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Post subject: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 9:11 am
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It was announced that a Dee Dee Ramone signature Precision based on his main Olympic White '76 will be introduced lately that year.

Well why not releasing also a Glen Matlock signature P-Bass to honour the Sex Pistols' leading bass nut?

Since the Sex Pistols and the Ramones left their mark in the history of punk-rock, both Dee Dee and Glen deserve each a signature model, IMHO!

The idea of a Glen Matlock P-Bass comes after Gibson released a faithful replica of Steve Jones' "pin-up" Les Paul; it will be losely based on the original natural maple-neck '74 which was chiefly responsible for the best-selling album Never Mind The Bollocks.

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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 5:28 am
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I love them both and they influenced me greatly. Unfortunately, as great as Glen is, and he is great. Sid will always be the "icon" and in the end. Fender already has done a "Sid clone" P bass. So I don't think we're likely to see a Matlock sig Precision.

I know there is a lot going on in the entertainment industry around the 40th anniversary of the release of the first Ramones record. Scorcese is doing a film. Big tribute concert likely. So a Dee Dee sig would make a ton of sense. If Dirnt and Hoppus can get one Dee Dee surely deserves it. Without Dee Dee, no one would know who they were.

Dee Dee may not have been the most prolific of bassists, but he drove that band like a train and had great P tone. He was the foundation for what all other punk bass tone is compared. I may not pick one of these up, but I think it's a killer idea. He certainly deserves the honor. That band, and Dee Dee himself made millions of kids all over the world pick up the bass and realize that music was something they could do. I don't think there could ever be "thank you" enough given to him, or the band as a whole.

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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 5:35 pm
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Actually The DDR USA Artist Series P-Bass was introduced this past July at Summer NAMM in Nashville. Should be listed on the site any day now.

What star caliber players get a Fender Artist Series instrument isn't about being "honored." It is about money and adding variety to the line, but mostly it is about the money. Artists get the "honor" of earning money for the use of their name. They have to grant permission. In some cases this isn't possible due to one of several reasons. Fender also has to believe there is a reason to offer the model and that it will sell well for a long time. Many times artists are playing a stock model so their signature instrument would just be a reissue of say a 77 P-Bass or a 75 Jazz. Yawn.


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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 5:55 am
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We all know how and why signatures work. However, Dee Dee Ramone. Whether you care for him, or the model he played or not. Influenced millions of bassists all over the world. This model should have been done decades ago and could have been a strong seller for years. The fact that Mike Dirnt has 3 models and DDR never got one is just silly.

As far as why it's being done now? Because all the founding Ramones are dead and the people left behind are looking to cash in. As I said, there is something big coming in 2016 for the 40th of the first album. This year is the band's 40th anniversary of forming. U2 just released The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) on their new album that they gave away.

All of U2 was greatly influenced by that first wave of classic punk. Now that Edge and Bono are members of the board I think it's silly to think this has NOTHING to do with honoring Dee Dee and his memory.

Scorcese's film, tribute concert, and probably remastered reissues of the 1st 4 albums are all likely to drop in 2016. It's about money, but it's also about the people who are now becoming forces in the music industry doing the projects they want to do. Paying tribute to the people who helped inspire them.

For the most part most artist models are boring. The Johnny Marr Jaguar being one of the few I have respect for. I love Jamerson and Dunn, but if we're saying that reissues of classic era instruments with artist names attached are yawn worthy. They certainly make the list.

As far as a Dee Dee bass. They could pretty much just reissue the Classic 70's that I used to own in Oly White again, but leave off the blocks and binding. There's the Dee Dee Signature. An early 70's Precision. No frills.

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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:02 am
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I saw the Ramones in( circa) 80 up close. A friend of mine opened for them and somehow I got back stage-- (long time ago) They were very tight and the energy level was way up there..1,2,3,4,--BOOOM!!!! As fast as could be. They obviously were killer popular and played all over the World. I can give them that for sure. As far as DD - he was a great player for exactly what the band played.


