When Five Is Better Than Four

 
It's no secret to those who really know me that I love the bass guitar. It's a weird relationship, the one between the bass and I. If you've read my series, "The Bass and I", you already know most of the facts about this friendship.

In our relationship, I've gone between my primary guitar, "The Mexican" (now known as the "Largemouth Bass"), and others (a Fender American P-Bass and a Rickenbacker 4003). I've often found myself at the end of the E-string, wishing I had a little bit more. As a result, the 5-string bass became the object of my secret affections. I began longing, searching for the perfect 5-string.

Early on, I fell in love with the Music Man Bongo 5. This guitar had double humbucker pickups for great tonal flexibility and had a cool, unconventional look. There is a great story about the design of the Bongo, which you can read about here, if you should be interested. I played the Bongo 4 a few times at my favorite Try-It-Before-You-Buy-It store, Guitar Center. It was sweet, and when I got my hands on the 5-string version, it was sweeter. However, the looks of the Bongo ended up being sort of like that weird chick that you may find cool and attractive at first--even irresistible--but the weirdness of it all wears thin quickly and becomes an irritation instead. The looks of the Bongo simply proved too unconventional for my tastes. Also, the price was somewhat out of reach (it retails now for almost $1700). 

Soon thereafter, I transferred my affections to the Music Man Sting Ray 5-string. Around this same time, Ernie Ball released a Sting Ray 5 with double humbuckers (The standard at the time for the Sting Ray had been a single humbucker at the bridge). It was a pretty sweet looking guitar, and Ernie  Ball makes a quality product. It, too,  was a pretty pricey 5-string, coming in just under the Bongo or at around the same price. The Sting Ray is more traditional looking, yet is practically the same guitar as the Bongo, with practically the same electronics package, just a different, more classic look.

Of course, I'm neither spending money at this time, nor am I likely to have $1500 to drop on a guitar any time soon, so I'm just window shopping. I'm comparing guitars, deciding where I would spend my hard-earned bass money if I had it. I'm deciding what I would consider the perfect 5-string to be, at least the perfect one in my price range.

Somewhere along this time, I start reading about Lakland basses. Lakland (the first "a" is long--"LAKE-land") is a company in Chicago that makes only bass guitars. They have gained quite a reputation and are played by some of my favorite bass players, namely Adam Clayton (U2) and Tim Foreman (Switchfoot). I never saw a Lakland in a store, never laid my hands on one. I read review after review, all favorable, all singing the praises of Lakland basses. My favorites became the guitars in the 55-series, which are 5-string basses originally designed by Lakland, not copies of J- or P-type basses.

Lakland, like most guitar manufacturers, discovered that by taking certain portions of their production line and moving them overseas, they could produce a guitar that would be within the reach of a majority of bass players. This is their Skyline guitars, which are partially produced in Indonesia or Korea or somewhere, and final assembly or touch up is done in Chicago. Lakland's American-manufactured guitars approach a boutique-bass price of around $3500, which is out of the reach for all but the most deep-pocketed bass players. My bass-playing pockets are amongst the shallowest.

The more I read, the more I was drawn to Lakland basses, which I will admit is silly given that I had never seen one except as and amalgamation of pixels. Yet I found it hard to shake. As irrational as it may seem, the Lakland remained my favorite.

I have a good friend, Dale. I've mentioned Dale before. Within the last few years, Dale has made two trips to the Philippines, what I would term as "personal mission trips". He has not been affiliated with any mission group. He has simply gone to Manila, lived there for up to 5 months, and plugged in wherever he could to help with whatever needs he found himself qualified to meet. On the first trip, he attempted to help with some medical needs of people affiliated with a church there. That wasn't as successful as he had hoped. Too many hurdles and roadblocks. His second trip followed a typhoon that flooded parts of Manila and created a lot of hardship for poorer folks that lived along the rivers there. Most of these folks are squatters, living in shacks piled almost one on top of another. He affiliated himself with a Filipino pastor working in the Manila area and began helping these people to rebuild by providing materials for their new "homes". He could buy enough materials for $200 USD to build one of these shelters. I don't recall just how many he helped to build, but it was a few.

I was Dale's stateside facilitator. What this means is that I managed his affairs back home, paying his bills, sending him money as he had need, etc.. I was able to maintain sporadic e-mail contact with him while he was in the Philippines and to help him manage his activities there by offering my counsel as the need would arise. The most recent trip was only about 3 months.

Lest you think that Dale and Lakland are two different stories, I will now tie the two together. When Dale has returned from his trips abroad, he has traditionally given me a gift to show his appreciation for helping him out with his stateside affairs. He has been told repeatedly that it is not necessary, but he is both a generous friend and a hard-headed one. In the past, his gifts have allowed me to purchase equipment I would normally not have since most of my money is usually earmarked for silly things like electricity and food. I have tried to spend his money on things we can both enjoy. The last time, I bought a recording interface and a vocal mic.

Dale got back from his most recent trip at the end of February. There were some issues upon his arrival back home that were rather dramatic. I will discreetly not address these to protect the privacy of all parties involved. Let it be sufficient to say that he spent his first three days back in America at my house. For the first 48 hours, he slept almost non-stop on a cot in the boy's room. He began stirring during daylight hours after that, and shortly thereafter left us for his normal living arrangement.

A day or two after he had left my house, we were planning to get back into the swing of playing and recording some things. I had a Saturday off, and he was to come over. We would most likely be starting a new project, nothing of significance most likely, but something different. He texts me on Friday afternoon, asking if he can come over Friday evening for, as he put it, "no more than an hour." I said, "Sure."

Friday evening, he walks in the door with a guitar case sporting a big red bow. "Merry Christmas," he says. Inside the case was a Lakland 55-01 (the guitar shown here). It was beautiful. It felt fabulous, probably the nicest tactile experience I've had that didn't involve human flesh. It played beautifully, having a phenomenal action for a 5-string, or a 4-string for that matter. I plugged it in and it sounded great, too. All things considered, the Lakland was everything I had thought one would be and everything I had hoped one would be. It was, indeed, a dream come true, and a dream come true that was now mine.

I told Dale that he had not been above suspicion in planning this surprise. The last day he was at my house, he spent some time on the Internet, looking at guitars and asking me questions about Laklands and other basses. He asked me which one I liked most. I told him black with a maple fingerboard. My new 55-01 was black with a maple fingerboard. I told my wife of my suspicions. I had a feeling he was up to something.

I think he may have enjoyed giving this almost as much as I enjoyed getting it. What a great gift! It's been two weeks now that I've had the Lakland and I have still not found a single thing about it that I do not like. I think it is safe to say that I am now a dedicated fan and supporter (and owner) of Lakland bass guitars. Sorry, Fender. You'll still be my choice for four-strings, but for five, I'm going to Chicago.