March 24, 2007 at 3:03 pm · Filed under Bass Sightings · by Brandon
A Talkbass‘er pointed out a New York Craigslist posting for a Guild Starfire modified by luthier Doug Irwin. Irwin worked for Alembic and modified/repaired/built guitars for Jerry Garcia. According to the seller, this bass was custom ordered by a Phil Lesh fan:
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:
March 21, 2007 at 9:26 pm · Filed under eBay Oddities · by Brandon
This week’s freak is a 60’s Kay 5915, with a few ‘upgrades.’ The original pickup is gone, and in its place is a Precision-style pickup arranged like two separate single coils in the neck and mid positions. Top it all off with a gold sparkle finish and call it a day:
See the auction (with a few hours left): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&viewitem=&item=120098396941
March 16, 2007 at 9:42 pm · Filed under Hollowbodies in the Media · by Brandon
It probably doesn’t surprise you that I subscribe to Vintage Guitar Magazine. I received April’s issue a while back and way surprised at the numerous hollowbodies included in that issue. Here’s a run-down:
Everybody’s favorite SNL band leader and a sexy Kay 5970B (B as in Blonde):
Then a bunch o’ hollowbody basses from the collection of Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson:
Above, a large-bodied Framus Star in “Humbug” finish. Below, a ‘59 Hofner 500/5 President, 60’s Klira Twen-Star and small-bodied ‘62 Framus Star, also in “Humbug” finish. (Notice how the Klira is incorrectly labelled as a Hofner. Come on VG! That’s an amateur mistake. 
)
Lastly, a 3/4-size ‘61 Framus Star and another 50’s Kay 5970 (modified with what looks to be a Hofner ‘Staple’ pickup.
March 4, 2007 at 2:20 pm · Filed under Random · by Brandon
I just bought a bass off eBay and offered to help the seller with some pointers on shipping the instrument, and I figured others might find the information helpful as well. Keep in mind these pointers are based on my personal experience. I’m not dealer, but I’ve shipped my fair share of instruments and I’ve had the good fortune of never having one (that I packed) suffer damage. Unfortunately, I’ve had many poorly-packed instruments sent to me, each with its own battle scars. So without further ado:
How to Ship a Bass
Scenario #1) No Case
If you don’t have a hardcase for the instrument, double box it. Wrap the bass in a material that won’t chemically react with the instrument’s finish or physically mar it in any way (if all else fails, a trash bag will work). Place the bass within a box (we’ll call this the ‘internal’ box) with dimensions similar to that of an appropriate hardshell case. Place padding around the instrument so that it is snug within the internal box. Seal this box and give it a shake test. If the bass slides around, you need more padding. If the bass is snug,then place this ‘internal’ box within a box that is larger by about 2″ all sides. (Larger than 2″ is okay, you’ll just need more padding.) Place padding around the internal box until it is snug within the external box. Tape up your box, slap on the address label and you’re done.
Scenario #2) Gig Bagged
Follow same steps above except forget about wrapping the bass before you put it in the internal box. That’s what the gig bag is for.
Scenario #3) Hardshell Case
With a hardshell, there isn’t a need for an ‘internal box’ because that’s what the case is. So to start, check the bass’s fit within the hardshell case. If you can shake the case (while closed) and the bass doesn’t shift, you’re okay. If the bass is shifting within the case, figure out where it’s shifting and pad those areas to eliminate this movement. Once any internal movement has been eliminated, the ‘cased’ bass needs to go within the ‘external box’. As with the previous example, I like to have a few extra inches of padding between the case and external box. However, with the added weight of the hardshell case it is extremely important that the space between the case and the external box is jammed with as much padding as possible (bagged air, packing peanuts, styrofoam remnants, bubble wrap, newspaper, etc) so that the hardshell case can’t easily shift back and forth within the confines of the external box. Once you’ve got this padding in place, tape up the box and ship out.
Caveat #1) Do I HAVE to pad between the hardshell case and the external box?
Technically, no, you don’t HAVE to. But you should. I’ve had basses shipped where the external box was sized the same as the hardshell case; the case provided the only real padding and the box was there to keep the outside of the case from getting beat up. These basses arrived with no problems whatsoever. (In fact, a lot of manufacturers ship this way.) However, I think you’re just asking for trouble to send an instrument like this. All it would take is one well-placed blow to the box to go right through the single layer of cardboard and into your case (and potentially your bass depending on how hard and deep the impact is). I’d rather not leave it to chance and add that extra padding.
