Just Touching Bass
You saw it for Thursday Night Video but here it in all the glory the messed-up "kit lens" on my Rebel can provide: a Carvin Bromberg B25P in a suspiciously PRS-esque finish. [gallery ids="1222,1221,1219,1220"]
It wasn't supposed to look like this. When I sat down (well, we remained standing, to be truthful) with Flock at the Carvin showroom in San Diego during my lost weekend in La Jolla to spec this bass out, it was supposed to be finished in Carvin's hugely-popular "Aquaburst". with just one caveat: I wanted the colors to match my Paul's Guitar. Towards that end, I had photos of that guitar printed and sent to Carvin. (Protip: Wal-Mart is capable of doing color-corrected 8 1/2 x 11 prints, something I never knew, and they look spectacular.)
What I didn't know was that the sprayer would get the crazy idea to paint it to match the PRS --- front and back, body and headstock. Flock called me from NAMM to give me the choice: Did I want the guitar like that, or did I want them to scrap it and build me another one in proper Aquaburst?
You're kidding, right?
I don't want to take a picture of it next to my PRS because some purist from a PRS Forum will get super-angry about it and accuse Carvin of copying the finish and whatnot. They did copy the finish, but they were copying my personal guitar and given that I own sixteen PRSi, all US-made and half of them either Private Stock or from the Wood Library, I think Paul will give me a pass. But if you watch the video you can see that it's an exact color match. The fade isn't as good as it is on the PRS, because nobody does a fade like PRS Private Stock. That's one of the reasons you pay new-car prices for one. This bass was outright affordable by contrast, even though it, like my Koa Elite Bromberg B24P, is an Elite Fiber "Option 50" model.
Patrick, my trusty bassist, fiddled around with it for the better part of an hour trying to find "his" sound. The Brombergs can do anything, from woody piezo to P-bass thump. It just takes a while to manipulate the five different controls on the thing.
Do we have room for a candid shot of me when the thing showed up? Yes we do.
Do we have room for the next photo in the series, which is a total accident but has a I'm-rocking-my-own-living-room vibe? Yes we do.
Insert "that's the wrong kind of Dyson / your bass SUCKS" joke there. So that's the story: Bitter journalist/racer/programmer/et cetera acquires super-fun five-string bass, is totally thrilled by it. I'm hoping to play it at a party in Chicago next month, injuries and weather permitting. In the meantime, if you want one just like it, you know what to do: call Flock!