Detox can be expensive. I asked Toxic if he still had a bass that he wasn’t using. He confirmed by telling me a string was missing and the neck was warped. In exchange for letting me borrow it, I offered to fix it up and babysit it until he was ready to play again. Two nights later, he asked if I wanted his vintage Ampeg B-15N, too! He said no sound came out. I offered to sell it for junk on a net auction and give him the money. He said he didn’t need it, and at that very moment was selling his collection of rare-groove to Disk Union. Hearing that really broke my heart. It was like finally getting the call confirming someone ill or missing as dead.

Just before coming over to drop the stuff off, he offers me his Technics 1200 turntable for 15000 yen, but when he arrived he just GAVE it to me because it was old, dirty and had no needles. After thanking him, we took a ride to Shibuya to get paid for his stash by Disk Union. They were offering between 10 and 400 yen for just awesome stuff by Les McCann, Miles, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green. Most of it was probably reissues, but that music heard on vinyl is like nothing else (particularly when high and in the company of good friends in the summertime.) So I offered to buy it at what Disk Union was offering.

I treated him to Thai (food) to express my gratitude at his generoisty. When I asked him why he was getting rid of it, he said he needed more space in his apartment. That I could surely sympathise with, and ironically I have really volunteered to deal with his problem. The bass and amp stink like an apartment NEVER cleaned by it’s smoking bachelor occupant, and forced me to reorganize my front room to accomodate it. They won’t be here long. A coworker will be sub-letting the bass. The amp will be auctioned off as soon as the replacement tubes arrive, but not as junk. It works fine. Toxic just never noticed that the speaker wire was disconnected.