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On the face of it, and from a distance, this bass may look like a standard Squier P But it's an A-Series, MIJ early 80's Japan market medium scale 32" bass. The bodies of these fine instruments are proportionally smaller too. It's very lightweight indeed This one is also in an unusual finish / colour - it's Dichroic Metallic Green It's really hard to photograph, but the colour changes, depending on the light and angle of light on it It's a sparkly finish, and it changes colour from Dark Green, to mid-Green, to Black, To Purple.... Not seen another one of these

'81 Gibson RD Artist CMT

How aboot this? It's an 80's Fender Performer, not many made.

Best photo I have is the auction one. Peavey Resolite. Unusual for a Peavey bass it got a 2+2 headstock,also has a chambered body. These appeared in the catalogue but only 4 were actually built.

I played 4 exclusively for my first 12-13 years of bassing, then got a fretless 5 and 6 in the space of about 6 months in '99. Took the 6 out on tour as my main bass with Howard Jones about 5 weeks after I got it... that was a trial by fire! It took me 3 or 4 years before 6 felt as comfortable to play at 4, and about 8 or 9 years before I could read as fluently on it as on 4. 6 is now definitely my main instrument. I still play 4 regularly for teaching and sessions, and I enjoy the fact that it feels like a toy alongside the 6s, but my instrument is definitely 6 string bass... But anyway, don't feel bad about 5 or 6 (or 7+!) taking a while to get comfortable - if the music you hear in your head sounds like it needs the extra range and possibilities of the 6, stick at it, but there's obviously nothing superior about any number of strings on a bass. It's all about the right tool for the music you're trying to make, and the thing that inspires you to play... No-one else's opinion on your chosen instrument matters 1/10th as much as how you feel about it

This is an '88 Washburn B80, Neon Pink / Blue Crackle finish, rare as hens teeth and very little info about them unfortunately. The 'Stephens Extended Cutaway' is just plain sexy ....

Well, I think we can all go home now. No one is going to top that lot!

I agree the best music era especially the classic rock genre.

Cannae beat a good bit of 70's rock.

It's been a while since I did a mahogany neck - and I'd forgotten JUST how easily it carves. Thank goodness for the carbon rods! The spokeshave took around 30minutes to sharpen and about 7 minutes to get to the stage where I needed to stop using it lest I took too much off! Then onto the micro plane to get the rough carve of the volute and heel transition. This took a further 10 minutes: I don't use a handle on the micro-planes. I just wear gloves and sometimes use it on pull and sometimes on push, then for the join up of heel to nut I just lightly drag it along a bit like a gentle spokeshave. All the time, of course, I am going nowhere near the spine, which is already at final thickness. Another 15 minutes or so with cabinet scrapers and some basic sanding and it's at the stage to stop and assess the feel and look, both for the main part of the neck and also consider how deep to scoop at the body transition. I find it a lot easier to assess this in 'air bass' style to actually feel where it works and where it doesn't. As a number of you know, I'm a bit quirky in that actually finalise the neck scrape and finish once the bass is fully strung and playable. Anyway, this is how it is at the end of stage 1. I will now leave it a while and come back to it to work out where to carve, and how much to carve, next. But, in the meantime, it's definitely starting to look like a bass now :

So far - although there's always room for the 'whoopsie' - so good. In fact, my very last job before lunch break is sharpening the tools for the neck carve Having checked the position that many times until I was bored with it, the fretboard got glued: Note the useful squeeze-out covering the wretchedly hazardous carbon fibre cut faces While that was drying, I put an ebony demarcation veneer on the back of the headstock plate: And while THAT was drying, cut the rebate for the control panel cover, hiding all of the previous screwholes (the new cover will have magnetic catches) I managed to get a 4mm slice off an offcut of the katalox (my bottom-end Axminster bandsaw, though slow, is proving to be quite capable!), which will sand down to 3mm to sit flush: So, while this looks the same as before, the difference is the fretboard it is now firmly glued: ...and the headstock plate firmly demarcate-able : And the neck and heel and volute are ready to carve

I've ordered the tube version.. it's my first ever Bass amp.. it ticks the boxes I need it to... I know it will be great portable unit for home use, and plenty loud enough for gigging. I am now educated enough to know it's not 2000W but likely more than 500W. I'm now considering the Bugera cabinets....

