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My name is Pedro Rolo Born in Cuba, lived most of my life in the United States
and now live in Rheinland-Phalz Germany. Been playing bass for over 20 years.
Loved music very early in my childhood, especially the tones of the cello and contrabass.
My uncle played for the local symphony and suggested I should learn to play a right-handed
instrument.
I opted to turn around and restring a right-handed Kay bass.
And that was the beginning of my struggle to find a perfect bass, since then I've owned
Vantage, Kramer, and some other low cost basses with ought satisfaction, so then I
decided to put some real money down for what I thought was a great bass, I bought the
Wal in 1987,ordered it from the BassCenter in California ,the guy at the bassCenter
told me they don't sell many Wal Basses to the east coast of America ,at the time I
guess Wal was a west cost thing, anyway loved it and it is still with me.
Then I got the itch for a five string, but a good five string lefty was costly.
Like (Frans Papp) on your list of lefties, I decided to try make my own, I ordered
a Modulus Graphite neck From the BassCenter , I was surprised that they made it for
me,(as far as I know, Modulus doesn't make replacement necks) anyway, then asked Michael
Dolan(Californian based Luther) to make a body for the neck. He told me to send him
the hardware I wanted and he would put it together for me, He made the body from a
one piece swamp ash and put a black finish on it, mounted the hardware and returned
the bass back to me, I put in soap bar EMG pickups and wired the actives. I was impressed
with the work Michael did for me, and the bass turned out great. It was my main live
instrument for a couple of reasons but mostly because it was half the weight of my
Wal.Anyone that owns a Wal knows what I am talking about.
I made one mistake when I ordered the neck; the string spacing wasn't enough for my
long fingers.
I sold the bass to a local leftie bass player that was more than happy to take it off
my hands.
Then I got the itch for a fretless,
I've always been a fan of Pino Paladino, Baghiti Khumalo, Percy Jones and Mick Karn,Just
to name a few. Well….by that time Ian Waller had past away and it seemed like
Wal basses had gone up in price.
So…..I gave my buddy Michael Dolan a call and asked him to make a fretless neck
and body for me.
When he returned the bass back to me, I put in some Bartolini soap bars with dual channel
actives.
Then I routed a cavity for the Gotoh Bridge and made some minor adjustments.
The bass has great response, fast neck, and sounds sweet.
I spend most of my practice time with this bass; I set it up in stereo with two combo
amps.
I run my bass through a small mixing board with affects, choris, flange or delay.
I use mostly combo amps from Warwick, Gallien Krueger and Trace Elliot.
Rather have two 100watt combos than a 200watt head, I find it more flexible.
I was most active with my playing from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties.
Played with a few bands, recorded a project here and there mostly original music.
Sat-in for a few local groups.
At the moment I am not playing with anyone but would like to start-up again.
I live near Ramstein air base and plan to checkout the live music scene soon
Arni,
Nochmals vielen Dank fuer eine tolle Website, wo wir unserer Begeisterung fuer Musik
Ausdruck verleihen koennen.
Pedro
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