I bought my first bass since 1989. It's a 2013 MusicMan Sabre.

Scott Thunes will play it for me. He sent me a photo of it after it arrived at his home.

I always wanted a Sabre. The company made left-handed versions back in the seventies; I actually saw two left-handed Sabres in a pawn shop in Edinburgh, Scotland. One was fretted and one was fretless. This was 1982, when we went there on vacation. I could barely play at the time, and I wasn't about to ask my parents to buy me two electric basses. They wouldn't have anyway. Mom would've said something like, "You'll find them again someday."

Well, no. I looked for decades, but I was never again able to find any left-handed Sabres, fretted or fretless, and then I lost the ability to play. I can still see those two Scottish Sabres, hanging in the window of the pawn shop. I wondered what made that Scottish bassist give them up. Was he or she broke? Addicted to drugs? Far gone in alcoholism? Frustrated at an inability to become a better player? Got bored and moved on to a different hobby? Was there a family tragedy that required a quick infusion of cash? I thought about those basses for thirty-one years.

Here's what the fretted Scottish Sabre looked like. The fretless had a rosewood fingerboard, so it was dark.

Now I finally own a Sabre, and Scott Thunes will play it for me. I can't be happier. The Scottish Sabres no longer haunt me.

One of my goals was to become a killer fretless player, like Pino Palladino.  I could never do that either.

Um, Scott?