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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 1:45 pm
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Yup, Looks like it's the same bass as the Classic 70's. Minus the blocks and binding. Vintage Frets and heel adjustment, but modern fretboard radius. Dee Dee neckplate and booklet/poster. The gig bag is disappointing. They should have upgraded it to the black/orange tolex g&g option. My classic 70's was a hell of a bass for the money. As much as I'd love to see his bass done with true vintage specs this is at a lower price point for younger punk players like The Dirnt. That's really nice. I think Fender did good with this one.

http://www.interstatemusic.com/958494-Fender-Dee-Dee-Ramone-Precision-Bass-Maple-Fingerboard-Olympic-White-0141302305.aspx

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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 10:10 pm
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Jamerson is most noted for his '62 P-Bass named "The Funk Machine." The American Vintage Reissue 62 P-Bass discontinued recently was about as close as you could get to it. If any Fender was ever going to do a JLJ Artist Series instrument it should have been that one.

Dunn is most noted for a pair of 58 P-Basses that were used on most of the STAX sessions. (One of them was lost in the crash of Otis Redding's plane as he had loaned it to Bar-Kays bassist James Alexander who fortunately for him took a commercial flight that day.) The Fender American Vintage 58 P-Bass in sunburst is currently in production and again as close as you can get to Dunn's surviving '58 P-Bass. Again this would have been the ideal bass to have been the Dunn Artist Series model.

There was a short run of Fender Duck Dunn Artist Series P-Basses that were made in Japan. They are a nice collectible being among the first Fender Artist Series instruments, but didn't sound as good as a USA P-Bass.


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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 8:55 am
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Isn't that how the American Vintage Basses started? I thought there was a Jamerson tribute that became the AVS 62.

I'm not disagreeing with you on the boredom of artist models. Just the fact that this has nothing to do with honoring Dee Dee Ramone. Sure it's a cash grab, but considering the guy literally launched millions of bass careers. Successful or not, he certainly deserves a nod. Just like guys like Jaco, or Jamerson. While he was nowhere near a virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination he was a lightning rod for an entire generation of bassists. Of which I am one.

I firmly believe that Bono and Edge probably had a little bit of a hand in making this happen. Because Dee Dee could have been selling basses for Fender for years had they approached him. There are guys who are on Fender's roster who owe what they do to him. Dirnt, Wentz, Hoppus, Freeman? All descendants of Dee Dee. This should have been done forever ago.

However, the industry is in love with the idea of making money off the glossy Hollywood version of punk rockers now that they're gone. They certainly wanted no part of them when they were alive. Who would? Dee Dee, bless him, as great of a songwriter as he was and as influential as he was as a bassist was a bit of a wreck. I just hope the people benefiting from this are people he cared about.

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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 11:42 am
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Are we sure that there are really 1,000,000 bass players? Maybe? So anyway.......


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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 12:44 pm
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Between now and 76? Maybe.

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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:50 pm
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TheKingofPain wrote:
Isn't that how the American Vintage Basses started? I thought there was a Jamerson tribute that became the AVS 62....



The Bass Centre in Los Angeles commissioned the Jamerson Tribute model as a Custom Shop private tribute model in the early 1990's and took delivery on every single one of them ever produced. They were not "Artist Series" instruments but a Custom Shop Tribute model exclusive to the Bass Centre and were promised to be limited to 100 copies at the most. Chris Maury of Bass Centre began the advance legal and design work in consultation with James Jamerson, Jr in 1990 for the "Funk Machine" tribute and the Jamerson tribute model came to fruition in December of 1991.

Around the same time Maury was also ramrodding a second exclusive Custom Shop Tribute model for his store, the Jaco Pastorius Tribute Jazz which was also to be limited to 100 copies. It came to fruition second in 1992. The "Bass of Doom" tribute was created in consultation with Kevin Kaufman who was Pastorius' bass tech and in addition to routinely maintaining Jaco's bass he was the man who rebuilt the TBOD after Jaco smashed it to bits. Neither original instrument was actually available at the time to copy since both were stolen leaving JLJ, Jr and Kaufman as the most qualified experts available that were intimately familiar with the missing originals and could provide indispensable input to get them as right as possible.