Caveat #2) Packing materials
Think about what material you’re using to pad your boxes and how much weight that material will add to the overall package and shipping cost. My favorite packing material is bagged air. Most manufacturers and online retailers use this stuff because it provides the most cushion with the smallest amount and weight of material. If I don’t have bagged air, packing peanuts are my next choice because of the light weight. I’ve had to use newspaper as a last resort before, but any type of paper packaging gets heavy if you actually do a good padding job.
Caveat #3) Tape
I prefer reinforced paper tape. It just holds better. If you don’t have paper tape, use shipping tape. If you don’t have shipping tape, use packing tape.
Caveat #4) Bass prep
The only thing you really need to do to a bass before shipping it is to put it in the case or gigbag. That’s it. Leave it tuned up. Detuning is not good for a traveling bass. Unless you’ve got some super fancy instrument that already has special care requirements of its own, just put the bass in the case and start packing.
Caveat #5) Choosing a Carrier
Avoid UPS like the plague. They break stuff. I’ve never had a problem with Fedex or USPS. My preference is USPS because they have more locations, they’re cheaper, and they tend not to deliver packages that embody the term ‘FUBAR.’ Your mileage may vary.
February 28, 2007 at 6:47 pm · Filed under Bass Sightings · by Brandon
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.
February 25, 2007 at 10:14 pm · Filed under Bass Sightings · by Brandon
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:
February 20, 2007 at 10:57 pm · Filed under Historical Significance · by Brandon
A few years ago, I visited the EMP and was able to see what I thought was Gibson’s first electric hollowbody bass. Turns out I was actually looking at Gibson’s second electric bass.
Oddly enough, the University of South Dakota is home to the National Music Museum, which houses over 10,000 musical instruments from all over the world and from various time periods. One of those instruments is a 1938 Gibson Upright Electric Bass prototype. This bass has a small (for a bass) ‘electric frying pan-esque’ body shape and a Charlie Christian pickup. According to the description the neck is the same type used on the Gibson Mandobass.
Click here to see the full description on NMM’s website.
The NMM site has tons of information and images about the instruments in its collections. I’d recommend hitting the homepage and meandering your way through the site. It’s a pretty interesting collection.
February 20, 2007 at 7:08 am · Filed under Bass Sightings · by Brandon
The f-hole label on this ‘67 EB-2 says “EB-2 (Spec)”, which lends some credence to the claim that this is an original finish and not a refin. It looks to be in pristine condition, aside from typical Gibson finish cracks. Knobs might not be original, as my ‘69 EB-2 has the older ‘witch hat’ knobs.
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.
February 18, 2007 at 3:19 pm · Filed under Bass Value Trends · by Brandon
Until yesterday, I’d been toying with the idea of trying to pick up a used 90’s DeArmond Starfire bass to compliment by 90’s DeArmond Jetstar bass. Over the past year or so, they’ve gone for anywhere between the upper $300’s to the mid $500’s. So I figured my chances of scoring one at the lower end of that range were pretty good.
Nope. Not any longer:
eBay Item number: 320079849794
End date: 2/13/07
Winning Bid: $687.77
Finish Color: Black
Seller’s Description: “with original hard shell case. Excellent, NEARLY MINT condition”
After this one ended, I figured it was a fluke. Maybe because it was in sexy black, it sold for more. So then another Starfire popped up, this one in cherry finish:
eBay Item number: 150090732318
End date: 2/17/07
Winning Bid: $760.00
Finish Color: Cherry
Seller’s Description: “bass in excellent shape!…….I never gigged with this bass, so no buckle rash. There’s no dings, nicks or scratches. The case on the other hand is a functional hard shell. It’s not pretty; it’s even got duct tape on it………”
So much for my dreams of a cheap Starfire.
February 13, 2007 at 7:23 am · Filed under Bass Sightings · by Brandon
I live in the Raleigh area, so I check the Craigslist listings regularly. A seller in the Pittsboro/Chapel Hill area has a Walnut-finished ‘69 EB-2 for sale for $1300. Walnut is a pretty rare color for any Gibson. I’d say next to black, this is my favorite finish for a Gibby.
Here’s the link to the listing: http://raleigh.craigslist.org/msg/277032504.html
Check her out:
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