All my basses are rare, being left-handed 😜 I used to own a lefty Aria SB-1000 that stands out - you just never see any. The set-neck models come by once in a while, but the neck-through models are very rare. Mine had two extra pickups installed, and was originally fretless but had been fretted by a previous owner. My Ibanez MC924's are also kind of rare as lefties. Rumour has it there are only about 250 in existance. I had been looking for one for a few years, and then found three within a couple of months and bought all three, and kept the best two. Fantastic basses. My 1983 is an absolute keeper (it's just one month younger than I am). And I own an Esh Stinger that is somewhat unusual, especially as a lefty. It's a fun bass, with two EMG DC35's and a piezo bridge. Lots of punch, and a bright and powerful attack. Cool looks too, with the sandblasted ash with blackened grain beneath a white finish. It looks similar to this one, but left-handed, with a deeper neck pocket and longer heel, and with two big EMG soapbars. Controls are volume, passive tone, 3-way rotary pickup selector and 4-way "Esh-tronic" switch: mag only, mag only bypassing all controls, mag + piezo, piezo only.

Candy Apple Red toner. Didspade 'Bloodshot' and blue candy pigments in thinned clear acrylic lacquer for the correct tone. Color check. Toned and cleared. Testing took much longer than execution.

I'll actually say what this is, but i'm sure many will know this beast

@eude and I had a discussion about the swifts logos. Yes, they could be the normal Mother of Pearl - but I floated whether it was worth me trying ebony for a change. We both decided that it could look really cool to have the coordinated contrast - and that, if it proved just too difficult, we could always revert to MoP. Was cutting the ebony easier than MoP? Actually no - MoP doesn't have grain so small features are never going to be 'cross grain' and snap (they do snap, but not that often). But, after 2-3 fails, I ended up with 3 that were good enough to scribe around before routing: Then mixed some katalox dust with epoxy to glue them and gap fill at the same time. Sanded and a quick coat of tru-oil gave me this: Well, I think that adds a certain je ne sais quoi, don't you?

Stack knobs ....

I have always been aware of Joe Walsh and known that he'd done some great music, but have never really listened to any of it. I just stumbled over this excerpt of him from "Live at Daryl's House" and it kept me listening. All that is great about some of the music made in the sixties and seventies. I hope you enjoy it too.

Nah, common as muck mate Mine is in the custom-order-only finish 'Strawberry Red' which I suppose might make it rare-ish?

You're just a bass player - don't get above your station!

Below are some photos of the rarest basses I owned or I am still owning. Aries Senes VS 6 Tomek (they don't build anymore for themselves) : Berne Harpobasse (the craziest 34" double bass with a harp top, it's a production instrument) : Capelli DM Signature Pro 1 (the best ergonomics ever and not a one off even if it bears number 1) : Celinder Custom 6 Michael Andersen (36 inches and even rarer GreenGrove original preamp) : De Gier Elevation 6 Custom Number 4 (Sander De Gier favourite bass) : Jerzy Drozd Obsession Basic 7 (the old one with the Aguilar OBP-3 and 7 strings) : JP Basses Plume Redwood 5 (very few ever made and he stopped crafting basses) : Ken Lawrence Associate 5 #76 ( with an XLR DI 5 pins, Nordstrand pickups and HazLabs preamp) : Leduc MP 628 SF (grade AAAAAAAA woods and 150 years old Brazilian rosewood fretboard) : Leduc U-MM6 (my companion for more than a decade and quite hard to find) : Leduc PAD 6 (only 20 ever made) : LowDown Custom 6F Special (only one ever made with this very thick body and 33" scale) : Neuser Courage 6 (Robert Neuser original Czech model) : Nexus Gom Jabbar Magellan Fretless 6 (Polish fantastic craftsmanship): Overwater Progress First Generation (Zebrano top with the rare original preamp à la Wal) : Sandberg Thinline Fretless 6 (the only known set neck with standard strings spacing) : Status Electro II 6 Jonas Hellborg (only 2 known models made both for Jonas Hellborg) : Stradi Symphony Bass Fretless 5 #6 (2110 years old swamp oak top) : Warrior DM4 Custom NT Marcus Miller (nothing to add) : Yes, I'm a lucky man or ... not.

