The story in his own words. 😎
In 1984, lived in Tooting London and wanted a new bass
guitar. I have no idea how it all came
about but a mate of mine from Clapham and another from Putney decided we were
going to have guitars made from scratch.
Two guitars with loads of switches and beautiful woodwork and a black
headless bass. We set off to Luton to a
lovely cottage and was greeted by a very lovely woman named Val. So warm, so friendly an accommodating. From memory, Ges was quiet but absolutely
loved what he doing. Mick was very
energetic and full of loads of wonderful ideas.
After our first meet, they packed us off to go away and come back with
our designs. I drew the body shape of my
bass on the back of wallpaper.
I think we were all back within a week with our various
shapes, sizes, colours and pickup positions and active controls which I think
was still relatively new back then.
There would be mad discussions mainly directed by Mick while Val filled
us up with tea and biscuits. Ges and
Mick were so excited about making these three guitars, almost even more than we
were. Two of us were touring with
Desmond Dekker at the time. One of my
mates used his guitar in a band called Screaming Target, who later became Big
Audio Dynamite, who later became Dreadzone.
I remember him selling his guitar to a music shop to buy a Gibson or
something. They were absolutely raving
about it, and couldn’t get it out his hands fast enough. I think he later regretted it.
We made a few trips the check on the progress and watch our
babies grow and grow into full maturity.
All three were a work of art. I
can’t remember how much I paid but I could not believe how inexpensive it was
for the time effort and care they put in.
Unbelievable.
I still have my bass, it stands in the corner of my living
room, so I’m actually looking at it every day.
I It’s very similar to your black
headless bass except the back of the top edge runs longer than the bottom creating
a kind of shark appearance without a top fin.
Happy days J
There is another image with Norman and Desmond Decker, playing a Peavey T-40, which he also loved.
"I know what you mean, Norman" 😉
Cheers. 😎
