Staccato Basses

[TheGreek]

I fell in love with these back in the 80s (was it really that long ago??) after seeing them at a Guitar Fair in London. I found the website one lazy afternoon and fired off an email to them - wasn't really serious about buying one - then forgot about it till they again came to my attention through the thread about exotic basses and when I noticed that [u]Cetera[/u] has one on his signature. I contacted him to discuss a sale but he was upright and honest in his reveiw of the bass which quelled my lust and GAS for this. However with too much time on my hands I went looking for more info:-

[url="http://www.staccato-art.co.uk/guitar_main_page.htm"]http://www.staccato-art.co.uk/guitar_main_page.htm[/url]

[b][color="#006400"]Staccato guitars were conceived in 1978 the first was cast in aluminium, all guitars after 001 were cast in magnesium alloy. At the time both Travis Bean and Kramer guitars were also cast in aluminium, Staccato was the first and only production magnesium guitars made to this day. The first 21 guitars made by staccato were interchangeable neck models. The neck section could be replaced in a second with alternatives of 6 string, 12 string or bass guitar. again a unique concept, doing away with the need for a heavy cumbersome double neck guitar. The prototype was commissioned by Yamaha musical instruments division in the orange country California. This was cast in Los Angeles and machined in John Carvthers guitar shop in Santa Monica. Pat did the final build, assembly and paint job at his home in Topanga Canyon, California.
A prototype bass was built in Norfolk England in 1983 and a business partnership was formed to produce Staccato guitars, at the old school house in Woodbastwick, Norfolk. The partners on equal shares were Pat Townshend, Bill Wyman, Chris and Mick Jagger.

This was something of a milestone in British music history for a musical instrument to be financially backed by members of the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world the Rolling Stones.

The Mg model was launched in 1985, this was along more conventional lines with fixed neck (not interchangeable) but retaining the cast magnesium alloy through neck, precision right hand turning system and fibreglass body. Just over 200 of the Mg models were built with the production ending in 1987 after Pat resigned from the company re-entering the world of classic motorcycle racing, as a rider, turner and development engineer (find out more in the motorbikes section)



The most famous and most seen Mg bass was the chrome plated E.M.G. pickup model, specially commissioned by Gene Simmonds from the U.S.A. of mega band "Kiss". seen firing rockets from the headstock in the "crazy, crazy nights" video. The chrome bass and also a standard Mg bass painted gold which Gene bought from us first, can be seen in many Kiss music videos, Gene liked the Anglo Saxon look!

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kjNBd7sO6M&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kjNBd7sO6M...feature=related[/url]

Staccato still make basses to order although there are only 60 cast necks left so numbers are extremely limited.



Our number one customer and Staccato fan is Yoshio "Cain" Kubo from Japanese death-metal outfit "Shadow". Yoshio brought his first Mg bass in the 80's when they were in production and owns around 6 or 7. We are currently building him a chrome plated replica of the Gene Simmonds model. We are building a second one alongside Yoshio's so there will be No2 for sale.

We can build alternative body shapes to special order [/color][/b]

The site hasn't been updated in some time so how many of those 60 necks remain is questionable. I contacted them about 5 years ago (as I said I wasn't really that serious about buying) and was quoted £1500 IIRC.

Anybody interested?? Buy now while stocks last (actually this may be a sound investment for the future..)

[Valter Toso]

http://www.ebay.it/itm/290680534607?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


bye

Valter