Absolutely awesome that binding Andy, love the way that finished fretboard looks 😍

Watch out for pickpocketers.

I'm really enjoying this thread - thanks to the OP for starting it There's some unusual stuff out there....

I suspect @eude is fairly wetting himself with excitement with these latest developments and photos. Top work here, as ever, and another entertaining thread. 👏

Was there last month. Get up early to enjoy the beauty of the place without the crowds. It really is special. Walking over Charles bridge to the Castle side look left at the end of the bridge, there's a guitar shop down there! I didn't manage to go but it has a giant painted mural including a bass so I was sorely tempted. Be careful buying Trdno's, weird ice cream things in a pastry cone. The first one I had was amazing, every one thereafter was more rubbish than the last. Choose your Trdno vendor wisely!

The most unusual bass I own now is a recently acquired Yamaha BX-5. Unusual enough in black as a 4 string, let alone a white 5 string. Not my bass but it looks exactly like this: Edit - so there must be at least one other!! 😄

Love em. Yes they are a bit Zepp rip off, but my god I'm happy to hear some new Led Zep type vibes in this day and age!!!

Never played one that wasn't!

That is hideous! Absolutely awful.... .... and yet strangely I desperately want one!

I'm going to defend @Al Krow but then I'm out too, there are a couple of people here who have lost the plot a little and think by constantly repeating the same argument they can somehow 'win'. First of all I don't think Behringer can justify the 2000W claim even as a 'peak' figure. In the days of Class A/B we all knew that amps were absolutely limited by the maximum voltage the power supply could provide. The rms voltage was based on a mathematical calculation of the equivalent continuous power an amp would provide if it were supplying a continuous current. The calculation is called Root Mean Square and involves the square root of 2 which is roughly 1.414. The peak voltage an amp can swing is 1.414 times the 'average' voltage and as power is voltage squared x impedance the peak power is twice the RMS power. In practice the quoted power for amps is usually measured at a certain distortion level over a standard period of time. If you go back to most amplifier ads you'll see that almost all will say something like 500W continuous and 1000W peak and the peak figure is always double the continuous or RMS figure. Behringer are claiming more than double the power their amps make, whether you take the 500W or the unsubstantiated 800w figure. I think this is a deliberate attempt to deceive their customers. Since this is the sort of starter amp sold to less experienced and younger people I think it is dishonest, exploitative and possibly illegal. Just effectively saying 'we don't measure our amps in this way' is disingenuous and probably untrue. Until recently their manuals were refreshingly honest and the handbooks gave accurate continuous figures, they now seem to have abandoned that practice and it is not possible to know what power the Beyron produces from anything Behringer/Music Group publish. I'm not sure what point a couple of our members are trying to make, that it's OK to lie and deceive. That there should be no consumer protection.

There will always be a market for both, I think the previously mentioned 'split' already exists. There are a LOT of people who want to, and have the means, to support small companies making great hand-made goods. There are equally people who either don't have the means, or simply don't care about where/how their gear is made to support a more budget orientated market. You only have to see how well such companies as Abominable Pedals, Darkglass, Earthquaker, JHS, Mr Black are doing to see realise that people want boutique, they will pay for hand-made. In most cases (although not always) they will be better made and sound better, but actually, I don't think that's everything to the purchasers, they want to support small business, and like having a real relationship with small pedal builders, it's a very close-knit community. Si

What about those of us that have got turds for brains?

I know it well having lived there for 6 months. In the summer it's rammed with Japanese, German, American and Italian tourists. Not so many Brits as it happens. Normally the honey pots like the Charles Bridge, the clock tower and Nove Mesto in general are chocka but in December they're much less so. The tram system is excellent. If you wanna do the less obvious I well recommend Vysehrad (closest spelling i can get here, the s is pronounced 'sh') and the cementary there which is just for cultural greats like Dvorak. No soldiers or politicians can be buried there. There's a lovely park /arboretum called Stromovka where tourists don't seem to go, just the locals. Also particularly interesting is the National Monument in Vitkov Park, which has a museum giving an interesting history about the communist times. Back in the city centre along side the Vltava is the Dancing House where there's a nice little bar at the top. On the subject of bars check out any of the three Beer Museums pubs. The sheer range of beers on draught will blow your mind. I hope neither you or your wife are veggies as Czech cuisine doesn't cater well for them. You'd better like pork knees and dumplings 🙂. I know it's wintertime but you've gotta try a trdelnik, which is a cross between a doughnut and an ice cream. The best ones are to be had in some of the parlours on the hill in Mala Strana leading up to the castle

