May 1, 2008 at 10:04 pm · Filed under Brandon's Basses · by Brandon
Been a while….hope to do some more posts this weekend. But in the mean time…….
Check out my new-to-me mid/late 60’s Klira Twen Star 356:
I bought it with these old tapewound strings on it. Haven’t had a bass with tapewounds in over ten years…..forgot how cool they are. The neck on this bass is awesome, and plays like a dream. Plus the bass has 40 solid years of player wear - naturally ‘reliced’.
This bass sounds great unplugged. The quality of the craftsmanship really comes through in the acoustic sound. This particular model has a bolt-on neck, so now I’d really like to try one of the earlier set-neck models.
Unfortunately the electronics and pickup rings are shot. I know for sure that the neck pickup works, and the bridge pickup reads 7.5k on the multimeter, so it should be okay. The pots, switch and jack will need replacing.
A cool thing about these basses (which I didn’t know until a TalkBasser pointed it out and I pulled off the control panel) is that the pickup leads where wired to 1/8″ mono plugs. The control panel and electronics were assembled, and the volume pot was integrated with two jacks. Once it came time to assemble the bass, the pickups were mounted and simply plugged into the control panel before the panel was screwed into the body. Pretty smart…….
So if you know of somewhere I can pickup a few spare Klira pickup rings, let me know!
April 7, 2008 at 9:10 pm · Filed under Bass Sightings · by Brandon
The seller doesn’t give much info about these basses, other than that they were built by the Gretsch (Fender?) Custom Shop for the bass player from the band Train, and there were six made.
The cream w/ red racing stripe is pretty nice. I wonder what the other four colors were?
Auction links:
Blue w/ White Stripe
Cream w/ Red Stripe
February 16, 2008 at 5:42 am · Filed under eBay Oddities · by Brandon
The seller claims that this is a custom/prototype put together back when Danelectro was still alive and kickin’. Whether or not that’s true, I don’t know. Here’s his description:
This is a super rare ’60s Danelectro Coral prototype Vincent Bell style 60s prototype bass guitar. I think that this was an experiment. Basically the folks at Dano took a guitar body and put a Wasp bass neck on it. Please see the last pic, it’s of a prototype sitar with the same type of plastic lable.
I’ve used it to play gigs, and it’s a real attention grabber. I always get looks and comments from other musicians.
It’s so big that I’ve named it “The Boat”.
Here is some history from its previous owner…
…in 1986 Chris Lukasik (now deceased) and I went to Cecil Gullickson’s(now deceased) warehouse in Orlando, Florida and found two of these (I sold the other to the bass player for EmmyLou Harris). Cecil had bought a lot of the defunct Dano inventory and moved it to Orlando to market his then very novel guitar synthesizer(actually used by Steve Miller on an early album). His synth did not become successful as did later ones marketed by Roland, etc. and we bought his inventory. I kept this all those years, sold all the rest. I don’t think there were tuners on it in 1986. I have forgotten the history of the tuners, and one of the pickups I think went dead over the years and chris replaced it, can not remember which one.
The bass makes use of a Coral neck married to an archtop acoustic guitar body with two Dano single-coils mounted in the soundhole. I bet this thing sounds awesome. On to the pics:
Auction Link: VINTAGE 60s CORAL DANELECTRO ACOUSTIC ELEC. BASS GUITAR
February 16, 2008 at 5:17 am · Filed under Bass Sightings · by Brandon
I subscribe to Warmoth’s ‘Showcase’ RSS feed. The showcase is where they list bodies and necks in various stages of completion, usually at a slight discount.
Yesterday this beauty showed up:
Direct Link: Warmoth Cherryburst Beauty
Bookmatched swamp ash on swamp ash. Would be the start to an awesome semi-hollow project.
January 14, 2008 at 9:49 pm · Filed under Site Announcements · by Brandon
To breathe some live back into this site.
I’d like to thank everyone who’s stopped by and commented, and all those that have sent emails with your questions, comments and pics of your awesome basses. I’ve let this site languish for a while and I need to pick it back up again. Your emails will be responded to soon.
So here’s to a good 2008!
August 4, 2007 at 9:32 pm · Filed under Bass Value Trends · by Brandon
This much?
or This much?
Seems to me that Schaller needs to start cranking these puppies out again….
