. The first one would, though…

As I plough through the detritus of my life I occationally find tidbits, fragments, glimpses of times and places past, long forgotten connections, meaningful references, etc. No better example of this are phone messages. I remember feeling the need to get an answering machine at some point, mostly because 1) I was looking for a job and, 2) my friends all complained bitterly that they could never reach me, the elusive social butterfly that I was. Still, I don’t think the answering machine ever really solved any problems, and caused a few of its own.

I was living on 4th Street, just across from Chipper’s Corner (now the Pike) at Hermosa. I’d been working for Kinko’s but, at some point in this period, I lost my job. It took some time, but I eventually moved out of the apartment and back in with my mom, and started working for KLON.

Featured on the recording are Brian Hancock, Brian Nelson, Joanie Karnowski, Camille Smith, my roommate Jim Theibert, Larry Miller, Mike Dubois, Andrea Adkins, Rychard Cooper, Bebe Wolff, Marvin Wolff, and a few others. I am pretty sure that phone numbers from more than 20 years ago have no modern relevency.

– [this is a large 13MB file, so it may take a while to download]

All I know is that this instrument belonged to my mom, and that it was bought a long time ago, and probably for very little money. The neck is fat and thick, bowed, with frets that are super thin. It is difficult to play, and the intonation goes to hell if you wander above the 5th fret. It was intended to be a ‘classical’ nylon string guitar but when I replaced the frozen tuners, I strang (stringed) it up with phosphor bronze strings instead.

I am not exactly sure why I got this instrument. I think I saw a picture of one and fell in love with it. I found one in the recycler for a fairly reasonable price and purchased it. This is a fantastic instrument, made well, and solidly, with good electronics. It is American made. The only real downside is that it is incredibly heavy which, I’m sure, adds to its beefy tone. Still, I only use it for recording because, after playing one gig with it, I was in agony.

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When I joined Blue Dot it was made clear to me that my fretless instruments weren’t welcome. Although I borrowed a fretted instrument for a while, I decided to commit to playing one and purchased a pewter sparkle Fender P-Bass Lyte, which had active P/J pick-ups, a wonderful fast neck, and a lightweight body. It sounded great. Unfortunately, it got stolen out of my car after a gig so I was forced to play my Gibson Victory, which was back-breakingly heavy. After one gig with the Victory, I was hitting the recycler and found this very inexpensive, and somewhat thrashed, Japanese P-Bass.

After reading an article by Rick Turner (A co-founder of Alembic, and owner of Renaissance Guitars) I replaced the existing p/u with a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder, and had it wired directly to the output jack, bypassing both the volume and tone controls. This produces a wonderful, bright, clean sound with lots of low fundamentals.

This was my primary gigging bass for quite some time.

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I’d inhereted a real POS Fender Acoustic from my Poor Old Joe bandmate, Brian Nelson. I never liked it, but never thought to trade up either. I started playing the Fender more, just to delve into it, and began to dislike it more and more. It was just a poorly made instrument. I decided that I’d rid myself of it and get something just a bit better. I decided rather arbitrarily not to spend more than $500. After many months of shopping, trying a variety of instruments, etc. I decided that Taylor’s bottom of the line instrument, the 110, was for me. It is made in the same factory as their $5000 instruments, and by the same staff. I found one for sale on Ebay that was in my price range AND that included a hard case. End of story.

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My good friend Mike Weber loves Lap Steel Guitars, also known as Hawaiian guitars. These instruments are some of the earliest electric guitars, and are played with a steel bar in the left hand to select the pitch, and strummed, picked, or plucked with the right hand. He was kind enough to let me play his lap steel and, in due time, I was won over by its charms. I consided buying a vintage instrument, but there is great demand for them, even the ones that are not that great. So, I found Chris Fouke who builds modern versions from modern materials. Although he makes instruments that are designed to be played acoustically, his Indy Rail is definately a screamer when plugged in.

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