Probably not, but we're used to that parameter and it gives us a bit of a ballpark of what to expect. I think that's as much as we can honestly expect. I'm not very interested in whether an amp can put out 500W or 700W... but I care if it's 200W or 1000W because that can have a bit more of an impact. I bought a TC RH450 when they first came out. They said 450W. I tried it, it did the job. It turned out it was more like 236W or something. No big deal, volume-wise it did the job I expected from any amp in the 300-500W range. I sold it only because I didn't get along with the sound, not because of its power. TC did play on users when using the 450W number and they admitted it, qualifying it as "but our clever power management system makes it sound as loud as a typical 450W, look at the graphs"... and they weren't completely wrong, and perhaps they did not mean to misled but give users a number that reflected better what you could expect from the amp, volume wise. RMS is not perfect, but it's the parameter that's most widely in use. Using 'peak' without explicitly indicating it is a little disingenuous.

I've worked with Marketing types, and I can confidently say that if there's a smidgen of a hope of an inkling of a possibility that they can pass off a bigger (i.e. better) number (or any other factor) using any sort of loophole which isn't legally prohibited (and even then I've known them take the chance) to make the product sound better to the Mug Punter (and let's not forget in this specific case even distributors and big retailers have been fooled), then they'll be all over it like a dog on a hot sausage. Edit: And if you think a company like Behringer isn't completely, cynically aware of the state of the market with regards to their competitors and their publishing the specs of their amps (i.e. 90% of them use RMS), then I've a really, really great investment opportunity I'd like to involve you in... 🙂

The point, my dear obtuse friend, is that if you are going to compare something you need to compare parameters measured n the same way. Choose peak, choose RMS, choose anything, but choose the same. We generally talk RMS, and the Bugera is not 2000W RMS, and yes, I know, they do not claim that, but they very clearly play on the assumption by most people, inexperienced or not, that wattage ratings would be RMS because that's what most people do. However, you knew all this, I knew you knew all this... yawn. Come on. Really.

Yes - a grinder in my hands would probably take ALL the remaining years off my life I start with a spokeshave to just get rid of the corners, then move onto micro-planes and then onto cabinet scrapers. With mahogany, this is usually a surprisingly quick process but even with rock maple it's pretty quick. Often, sharpening the blades and re-burring the scrapers takes longer than the initial carve! Actually, the volute and heel transitions take me the longest because those are more dependant on the other factors of body shape and headstock shape.

Ashdown unreliable? Don't know about that but I do know they look after their customers in exemplary fashion if anything does go wrong. Markbass on the other hand definitely do not. Their gear fails? Tough sh!t. No one can fix it but their one chosen company. So you face couriers or a long drive and as they're the only show in town they can charge you what the hell they like. I learned my lesson the hard way with MB.

I've got a rare international series Maui Blue 1993 Squier Japan P Bass. Only ever seen two....

A few months down the line and I still wasn't 100% happy with Almost a Telecaster. The 2 saddle bridge and that extra fret just didn't work together 😠 Popped a 20 fret Harley Benton PB-50 neck on it and the problem was solved 😎 Also since cutting the pearloid scratchplate I picked up one from a Squier Modern Player Telecaser bass. I still like to fake pickup cover on pearloid but a pal in Germany sold me a Lakland Chi Sonic 🙂 Darkstar/Bi-Sonic are well thought of in a Telecaster bass thread I was reading so the bass now looks like this 🙂 Even with the Chi Sonic,PB-50 neck and the Squier scratchplate costs added I'm still under the £275 target.

This one's unique.

Ramble on, led zep

You want good bass lines? Start at the beginning of Motown and work forwards. Same with Stax. Same with Aretha Franklin, Chic, Keb Mo, Incognito, Steely Dan, Little Feat, the list of good bass lines goes on. . . . .

I think the binding is going to work well. Once the fingerboard has been scraped and finished and the binding corner rounded off, it should look pretty integral and - more to the point - it should work well from a playing perspective. I think this may well become my preferred method: Next task will be to cut the pickup chambers but that will probably be at the weekend earliest