New Member - Saul Matas of Bothell, Washington

[SaulMatas]

Hello,

My name is Saulius (Saul) Matas. I live in Bothell, Washington, about 18 miles northwest of downtown Seattle. I play guitar and keyboards. I seem to gravitate towards romantic classical (Tarrega, Albeniz), melodic jazz (Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Ted Greene) and latin, especially bossa (Tom Jobin, Carlos Lyra). But I also love rockabilly, bluegrass and blues.

I have a mint, honey colored, semi-hollow "M mosrite of California by Semie Moseley" bass with a magnificent flamed-maple back - serial number 2DLB0036. I bought it used in November 1980 from a music store in Woodland Hills, California. Other than that, I know nothing about the instrument. The music store owner mentioned that he thought it was from the mid 1960's, but that would have been during the Ventures period, and this instrument doesn't not have the Ventures name on it. I've seen a few Celebrity basses from the 1970's, but my bass has a simpler and more elegant look to it. Unfortunately, one of the Bart Simpson tuning pegs broke a few months back and I had to replace the tuners as a result. But I still have the legacy ones in case I'd ever have to sell this beauty. It has the best neck of any bass - period.

A few days ago I came across a Standel amp at Jame's Shultz's new store, The Guitar Shop, in Seattle. It was the first one I'd ever seen a Standel, and I was blown away when I played it. Everything worked perfectly, although the vibrato channel has got some noise that can be annoying when playing at low volumes. I was certain that I was hearing a true harmonic vibrato, like a Magnatone. Later I realized that it wasn't exactly harmonic, but rather some wild and complex tremolo that sounded like harmonic but without the nauseating effect that I usually get from Magnatones. Anyway, I bought the amp. It's a Standel Custom hybrid, Model 82L15V, Serial Number 2087-1. If that sounds familiar, there was a previous post on this forum back in 2009 showcasing this exact same amp. Apparently the previous poster must have fixed the vibrato channel, because it works deliciously well now.

That's about all I have time for now. I'm looking forward to spending some more time on this forum. I especially would like to know more about my Mosrite bass.

Cheers,

Saul

[MWaldorf]

Welcome to the forum Saul - sounds like you're the new owner of my old Standel amp!

Mel

[Veenture]

Welcome Saul, from Paul

[stl80]

Welcome.
Jim

[FrankJames]

Welcome to the forum !!

[SaulMatas]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

Mel, I promise to take good care of your old amp. Oh, I meant to ask you. The guitar store where I bought the amp also had a Standel guitar. It was definitely a Mosrite design/build. I'll take some pictures if it's still there next time I visit. But I was wondering if that might be yours as well. It would seem an awfully big coincidence to get two rare items like that to separately appear at the same tiny store at the same time. It would be nice to have a matching Standel guitar and amp.

[MWaldorf]

Saul,
Strange as the coincidence is, the Standel guitar wasn't mine - I've never owned one. I hope you at least took the opportunity to try the Standel guitar through the amp - that would be the sound Bob Crooks had in mind!
Mel