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:

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

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.

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? >_<

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!

Tim Marks has posted his green 1967 Guild Starfire II bass for sale on the Talkbass Forums. It has some wear as can be expected, but comes with the original case. These are pretty hard to come by, and this one is for sale for $2,100 which is a fair price for such a rare color.

Click to view the TalkBass thread where you can contact Tim about the bass.

Listing is for a Guild Starfire Bass that was customised by Doug Irwin, a former Alembic luthier who built some of Jerry Garcia’s most famous Guitars. I bought the bass in 1980 from the original owner, a pro bass player in the bay area. He met Phil Lesh at a SanFran party in the mid ’70′s and told Phil how much he liked his alembicised Guild Starfire. Phil gave him Irwin’s number and after getting Irwin’s OK he went out and bought a mahogany Starfire like Phil’s for the project. Since he played an early ’60′s Fender Precision he had Irwin install a wide, flat, 34 inch scale neck. Bass is in excellent condition and is unchanged from the day it left Irwin’s shop, with Bartolini Hi-A’s, Schaller tuners, a custom made bridge and tailpiece.

I emailed the seller, who provided me with full-size shots of the bass. Check it out:

What’s most interesting about this bass is the 34″ scale, Precision Bass-width neck. If you look at the 2nd image above (of the back of the bass), you can see the extra width because the neck heel is narrower than the rest of the neck.

If you’re interested, the seller can be reached via the original Craigslist ad.

In case you’re not familiar with Phil Lesh’s Alembic-modified Starfire (generally referred to as the “Godfather”, here’s a few pics:

Best. F-Hole Label. Ever.

Similar to Howie Epstein’s Faux-Rickenbacker, this Shaftesbury represents a market that Rickenbacker never capitalized on – a bass version of one of their popular guitar shapes. In this case, the shape is that of the “330″ model:

This bass was going to be the eBay Freak of the Week for this week, but the Rickenbacker eBay Nazis had the auction pulled. They really stepped over the line this time, since Rickenbacker’s name was not mentioned in the auction in any way. Apparently just because it looks kinda like a Rick (remember – Rickenbacker never built a bass like this), eBay bowed to Rickenbacker’s pressure and killed the auction. That knocks Rickenbacker down one more notch, in my opinion. Can they honestly say they feel that their bass-making livelihoods are threatened by a 30+ year old Japanese bass?

Anyways, enough of my rant about Rickenbacker’s stance on copies, whether of the lawsuit variety or not. The point of this post is to showcase this bass. I spoke with the eBay seller, and the bass is still for sale. So if anyone reading this is interested, shoot me an email at brandon[a]hollowbodybass.com and I’ll put you in touch with the seller. The seller is located in the UK, in case that makes a difference to anyone.

This weekend, I drove to the Spartanburg, SC Vintage Guitar show along with my friends Zac (pictured above with my Yamaha SA-17) and Dan. Overall, I was a little disappointed at the selection. There were plenty of $10,000 to $60,000 Strats, Les Pauls and the like, but very little of the guitar kitsch that I love. A few notable exceptions were Coleman Music and Johnny’s Guitars.

In addition to the two Aria hollowbody basses pictured below, Coleman’s also had a Univox Hi-Flyer bass and some other cool stuff.

Both of these basses were in pristine condition. The EB-2-style Aria still has the bridge cover and working string mute. I was very tempted to trade the SA-17 for these guys. If I wasn’t working on a Univox EB-2 copy, I probably would have.

I talked to Chip Coleman, the owner, for a while. We discussed the ever-shrinking pawn shop market and our love of kooky instruments like my SA-17 and the skinny viola bass above. Really nice guy. The basses above were priced at $300 and $350, both very reasonable prices.

If you are interested in either of these basses, click over to www.colemanmusic.com where you can get the phone number and address of the shop. Chip said that the webpage is never up to date, so don’t go looking for these basses there. Just give ‘em a call.

Next up was the Olivia’s Vintage booth. If you’re not familiar with Olivia’s Vintage, they’ve got the best gear pr0n on eBay. They had just bought this clean Fender Coronado I from a show attendee:

I can’t remember the price they quoted for it, but I don’t remember it being out of line. You can inquire about this bass at joseph@oliviasvintage.com.

The last dealer w/ anything funky was Johnny’s Guitars from Tennessee. At his booth were four hollowbodies (more than any other dealer): a recent Epiphone Jack Casady, a 90′s Epiphone Rivoli, a 60′s Guyatone and a 70′s Microfrets Signature Bass.

First up is the Micro-Frets Signature bass. This was a ‘Style 2‘ version and was in good shape. Marked $700.

Next is this funky Guyatone. I was pretty intrigued by this instrument. The body shape, control configuration, bridge and pickguard is the same as a Yamaha SA-70. But this bass had a bolt-on neck with a Gibson lawsuit headstock. The only brand name was ‘Guyatone’ on the trussrod cover. Pickups are typical Aria/Sekova/Etc black plastic covered single coils. Tuners are the typical cheapo rectangular-covered type. The tailpiece (seen below) is different than any I’ve seen before. Neckplate was marked “Tokyo, Japan.” This was by far the coolest instrument I saw at the show. To me, this was also the rarest guitar at the show. Never seen another one like it. I’d love to add it to my stable of funky hollowbodies. This one was marked at $495.

I talked to Johnny for a few minutes, and showed him my SA-17 because I knew he’d appreciate it. He doesn’t have a website, but if you’re interested in any of these instruments, give him a call at 615.574.0008.

Oh yeah – the Epiphone Rivoli he had was a natural-finished version w/ hardcase, in near mint condition, for a measly $550 (which is a pretty good deal).

And I’ll end my report with one of those “man, if I only had $850 to spare” guitars: the Gibson “Pin-Up” Melody Maker:

Check out the auction here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=001&item=110091849404.

$15,000 is a little much for a custom color. We’ll see if anyone takes the bait.