Buffalo Springfield Reunion Features DeMars Long Trail Bass

When someone as respected as Larry Cragg calls, those of us in the stringed instrument world listen. Cragg, a long-time instrument tech for Neil Young and a well-known aficionado and repairman of vintage gear, has been familiar with the DeMars instruments for awhile, having inspected a couple instruments brought to his shop by DG west coast sales rep Rick Solomon.

Neil Young’s annual benefit gigs for The Bridge School have enjoyed marked success over the past two-and-a-half decades. The two-day 2010 gala was held on the weekend of October 23-24, 2010 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View CA. The benefit proved to be both unique and special: a one-time reunion of Buffalo Springfield, uniting Young onstage with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. Larry knew that there would be a number of acoustic-oriented tunes and had just the bass in mind: a DeMars 4-string Long Trail, to be played by Neil’s bassist Rick Rosas.

A dilemma, however, presented itself: there were no spare basses available to lend. The solution: company head Dan DeMars sent Larry his personal Long Trail bass, serial number 001. “We’ve sold out all our current inventory of basses and guitars”, noted Dan. The bass was sent via UPS Overnight, arriving safely in Larry’s shop for inspection and set-up for the week-long rehearsals preceding the gigs.

The result: not only was the bass played by Rosas in the Buffalo Springfield sets, but was also available for bassists such as Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam), Bob Birch (Elton John), Eric Judy (Modest Mouse), Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear) and Stephen McGrath (Billy Idol).

The Buffalo Springfield set list included gems such as “Mr Soul”, “For What It’s Worth” and “Rock & Roll Woman”, among others. The concerts closed each night with an all-band version of Neil Young’s “Keep On Rockin’ in the Free World” backed by the DeMars bass.