So now we are into August. No bass, no pickups, no prototype to test. My wife is 8 months and we are slammed making products, repairing products, dealing with chip shortages, employees, etc. I get call from Mr. X, Are you going to the reveal its next weekend in SF. I said I knew nothing of that and I wasn’t invited. Mr X said “Oh there’s some General Admission tickets left”. That was the HUGE RED FLAG!!!! Why wasn’t I invited? Who did not want me there? If this is the big reveal, should I be there in case something went wrong? Besides, a few of the players on the list are artists that I sponsor. This would be good networking? Also, my son lives blocks away s he is attending college in SF. It would be a great opportunity to see him and even maybe he could be proud of my achievement. Unfortunately, plane tickets were $750 round trip last minute, plus hotel, plus General Admission….Im not going and plus I WASN’T invited. At this point, I was all businesss. My name and the Company was on the line. But they still haven’t put the thing together. Tick Tock.
So, countless calls from Mr. X and Mr. Y on what goes where. They had hired in an Electrical Engineer, but he really didn’t kno-w the stuff. Mr. X calls me and says, “We need to fly you to Dallas or something to fix the bass, they can’t get it to work.”. I said, “heck no, my wife is getting close to due date.” So now they start blaming me for their deadline problems. Im still bummed that I wasn’t invited, but I didn’t want to see them fail. Stilll no mention of the pedal or my involvement. I told them to ship the bass to me in SD and I’ll wire it up in my lab and test it. They punted.
So now it’s the week of the show, and down to the wire. Mr. X tells me that Mr. Y is going to fly form Dallas to San Diego and bring the bass with him, I can fix it and then it will go up to SF. I said I was fine with that, mind you it’s still COVID pandemic. I had enjoyed talking with Mr. Y on the phone and was looking forward to meeting him in person and working side by side. Perhaps this would be the content that would tie it all together.
So early next morning I get a call from some guy with a bass standing at my front gate at 7am. It’s not Mr. Y, but his assistant. He explains to me that Mr. Y and and his wife came DOWN WITH COVID, so they sent him instead. He looks sick as well and even admits to working shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Y for last 48 hours. ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS? You sent your INFECTED employee to MY HOUSE when MY WIFE is 8.5 MONTHS PREGNANT. I tell him to wear a mask and stand outside the door and watch from a distance. I tell my wife and kid to stay in the house. But of course he’s gotta use the bathroom, etc. WTF Mr. X, Mr. Y.??????
So I get down to business and start putting things together, They had already a rat’s nest going inside with really sloppy soldering on my board. WORK, WORK, WORK. Mr. X strolls in around lunchtime bringing with him a sound guy from the Belly Up. Im balls deep in the bass and not really into socializing. But he’s taking pictures and saying this is cool and all that. I felt bad for the assistant guy, as he was pretty nice and really thought these moments of the rubber hitting the road was pretty cool. Almost historical in fact, almost. He also keeps lingering close to me. my wife is PISSED.
Now I’m really thinking, “Who does not want me at that show?” Is it Mr. X, Mr. Y, Alembic, Grateful Guitar Foundation? I’ve even suggest maybe they have me up there in case something goes wrong. What could possibly go wrong? Any way I keep plugging a long as things are starting to come together. Mr. X receives a call from some guy Zach? from Alembic. It’s on speaker phone and he makes an introduction and then steps outside on the call. I faintly hear the voice say something to the extent, “Is the Mu-Tron stuff still in there?”. In disbelief, I think to myself, if it’s not the Mu-Tron stuff, then whose stuff should/would/could it be. I realized then and there what was going on…… It was all just bait to get me to build the LED system, and that these dudes were going to make their own pedal and NEVER support my pedal. It was all just show and tell smoke and mirrors and I was the lackey.
I’m sometimes joke that I’m the Smartest-Dumb guy you’ll ever meet or the Dumbest-Smart guy you will ever meet. I had lost both my parents over the last year, and one thing my mom asked is that I would quit doing anything outside of a contract, even for friends, for the good of doing it. She would say that you expect that everyone else is gonna do the right thing. It never works it out, and I ve been easily manipulated time and time again. Sorry mom.
They were taking all these pictures, but hey “Don’t share, it’s top secret”. Meanwhile, I finished it up and wired in the LEDs, made a few corrections to problems I could find and BAM, the thing was working LEDs and all!!!!!
There was still a bad buzz in the circuit, and I really wanted to tweak with it one the scope and get it just right. I wasn’t sure what they had done before it got to me, but I wanted to go thru that end to end and find the buzz. Was it in the pickup wiring? He said he did some star grounding. Well, that was gonna happen. Mr. X said, he needed to leave to go have dinner with his Mom or something and packed it up. I was kind of like Ok, but don’t mess with it, send it straight to the reveal show. It was the best I could do in the 11th hour. I spent 8 hours on that, no compensation for my time. I was just glad it was done.
Later that evening I received a call from Mr.X that he was trying put the wooden button extenders in the bass, and that he in fact had spilt super glue onto one of the buttons and now the LED board was not working at all. He also told me the bass was going back to Texas so that it could get finished up. Yikes!
The next day, I get a call from Mr. Y and he tells me that now he has broken some wire inside and wasn’t sure where it went, but now this and that wasn’t working. There was nothing I could do and I wasn’t going to San Francisco. They were on their own, I wished them the best and said “Let me know how it goes”. I knew it was catastrophic, and that I was gonna get thrown under the bus. I really wanted it to be ready, and there is no reason why it couldn’t have been. After all, I sent them everything 5 months ago. Last minute crap!
On September 5, 2023 my beautiful daughter, Penelope Rae, was born. She is my fourth child akin to 3 older brothers. I grew up with 1 blood sister, 2 half-sisters, and 4 step sisters. It was nice to have a daughter in my life. She reminded me of my mom.
Still no words back on how the show had gone. I saw picture of a bunch of my friends and some of our artists and the bass onstage. I guess no news is good news right? We had some nice family time and then I went to Hawaii to work on some music projects, teach a music workshop and do a couple performances as well as just decompress.