Last weekend, my father and I took a road trip to Charlotte for the annual guitar show. This year’s venue was the “Metrolina Expo.” I was expecting some sort of expo/convention center-ish setup, but instead the Metrolina Expo turned out to be a big flea-market-esque building. To me, this really cheapened the feel of the show. In previous years, it was held in the Charlotte Shriner’s meeting hall – a much nicer place.

Overall, the show was okay. Got to play a couple hollowbody basses and other stuff that I hadn’t been able to get my hands on prior to the show.

I’ll start with the few that I got pictures of. Pics are from an iPhone, so they’re not spectacular quality. First up is a DarkStar’ed Ibanez ASB-140:

DarkStar sounded pretty good (from what I could tell over the crowd noise while playing through a tiny amp), and the setup on this bass was impeccable.These recent long-scale hollowbodies from Ibanez are very well built, but I’ve never warmed up to the shape/size/profile of the neck.

Next up is the bass I probably would have bought, had I not just dropped a bit of cash on a Danelectro ’63 (more on that to come): a slightly used DiPinto Belvedere Standard. The dealer was asking $350 for it (fair price). I had a chance to try it out through a random Hartke head and 4×10 cabinet, and I was surprised at the tonal range. Sounded great finger-style as well as with a pick. Neck was a very comfortable Jazz Bass width and profile. I hadn’t had the chance to play any DiPinto basses until this show and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised.
 

Yes, I know the Gibson RD Artist above isn’t a bass (nor is it hollow), but that doesn’t keep it from being dead sexy. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to play the RD plugged in. I also had the opportunity to play one of the recent Gibson RD Standards (the silverburst ‘guitar of the week’ model), and the original had a better neck profile and was a little lighter.

I played several other basses that I didn’t stop to take pictures of, including a 60′s Guild Stafire w/ Hagstrom pickup, a couple Gibson basses (Ripper & Thunderbird), a Sekova beatle bass, and several others.

I’ll leave you with a couple random pics. First up, a Maestro beatle bass:

And several vintage pieces from the Low End, notably the black late 60′s Jazz Bass with matching headstock, blocked-and-bound neck, and gold hardware: