About this Website

Hi, my name is Bob Pilch. I am the author of the website bass-guitar-info.com This section is about me and this website (FYI--I used SiteBuildit! to develop this site). Below are some samples of my playing and brief biographical sketch, as well as a form below for comments, suggestions and new ideas for this website. If you wish to contact me, go to the Contact page and fill out the form.

Brief Biography

I have been playing the bass guitar now for about 36 years. I started playing the violin when I was 9 years old. During this time I learned to read music and play by ear. When I was 14 years old, I decided to learn how to play the upright bass. My orchestra instructor (Bob McNamara) loaned me a school bass for the summer. I had a few pointers given to me by my good friend and bassist, Dan Mohler. After the summer of practicing at home, I returned to school, and placed first chair in our orchestra. There were only three of us in the bass section.

The next year I went to Puyallup High School, where we had four basses in the bass section. I tried out for "All Northwest Orchestra" with only 1-1/4 years of experience on the upright bass. I was accepted and went to Portland that year and placed 13th in the bass section, which had 18 basses. The orchestra was selected from the top high school players in the six Northwest States, and contained 200 string players and 50 piece brass section. It was an incredible musical experience, and an unforgettable sound. Later that year I was asked to play electric bass for our schools Jazz Vocal group at a contest in Gresham Oregon. This was my first experience playing the electric bass. I believe that I was borrowing a Guild electric bass from my friend Dan Mohler, since I did not have one of my own. Later that year I purchase my own Guild bass.

My next bass was the Rickenbacker 4001, purchased in 1974. This was the result of listening to Chris Squire of Yes. However, I discovered some short falls with this bass: 1) the electronics were not shielded, 2) there was a capacitor in line with bridge pick up which eliminated 90% of the bass from this pickup, 3) the dead spot on the neck was B-flat on the G string, 4) the E string signal was weak compared to the other notes--this is because on that year and earlier models they actually used a guitar pickup on the bass, as it had six magnet poles.

I then started to experiment with pickup placements on my Rickenbacker, and then started to acquire parts for standard Fender Style basses. I purchase a Warmoth Jazz bass body, which had the wrong pickup style for the neck pick up. It was setup for a P-J type pickup configuration with the P part in reverse, like many Ibanez basses. I still have the bass as a fretless 4 string and use it when ever I need the fretless sound. I also experiment with building my own bodies, and I built two Jazz bass bodies out of laminated mahogany wood scraps. One bass was a standard Jazz bass painted white, the other was a dual P-bass with the pickups shifted toward the neck.

I wanted to get into the five string bass thing, so I bought another Warmoth Jazz bass body for a five string, and a maple neck to go with it. It is not the best jazz bass in the world, since these were "second-string-parts" off the shelf, but it definitely has the Jazz bass sound, even for a five string. But, in all fairness to Warmoth, it is one of the most comfortable and enjoyable playing basses that I have.

I then stumbled into the Apple Music store in Portland, and tried out a Schecter Stilleto Diamond Five String bass. At the time, I had been checking out Modulus Quantum Five string basses, the ones with the graphite neck 35 inch scale, Bartollini Active Pickup, and a $2500 price tag. The Schecter appeared to be every bit as good sounding as the Modulus, and also had more tonal variety with only a $700 price tag. My only complaint originally, is the narrow string spacing. So I bought the Schecter and have been very happy with it for the most part.

I currently own four basses: Schecter 5-string, Warmoth 5-string Jazz bass, Warmoth 4 string fretless, and a 4 string Dean Acoustic/Electric.

As for musical influences on the bass, I have mostly been influenced by Chris Squire of Yes, even though my favorite type of music is Big Band Jazz. Next would be Marcus Miller, Tetsuo Sakuri of Casiopea, and Jimmy Haslip of the Yellowjackets. Also I should mention Ray Brown, and Greg Lake, and my good friend Dan Mohler (local bass aficionado) who has been a great friend and a great bass player in his own right.

Here are a couple of recent samples of my bass playing, using the Schecter bass on YouTube.com:

Below is bass solo of mine on my Warmoth 5-string Jazz Bass.

If your have any comments, suggestions, or ideas that you would like to see on this website, I would sure like to hear from you!

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