When I picked up my very first instrument it was not a bass, but a guitar. And the bottom four strings of that Sears and Roebuck model were the ones I was unknowingly focused on. I strummed the thick, low sounding strings of E, A, D, and G. Possibly my ear was already attuned to these frequencies from laying under my grandmother's console. Or was it because playing just those four strings was the quickest and simplest way for my teenage brain to make music with my friends? Whatever it was, I was converted to playing the bass in no time and that’s where I stayed (mostly).

I’ve played many basses during my career. I performed with a different bass on every tour over the 10 years I was with the Doobie Brothers. I changed my tone six times. When the mood struck I’d choose a different bass for a specific album or for a new band member. I think of all these basses flowing in and out of my hands, their slender necks held and fingers sliding across fretted rosewood. My custom leather guitar and nylon straps, adorned with cameos and pins, cradled my basses close to my body. Some basses I was able to master easily. Others I fell in love with and of course there were basses I was indifferent about. And maybe there were a few, well I didn’t know any better, and I no longer possess them. As a young musician flashed in the hot pan of rock and roll, I played with passion and grit. I was wildly dedicated to the bass, and I played as many as I could.

Click on “the four strings” below to learn more about the basses I played.

Basses of the Past

Teisco Bass

Fender Precision Bass

Gibson EB 3L

Rickenbacker Bass

The Alembic

Thunderbird Gibson

Fender Precision Bass - aka “Takin’ It To The Streets Bass”

Custom Jazz Bass from Guitar Works Santa Cruz

BC Rich Bass

Music Man Sabre

Phil Kubicki Factor Headless Bass

Last Minute “28” - Ken Lawrence Custom Bass

Paul Reed Smith 5 string