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I always thought the Albert Lee guitar was one of the
greatest guitar designs ever. When Sterling showed us a
prototype SSS bass with an Albert
Lee-style body way back in October of 2008, I thought it was one of the
greatest BASS designs ever, but that was supposedly a 'one-off' and
was just a fun thing for Sterling to torture us
with. If I
recall correctly, that bass was really a test-bed for the electronics
package that eventually ended up in
the 25th Anniversary bass.
The "Big Al" was not, according to unfounded rumors and internet
speculation, going
to be a production
instrument. And then, by NAMM of January 2009, it
was.
Apparently
just after the proto was built, Sterling decided it just had to be a
production model. He said, "I feel a
little guilty as I've
dumped all of this on the engineering guys...and all they have to show for
it is dark circles
under their eyes and a bunch of t-shirts stained
with Thai food." From a prototype to a production bass two
months!
Don't have lunch with Sterling!
But it was
only the 4-string version ("Real men play four strings", I know, Biff,
I know) and I'm always grabbing a
fiver on my way out the
door. I wanted one, but I knew it wouldn't get much action.
Rex sent me one to play for
a little while and I was just as
impressed as I thought I would be, but it had roundwounds and - well, it
was missing
that fifth string. Insert big sigh here. But
even with just the photos, I said, "That's the coolest thing since the
Bongo." And Bongos are pretty
freakin' cool.
Like the
Bongo, the Big Al design has caused some consternation and uproar.
Also like the Bongo, as time goes by,
people seem to settle down after
the initial outrage and might even figure out that it's a damned fine
bass.
When the 5 string
version was released and I found myself in a position to buy one, I
talked to Scott Ball and
asked what he thought. Should I get the
triple single coil version or the single humbucker? (I'm known to be
a sucker for Music Man single humbucker basses.) He said, "How
many humbucker-equipped basses do
you have already?" I admit
that I could not, off the cuff, answer that question. I think I
might have said, "Um, a few."
His advice was to do something
different, try the single coils. He was right.
I still want
a single humbucker Big Al, but this thing
smokes. |
