Victor Bailey Visits FenderŪ!
(Fender | Posted 2004-05-01)
Fresh off the "Legends of Rock" festival in Europe with Peter Frampton, Ian Anderson and Bill Wyman - bassist-extraordinaire, Victor Bailey, stopped by Fender to tell us about finding his long lost love - the original, prototype Victor Bailey bass...
"I was playing down in Houston in September of 2002 and checked in a bunch of equipment and suitcases at the airport," said Bailey. "Someone at the airport took my favorite bass as soon as I dropped it off.
"A year-and-a-half went by and a drummer in Houston bought it in a pawn shop for $120. When he saw it, he new it was worth 15 to 20 times that amount. So, he bought it and told one of his coworkers, who was a bassist, that he bought a Fender Victor Bailey bass. Originally, the bassist hadn't heard of my bass. But, after going to my Web site (victorbailey.com) to learn more about it - he came to find out that my bass was stolen - and, the bass his coworker showed him looked an awful lot like the stolen bass on my site.
"He noticed that my bass had a very unique-colored orange strap and it had a chip near the input jack. He recognized it and sent me a photo of it. So I sent him another picture of me with the bass. We both knew then that it was "the" bass. He got in touch with the guy who had it and they looked at it against the photo on my site.
"He was perfectly willing to give it back to me. We notified the police and the police found the guy who stole it while working at the airport. He sold it to the pawn shop with his driver's liscense!
"See, in the end... everything worked out. It was like Christmas in April (laughs)!"
Note: This article was reprinted with permission from Fender.com. For more great articles and feature stories like these, please visit the 60 Cycle Hum news at Fender 60 Cycle Hum News
