Bass-Meant! How Chase got funky and Gibson shook up the Bass world!

Back in Fall/Winter 1973, I was a member of the Chase Band working on a new album at Chicago's legendary Universal Studios. We were working hard both in the studio and also on the road around the Midwest doing gigs all over Indiana, Iowa, Illinois and even Tennessee and further. After a furious road trip, we'd head back to Chi-town to finish tracks and polish things up for an early '74 release date for Epic Records. One day, this guy walks in and he's introduced to me as Bruce Bolen, a guitar designer and heavy dude at Gibson.

We started talking about a new instrument that he was sheparding through the design process and he said he needed some input from players working in Jazz and progressive rock. I was heavily into my Fender but I thought it would be cool to work on a new design. Well, I wasn't prepared for what Bruce pulled out of a case he brought with him. What I saw was a beautiful blond maple bass guitar that looked like a more elegant Telecaster-type squared off body with a really fast neck that made it easy to play just about anything.

After playing around with the thing for awhile, I could hear that the thing had real possibilities--except for that body that felt a little unyielding with the squared off edges of the body. The electronics were pretty interesting though it's less-than-thunderous bass response with the phase switch in positions other than "1" did not knock me out. (Remember I was a Fender Precision fan and that sound is, well, that sound.

So, I loved how it played but wasn't crazy about the sound (yet).I asked about tapering the squared off body edges and some other feedback about making the pickups a bit beefier. Bruce took the guitar back with him and within a week he was back with what looked like my dream guitar. Lean and tapered it looked much better and played nicely because it was easier to hold and balance with the tapered body modifications.

At this point, a deal had been put together to have us do a promotional effort for this new instrument and, of course, the Gibson folks asked Bill to do a musical piece for a demo. Well, Bill, being the guy he was, turned it over to me. "It's gotta have a bass solo so you should come up with something you want to play on." said Bill. The result was Bass Meant. A piece that gave Tommy Gordon and I a chance to play one of our shuffle-funk variations and Bill an opportunity to work his magic on one of my ideas. Oh yeah, once it got going, it was apparent that there was something missing and that's where Nashville-bred Bruce Bolen came to the rescue. Usually the producer on the gig is just that but as the session was coming together it was easy to see that Bruce was itching to get in on the action--and I'm mighty glad he did.

He picked up a tele or a 335, memory escapes me, but the greasy-as-hell guitar lines you hear throughout and the "dickie betts" lick at the end of the last A section in my solo is Bruce doing his thing with a big grin on his face. He, of course knew what he wanted as far as energy on the track and luckily all the elements came together to make a "dumb little project" into something I'll always remember fondly. Funny to see that this thing is now a collectors item for several reasons. I want to thank the editors over at gibsonbass.com for finding me by doing the same sort of searching I do to find the iconic figures in my journey through this life.

DARTANYAN 2008 ©MAYORISHA MUSIC

My setup at the time was my guitar and a Fender Tweed 4-10 Bassman! That's it. The sound guys kind of hated it but onstage it was cool because the sound could get loud without taking over the sound of the trumpets, synthesizer and whatever else was up there. The Bassman coupled with the Ripper gave me an almost tenor bass sound that I could voice in with the overall band to very good effect. Bill thought it was cool because it kept a very distinct place in the mix. The band was very loud and the entire spectrum was overloaded. I just wanted to command the range from 80-400hz and let it go at that. Later, I got another 4-10 cabinet powered it with a Crown D-150, preamped the Crown with Moog's monstrous 3-Band Parametric EQ. Clean, powerful, and Loud without being woofy. A great setup that worked well in 1974. Classic gear baby.

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It's now 2008 and thanks to Al Milburn, my San Rafael-based guitar tech, my Ripper is playing better than ever!! I use my Ripper bass these days in conjunction with GuitarRig from Native Instruments. I've been using synthesizers and digital toys since Wally Yohn brought his Arp 2600 on the road with Chase and GuitarRig makes it possible to do things with my laptop and guitar that only would have been possible by spending thousands of dollars and hours in a commercial studio like Universal. That out-of-phase sound (positions 2 and 4) that used to put me off the Ripper now supply the raw material for some great solo and texture sounds when processed through NI's superior collection of string sculpting tools. I'll have some new music