The neck on the Jamerson tribute was different from the AVRI 62 mass production bass to come later because the Custom Shop/Bass Centre Tribute had a first generation nut width and larger than 62 radius with clay dots. It was not the more modern thicker shape of the mass produced 62 AVRI. At the time Jamerson bought what became known as "The Funk Machine" Fender would sell a P-Bass with several neck profiles to cater to people accustomed to them from previous models. The one on the Jamerson Tribute is what is sometimes called a "BLADE" or "PANCAKE" neck because they are flat, thin and wide. Jamerson bought the bass known as "The Funk Machine" to replace a stolen older P-Bass so it would have been totally reasonable for him to pick a new model with an older model's neck profile. This concept seems validated in the neck of the Bass Centre Tribute that JLJ Jr. signed off on. It is a pancake neck. The CS Jamerson tributes also came setup with Labella 760M flats while the Jaco tributes came with Rotosound rounds.

It should be pointed out that there is controversy today about what model year The Funk Machine actually was in the first place and also over both when and where it was stolen. There is some photographic evidence and testimony (including Jamerson's own 1979 "Guitar Player" interview) disputing the widely held belief that The Funk Machine was a 1962 model and (Bob Babbitt's statement) that is counter to the conventionally accepted story that The Funk Machine was stolen in Los Angeles from Jamerson's house in the final days of his life as he was dying down the hall. Babbitt believed TFM was stolen in Detroit before Jamerson actually moved to LA and that the bass Jamerson was playing in LA was not actually The Funk Machine at all but a mid 60's P-Bass he had substituted instead. The facts that TFM actually could be a 63 and not a 62 and that it may actually have been stolen in Detroit instead of LA is roughly equivalent to the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" digging in the wrong place. Everyone has been looking for a 62 all this time. TFM is almost always said to be a '62, but Jamerson himself clearly said it was a '63. It is clear in some photos that the decal and fretboard appeared to be 63 to 65 and not a rosewood slab 62 at all.

It is an enigma. Was Jamerson trying to throw everyone off saying it was a 63 or was it really a 63? Did he try to cover up the fact it was lost before he moved to LA fearing he wouldn't get as many session calls if people knew it wasn't TFM he was playing? Lots to consider.

Both Bass Centre tribute models had special engraved and numbered Custom Shop neckplates which is the only distinguishing mark on either model explaining what they actually are. "James Jamerson Tribute Model 22 of 100" for example. While the run was to be limited to 100 at the most there were actually only 35 to 50 of each produced before Bass Centre folded according to Chris Maury of The Bass Centre. The certificates included with the Jamersons were signed by both James Jamerson Jr and Chris Maury. John Page and J.W. Black supervised these Tributes at the FCS.

Both these Bass Centre tribute models are A+ investments because they are so darn scarce. They seldom show up in "public" sale forums any more and mint will bring from four to eight times the original sale price. Maury is said to have had several left and may have shipped some of them to London where several have shown up in the Euro collector market. The weak point in them would be the cases. The case lining colors are off from the real deal as the original orange colored poodle fur material was not available at the time so they used red.


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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 5:39 am
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^ Now THAT'S good info! Thanks, Dave!

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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 9:08 pm
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interesting stuff!


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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 7:18 am
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Bro Dave has some of the best reliable info out there. I think he may have a "talk typer" though ... that would be cool== I need one. Maybe not though. I still want to know who's smashed P bass that is at the R+R Hall of Fame.


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Post subject: Re: Dee Dee Ramone & Glen Matlock signature Precisions?
Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:33 am
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Paul Simonon. A bassist who had a big hand in me picking up the instrument.

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