Ampeg AUB-1 (fretless) bass
The Ampeg AUB-1 (fretless) bass features a scroll headstock, and a rounded body with two large F-holes that go all the way through the body. Most of the front surface of the body is covered by a large black pickguard that wraps around the F-holes.
The initial development of these instruments was done in the spring of 1966, A total of about 1150 instruments including the fretted models (AEB-1) were built in Ampeg's Linden, NJ factory.
The AUB-1 features the "mystery" pickup, as it was called in Ampeg's brochures It is buried in the body underneath the bridge. The bridge itself is mounted on a thin steel diaphragm plate overtop of two big magnetic coils cast into a large epoxy block. It's not a piezo pickup.
The reason for this unusual pickup is so that the bass could use gut strings! Everett Hull, Ampeg's founder, was trying to create an electric bass for upright jazz players, and he thought that fretted basses with metal strings were just a passing fad. The tailpiece on these instruments hangs about an inch off the back end of the body on two steel posts, and the extra length between the bridge and tailpiece requires special strings that are about 3" longer than standard Fender length. This was done partly to get the necessary string angle over the mystery pickup, and also the extra string length allows the strings to stretch more, so they can be plucked harder like an upright bass.
The necks on all Ampegs are maple, and the center scrolls in the headstocks are actually molded plastic parts which are glued in place. The fingerboard on this one is Ebony.
The body is made of three blocks of maple glued onto a one-piece back cut from 1/4" birch plywood. Over the years, many of these instruments have developed cracks in the body . This one had a crack that was repaired on the bottom lower bout. The pickguards on all Ampegs are made from a 5-layer engraver's stock, a hard laminate plastic which is used to make signs and nameplates on trophies.
This particular bass has the distinction of being the main performing instrument by the great Motown Band leader Jimmy Garret. Mr Garret had a long and illustrious career backing up the Supremes, the Temptations as well as many others.
Here’s a quote from soulfuldetroit.com:
James "Jimmy" Garrett
1927 ~ March 5th 1993
James Garrett was the music director and road bassist with the Supremes who helped them develop from a narrow rock style into the top female group in popular music history. Mr. Garrett, 66, died of complications of diabetes in Teaneck, N.J. He is survived by his wife, a son James of Ontario, Calif.; daughters, Shirley Jackson and Anita of Cleveland and Grace of Dover, Del.; two sisters; three brothers; nine grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Jimmy was born in Cleveland and spent part of his childhood in Detroit and Chicago. He played in the band at old Central High School and studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He also attended military music school and played with a Navy band in Washington, D.C., during World War II. After the war Jimmy played with blues man Robert Lockwood Jr. and studied with many top jazz bass players, including the legendary Oscar Pettiford. During the 1950s, he played in leading Cleveland jazz clubs including the Tia Juana, Town Casino and Cedar Gardens. He accompanied and traveled with top musicians, including Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday. He played with Ray Charles at a bar near Mr. Garrett's home at E. 69th St. and Cedar Ave. While in New York City in 1961 his future wife, Ella, hired him to back her while she sang at the famed Small's Paradise in Harlem. "He also played with Count Basie every Sunday and whatever bass players were in town came just to watch him work," Ella Garrett said. Jimmy Garrett joined Motown records in Detroit in 1962 and played with such greats as Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, George Benson, the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson. He was named music director of the Supremes while on tour with them in England. "Earlier directors had lacked his training and did not provide the versatile arrangements that Mr. Garrett did", his wife said. He also set trends in stage appearance when he arrived at Motown, she said. "He had a beard, but (Motown founder) Berry Gordy told him he had to shave. He said he would quit first. Pretty soon, everybody had beards, even Mr. Gordy," Ella Garrett recalled. In 1972, when Motown sadly moved to LA, Jimmy played on the "Today and Tonight" television shows, in Broadway musicals and with the Cab Calloway band. He toured the world and worked in Japan for more than a year. He performed during the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. James 'Jimmy' Garrett received many awards for his musicianship as well as citations for the four times his groups played for the royal family in England. |
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