Steve Holmes

I’m almost 76. Played tuba in school band. Beatles come out. Immediately get a job & buy a 1959 or 1960 Fender P bass. 1st chair trumpet player forms a group to play Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass songs…we were a big hit. Also Played in many show, rock & horn bands over the years. Join the army to play bass guitar! Find out after basic training at the School of music that there is NO MOS for bass guitar unless you play tuba. Long story short. I played a little guitar (luckily I had my Les Paul with me & decided to audition my abilities.. that weren’t very good. They excepted me but had to learn every percussion instrument to play in concerts & marching bands. Understand I went through all of this because I didn’t want to play, carry & take care of a sousaphone. I end up graduating 3rd in my class .. only because my entry score was very low but brought it up high enough to be rewarded. Also being 25 got to know the instructors who play in my graded 4 piece group before the judging officers. Anyway I passed & went to Fort Benning only to be brought before the band director & 1st Sargent. He had heard that I played tuba in high school & begged me to take it up again… the 1st Sargent had a beautiful Miraphone 4 French valve 4/4 BBb tuba & said I could use it if I agreed to play. All but one of the NCO’s were tuba players and they don’t have to play in the band. So it’s just me… and what I had been trying to avoid from the beginning has now been thrust upon me. Everything I learned.. percussion & guitar was wasted. I’m now playing sousaphone, bass guitar and this great Miraphone tuba… what a sweet instrument. He said I could buy it for $800.. a great deal .. I had just bought a large Ampeg amp with (8 10” speakers) so couldn’t afford it. So jumping ahead about 47 years. I’ve owned 25 or so basses, many Fenders, Acacia custom, Yamaha, FBB, Sadowsky, Lakland, GWB35 Ibanez 5 string fretless & few other fretlesses, 3 Alembic bass one custom made series 1, Rick Turner fretless, Lightwave, and my current favorite a Status S2 classic graphite bass. Over the last 10-15 years I have given away 10 of my basses plus Gibson guitars, many pedals, processors, subwoofers, etc. I gave 35 to 40% of my equipment away to old & new friends. I lived on Snead Island Florida 5 feet from the Manatee River. I’ve been flooded out 7 time over 34 years with sea water raising about a foot at most during these hurricanes. Anyway I had just gotten over my first case of Covid at the beginning of September 2024. We new hurricane Helene was on its way. I brought my van down to load it with whatever equipment I wanted to save. But after unhooking everything (recording equipment) plus gathering up the other stuff I wanted to take found I had run out of strength. I couldn’t believe how weak I felt. Needless to say nothing got loaded. The early evening of the storm I awoke & stepped out of bed to find water about 2.5 feet of water in my place. I couldn’t believe how hear waves crashing against my place. Being weak, tired & not thinking well stuffed one pillow into another with my iPhone & one of 3 iPads & my wallet. As I passed my wall air conditioner water was shooting out from beneath it giving me a idea how high the waves were. I made my way past it to my bathroom with higher water then through back door with even higher water. The waves were crashing a yard or so past my place. I had on a pair of shorts & a tee shirt. My shoes either floated away or sunk. With bare feet I’m searching for my brick winding path to the grassy yard. Almost being swept over 4 times finally my feet find the grass… much easier going. I make it to the main house stairs leading to over garage apartment. Wow! What a night! I called my sister (owned the house & property) telling about the water in my place. She went outside & said, My God the water is hitting the house.. then, My God the water is past the circular driveway.. then, My God the water is past our pond.. then, My God it’s hitting our barn with my van & motorcycle.. then My God the water is over the main road at the end of the property! The worst part is that this was only about a quarter of the way into this hurricane… we had a lot more to go through. Our dock decided to lift up and crash thru the water side of my place knocking out most of my southwest wall were my air conditioner use to be. Only 3 of my 15 basses were thrown around the room.. everything was ruined. Even my new refrigerator was halfway turned over… I had lost everything. My sister had insurance for flooding but found out it didn’t cover my place. She was paying $5,000 a year… oh well. Needless to say I wasn’t sleeping.. guessing my sister & her husband weren’t either. I was terribly weak from my Covid experience so wasn’t much help with clean up. I think I found 8 of my basses the rest?? A friend came out to see how I was doing. He said I gave him 3 of my basses. The only one he could actually clean up & fix was the S2 Status bass. I had totally forgotten I had given him these basses. Maybe 6 weeks later I get an email from him saying What do you think? Showing a picture of a Status bass? I said Man that looks familiar? He said it should..it’s your Status bass! He ordered what he needed from Status.. guessing preamp, pups & battery wiring, etc. I guess he thought of the thousands of dollars in equipment I’d given him this was the least he could do. He had just got married and his place had water damage also but nothing like mine. I asked what it cost him… almost $700. He brought me the status bass along with a Ibanez 5 string fretless I had given him. I slipped a thousand dollars for his trouble. (Hope it was enough?) SO FINALLY WE GET TO MY PROBLEM. I emailed the Status company hoping to talk with Rob Green (I think he owns the company?) to order case, strings & Crome knobs. Dawn answers my email order. Say the case is expensive and the shipping is even more. So I cancel the case but still need strings & knobs. I’m emailed many times for updates but no response… tried again today. I’m dying to play my bass but hard to do without strings. So I’ve tried looking for other brands besides Hotwire like Elites DBE Series Stainless Steel 35-95 Double Ball End Bass Strings. The advertisement says they are 36 inches long…. Is this from the end of each ball or to the inside edge of each ball?? My S2 Status measurement (as best I could) needs, from end of ball to ball is 36.25 inches for a perfect fit. Plus one ball is smaller for placing at neck head… the one in bridge is larger. I don’t know if the Elites have different size balls. SO MY QUESTION IS: Will the Elites DBE Series Stainless Steel 35-95 Double Ball End Bass Strings fit nicely into my 2011 Status S2 classic graphite bass? Thanks, Steve ,