BigRedX

Time for another bass. Inspired by the images that majo57 posted of his bass, I did some searching and found [url="http://www.littee.free.fr/"]Alexandre Littee, Luthier - Facteur de guitares[/url]. Warning big, slow-loading images on this site.

However I've extracted a few and hopefully made them a bit faster loading for your appreciation.

This is the Slim Lady Fretless Model





He uses an interesting custom-built bridge design of brass and wood inlays which you can see in more detail on this model:



I also like the detachable? body waist extension which raises the bass up when played seated and makes the extreme shape more practical.

And finally, The Pachyderme:





I'm not sure whether I like this or not, but there's no denying the quality of the work (over 600 hours) in the amazing carved body and inlays.

[quote name='The Funk' post='153511' date='Mar 8 2008, 10:59 AM']If it had been a valve head, this would have been fantastic.[/quote]

Not even a valve pre-amp?

That's a missed opportunity...

It's all about using the right tools for the job. While it's mildly interesting that bass guitars can be used to produce those sounds it's not the best way to do it. A single person with a laptop running Max could do it much better.

[quote name='lonestar' post='152620' date='Mar 6 2008, 07:28 PM']That's something I've recently been working on coincidentally. Any tips?[/quote]

I play along with something fairly melodic that doesn't have a defined rhythmic bassline (ambient electronic is good for this - although anything will do if you ignore the bass). Just make sure that all my notes are in tune with the track, alternating with low-end bass notes and high-end fills. The trick is to be able to swap between them without going out of tune.

What I was trying to say was that there is a natural inclination to show off ability often at the expense of taste. I see it all the time not only in music but all in my day job graphic design.

Exactly! Just because you can doesn't mean that you should.

Improving my fretless intonation by playing along with anything and everything thats on.

Count me in, although unless I can cadge a lift I won't be able to bring anything more than a couple of basses...

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='152556' date='Mar 6 2008, 06:09 PM']... improving your ability to play can't actually make you WORSE at writing music[/quote]

Actually in my experience it can. I'm sure that nearly all of us have been guilty at some point of being determined to shoehorn our latest 'trick' into whatever song we're currently working on whether it really needs it or not.

I can see both sides of this arguement.

Janek is a great and very accomplished musician, and while a lot of what he does isn't relevant to me, I can appreciate it.
However after seeing/hearing his first piece at Bass Day 2007 I did have the overwhelming urge to ask him who played bass in his band...
Also he made some (IMO) rather disparaging remarks about some the the 'less technical' gigs and sessions he does. I'm not so sure about the ethics of this. If you're going to do simpler stuff in order to pay the bills so you can play what you really want fine, but leave it at that and don't look down on it.

[b]Japanese[/b]-made Tokai's are wonderful instruments. I'm not really into the copies (although I have a guitarist friend who loves his Tokai Strat copies), but I have two of their original designs - a Talbo 135 Bass and a Talbo Jr Guitar and both a great.

IMO the reason Les Paul basses haven't been popular is that the original one (the Triumph Bass) was short scale and had weird controls, and more recent models simply don't have the elegance of the guitars, plus they tend to suffer from neck-dive and Gibson don't have the best of reputations for their basses.

There's plenty of on-line currency converters, but as a rough guide ¥200 = £1, so knock off the last two numbers and divide by 2.

Also you should pay the lower of the two prices which is the one without tax. Just remember that there's shipping (around £75) and then customs and VAT on top of that (22-25% on top of the Japanese less tax price plus the shipping charge).

Edit for example: Your black Grassroots bass is ¥46,500. That's roughly £232.50. Plus £75 shipping = £307.50. Customs, VAT and clearance fee approximately £75, gives you a total of £382.50

HTH

That looks like outstanding work!

Who did it? just in case I ever need to send a damaged bass their way...

Hi-hat side of the drummer. Just gravitated to that position with my current band without really thinking why, but we definitely don't play quite as tightly if I stand on the other side. Nearly all my previous bands used sequencer technology to some extent so positioning wasn't quite as important from a playing PoV so we set up in a way that looked good.

Definitely depends on what it is. Some basses you really do need to try out every single one to find the 'one' for you. Others you may be lucky to find a single example here in the UK so you either take it or leave it or buy unseen on the web from abroad.

I recently bought a second hand Tokai Talbo from Ishibashi in Japan. Having played a couple in Japan before I knew what to expect and Ishibashi's service was top-notch. Plus it couldn't possibly have been worse than the poor example languishing in Denmark Street...

Just an observation... Surely the fingerboard is on the wrong way round? It would make more sense to me for the extension to be on the treble side to take full advantage of that extra-deep cut away.

Saturday at the Rose of England in Nottingham - our first proper full gig with our new lead guitarist. And it was a stormer! Could have done with a few more bodies in the audience, as usual three-quarters of those who said they'd be there didn't show up... Still those who were there enjoyed themselves, and if everyone had showed up we'd have had problems with the venue capacity. My new bass amp (Tech Sound Systems Blackcat bought from Warwickhunt) was plenty loud enough and there were only a few moments when lack of rehearsals with everyone at the same time showed. Can't wait for the next one now.

It looks as though ABM are back in business according to [url="http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com/2008/02/abm-back-in-business.html"]this report[/url] and will be exhibiting at [url="http://www.abm-mueller.com/index2.html"]Frankfurt in March[/url]

That's definitely good news for anyone who's been contemplating a new headless build but been frustrated by the lack of hardware.

It's a bit Schrödinger's Bass. Can you prove there's actually a mint 77 Thunderbird in there without opening the box?

And what about the poor Japanese collector who buys it and then has the box opened by customs...

Good to hear that.

Always the first thing to check when you change computers and OS.

For those who are interested I received my bass from Ishibashi today.

Speed of delivery - very fast it spent more time sat in the UK waiting to be checked and charged by customs then it did in transit. Overall it took 10 days but that included a weekend where nothing really happens. Tracking numbers emailed as soon as the bass was in Transit and could be checked from both the Japanese and Parcel Force websites.

Packaging - Came in a massive heavy duty box more than big enough for the bass. From what I can tell and bass that does not come with it's own case gets an unbranded gig bag for shipping and very nice it is too. Much better than some of the branded gig bags that came with other basses I've bought. That will definitely be getting use in the future. The bass was wrapped in bubble wrap, then put in the gig bag which went in the box well padded out with more bubble wrap. I was a little concerned as I checked the progress of the bass, because on entering the UK there was a damage noted message on the tracking. However this consisted of two small dents in the box, one which had punctured through to expose some of the bubble wrap padding. Given how generous the size of the box was in relation to the bass this was negligible and had it not been flagged up on the tracking I would have thought nothing of it.

Service from Ishibashi - outstanding. Given the time difference between Japan and the UK the only frustration is the amount of time that getting replies to emails takes means that sometimes a bass that appears on the site can be sold before you get a reply to your original enquiry. This was the third bass I'd tried to buy from them due to this problem. Big plus for the dedication of the Web Shop team at Ishibashi when my bass arrived for packaging (it was a second-hand one from their U-Box pages) they noticed a mark from a sticker which hadn't shown up on the original photos. I was sent extra photos showing the mark and expressing their concerns. As a result I managed to negotiate a reduction in price. It turns out on actual inspection of the bass that the photos made the mark much more noticeable than it really was, and to be honest again if this hadn't been flagged up, I wouldn't have been concerned when I received the bass - it was second hand after all.

Overall I would have no hesitation in buying from Ishibashi again. Excellent service as is standard in Japan. The only downside is the frustrating wait as emails go back and forth - allow 24 hours for each email exchange and then waiting again fro the bass to clear customs.

There's a fretless one for sale on the [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=408855"]TB Forums[/url]

I plan on getting one on my next trip to Japan, which now looks as though it will have to be put back to next year. I'll have to see which graphical finishes are available then.

[url="http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/"]Adrenalinn[/url] especially if you're working with sequencers as well as live instruments.

The Washburn 8-string looked quite interesting until I looked at the photo of the back...

Even worse than the one I'm currently stripping for a refin.