Cole Prior Stevens represents Louisville at the Monterey Blues Festival in 2003.
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BASSOLOGY MEAT AND POTATOES:For the past 10-15 years, most of my time has been immersed in the 6 string guitar zone, so I haven't owned a bass amp in a few years. After accepting a temporary bass gig in my friend's bluesrock band to cover some local, regional and national gigs, I found myself scurrying for a bass amp to do the gigs.
The first thing I discovered, bass rigs had changed big time in the past two decades! The other thing I noticed was that my choices and the technology had changed tremendously. Once I realized this, I did a lot of research to maximize on the biggest sound I could get for my budget. Since I already owned an 800 watt QRS power amp for my PA, I figured all I had to do was to settle on a bass preamp and a cabinet.
Even though every bass player should own an Eden amp, I ended up pairing up my QRS amp with a Tech21 Sansamp RBI bass preamp. You can dial in big fat warm tube tones all day long with this preamp. It was perfect for what I was used to and it captures the tones that are perfect for blues and rock. The amp & preamp are all neatly housed in a SKB road case.
My cabinet choice was made easy once I discovered the new Genz Benz 410T-XB2 cab. This is a 410 cab with a variable crossover 4" tweeter. The absolutely coolest feature about this cabinet is that it has a pair of fixed casters mounted on the back edge of the cab. When you need to move it, you grab the top mounted handle, tilt the cab and roll it down the road!
The four ports along the bottom of the cabinet allows me to deliver the expected thunder at punishing volumes if needed. For stages of every size, I could not imagine the need for using a larger rig.
PLAYING BASS EQUALS MUSICIAN:
I've been a bassplayer probably a bit longer than I have a guitar player. I first started squeezing the "big notes" in 1966 and by the time Jimi Hendrix debuted Are You Experienced I was already playing in my 3rd or 4th band.
My first lefthanded pro bass was a black Fender P bass. But I traded it for a wedding ring 2 years later. Both the ring and bass have long been gone, but the good news is I'm still playing bass. Most recently with my songwriting pal Greg Clagget's band, LA Groove out of Louisville KY. We played at the 2003 Monterey Blues Festival and headlined at the 2003 WC Handy Blues Festival in Henderson KY.
DONNELL CUSTOM BASS:
Back in 1980 a gifted luthier and repairman from Texas showed up in town one day and decided to open a shop that became the home of Donnell guitars & basses. Ken was a terrific builder and a good friend. About 1981 he bulit me a bass that we co-designed. It was a modified P bass with thinner horns and shorter body. This guitar has great punch and articulation and was used on my CD coming out later this year.
The cool thing about this neck through the body bass it that the body is only 1 inch thick. Most of the world's lightest strats are heavier than this bass. Stocked with a pair Seymour Duncan vintage jazz bass pickups this paduk & curly maple guitar is capped with a sunbursted burled maple laminated top. The ebony fingerboard and Schaller tuners give this 4 string bass a wonderful look & feel I've enjoyed for almost 25 years. Thanks Ken!
STEVENS CUSTOM 5 STRING BASS:
I bought Bill Moll's 5 string bass guitar plans online a couple of years ago. After shopping around for 5 string bass prices proved to be too much on the ole pocket book! When I found Bill's plans I decided to build my own bass. After about 200 hours spread over a period of eight months I became the proud owner of my Stevens 5 string bass.
On the through the neck design, the neck and body wings are made from presentation curly maple. The fretboard is Pau Faro from Brazil. Seymour Duncan Active pickups, Kahler bridge and Hipshot machines are the headliners in the hardware department.
I used walnut for the peghead veneer and walnut filler strips that are sandwiched between the the body wings and neck. This walnut came from a tree that was ripped out of the ground in Cherokee Park by a tornado that blew through Louisville KY in 1974. My good buddy Dennis Robbins gave this wood and now my bass has a little bit of Louisville twister mojo in it and it's a great playing bass. I also want to thank my good pal Chris Rogers for his electronic wizardry too!
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