August 2, 2007 at 6:27 pm · Filed under Bass Sightings · by Brandon
This post comes to you via Musician’s Friend’s latest forest-leveling promotional catalog, which arrived in the mail today. Apparently Daisy Rock’s Chinese manufacturer has stepped up the work hours or dipped its toes into slave labor, as this bass is rediculously cheap.
See for yourself: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Daisy-Rock-RetroH-SemiHollow-Bass?sku=514263
I’m not sure if this is a closeout or a permanent price drop. Daisy Rock doesn’t have this model listed on their site, nor is it in their 2007 catalog.
Specs:
- Construction: Bolt-On
- Body: Basswood, Semi-Hollow
- Neck: Rock Maple
- Fingerboard: Rosewood
- Fret: 22 Medium
- Scale: 30″
- Inlay: Dots
- Bridge: Combination
- Tuners: Grover
- Hardware: Chrome
- Pickups: Duncan Designed Vintage Mini-Humbuckers with Active EQ
- Electronics: Master Volume, 12 dB Bass Cut/Boost, 12 dB Treble Cut/Boost, Pickup Pan Pot
- Strings: D’addario Custom Exl 220 Short Scale
- Finish: Stormy Blue
I have to admit, I was tempted to order one just for the heck of it. Kinda reminds me of the days when Musician’s Friend was closing out Danelectro Hodad basses for $99. Guess who didn’t order one? >_<
August 2, 2007 at 7:24 am · Filed under Bass Sightings · by Brandon
Mike Watt (of Minutemen fame) is generally seen playing a Gibson EB-3, but he has decent collection of other instruments (including a Gibson Les Paul Signature Bass) that can be seen here. One of those instruments is now in the hands of TalkBass member SLAPMAN, who has posted it for sale.
According to Watt it’s a “beautiful bass but the neck scale is too long for watt to play live much. great for recording though.” The instrument was built per Mike’s specs by luthier Tim Thelen. The MM-style bridge pickup was removed by Watt and put into one of his EB-3’s. This bass can be yours for mere $3300.
I counted eight layers of binding on the headstock. It sure is one ornate thinline tele bass!
August 1, 2007 at 9:47 pm · Filed under Bass Sightings · by Brandon
A Yahoo Japan auction for a modified Gibson EB-650 ended today with a single bid at 70,000 yen. That converts to $589 US (based on today’s exchange rate). Even in its modified condition, $589 was still a great deal.
If only I hadn’t just bought a Fender Performer bass last month, I might have bid on this bass with the intention of restoring it. Oh well. Maybe one day I’ll have a ‘650.
I found the listing via a thread at the Dudepit, where one of the members in Japan offered to help get the bass to anyone interested. I wonder if this ‘650 is headed back home……
Anyways, the bass was originally cherry red (based on the neck color). The body had been refinished natural, and the frets had been pulled and filled to make it a lined fretless.
On to the pics:
July 10, 2007 at 9:16 pm · Filed under Brand Spotlight · by Brandon
A while back I stumbled upon OnlyBass.com, the French equivalent of TalkBass. Someone had linked to a thread where the members displayed pictures of their collections. The collections were not unlike those of most Americans - full of Fenders, MusicMen (Mans?) with sprinkles of Hofner, G&L, Yamaha, Ibanez, etc.
But one bass in particular caught my attention:
Luckily the owner noted that it was a “Perlgold” from the 60’s. Perlgold was a new one to me, so off to Google I went.
Turns out Perlgold instruments were manufactured in Germany, starting in the 50’s. For a little bit of history, check Jazzgitarren’s post of images from a 1954 Perlgold catalog. Unfortunately, the trail ran cold for historical info on the company.
But I did stumble upon another site with a number of Perlgold models pictured, three of which are hollowbody basses:
This is the same model found on OnlyBass, with a darker sunburst and tortoiseshell pickguard & control plate.
This one has a definite Hofner/Framus vibe going on.
But the crown jewel - the one you’ve been waiting your whole life to see - is up next.
Wait for it…………….
Wait for it…………..
Check THAT out. You might not have noticed it, but the soundhole is located under the strings, between the two pickups. Next to the Yamaha SA-17, this would be a crowning piece in any hollowbody kitsch collection.
The search begins………
Here’s the page where I found the previous three images.
Here’s another page with a guitar similar to the first bass above.
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