Sander Roscoe Wolff

At some point I decided that I really needed an acoustic-ish bass. I was going for a more folksy sound at the time. My first act was to visit Jack Waterson who, at that time, was working at a music store called Guitar Guitar in North Hollywood. Jack, if you don’t know, was a founding member of, and bass player in, Green On Red, and by far the most ‘pro’ musician I knew at the time. He was steering me toward a beautiful, full bodied Guild which, without a doubt, was a finer instrument but, unfortunately, it was more expensive and didn’t come with built-in electronics, something I was looking for. They had two versions of the Washburn AB-20, a fretted and a fretless. I opted for the fretless. It has a simple piezo pickup under the bridge, and an on-board preamp/eq that was made by fishman (?).

This was my primary gigging and recording instrument for the early acoustic days of Poor Old Joe.

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This was the 2nd bass I purchased. It was a sea change for me, switching from the Guild Starfire short-scale fretted hollow body bass to a fretless solid body. I replaced the stock pick-ups with what were at that time brand new Bartolini 9E p/us which were their first Active pickups that didn’t require external circuitry. I really enjoyed playing and recording with this instrument.

A few years ago, in a moment of creativity and/or insanity, I took an orange paint pen and personalized the body. You can decide if my actions were misguided…

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I wanted a sweet potato (a kind of ocarina) and, because I had some wood left over from my guitar project, thought it might be nice if I could use it for that purpose. I found Charlie Hind who is considered by many to be the preeminant ocarina craftsman in the United States. He graciously concented to working with my wood, even though it caused him a few minor challenges. Check out the photos of the instrument as it is being made. Here are two of the final competed instrument:

He added layers of Birch and Bloodwood veneer as highlights.

I wanted a bowed string instrument, and decided upon the Psaltery. It is a fairly ancient instrument, with lots of character and charm. I found an instrument maker by the name of James Jones. His specialty is the hammered dulcimer, but he also makes harps, thumb pianos (kalimba), slit drums, and even guitars. He was very patient with me, and allowed me to choose the woods I wanted from his rather extensive collection. Here’s a photo:

The woods are as follows: Top & bottom are Stripy Mahogany, sides and bridge are Cocobolo, and the pin block is Rock Maple.

Taken in and amongst the geranims in our front yard.

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Lauren, and her good friend Sierra, went with Shari and I to Little Tokyo’s Nissei Week celebration where they were hosting an Anime Festival. Although it turned out to be rather modest, we had fun, and the girls wore their costumes.

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He loves to play with the furry thing on the end of the string:

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Here are a few more flower photos…

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