dub Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 I'd be interested to find out some opinions on some of the models of hollow body basses currently available. It would be ideal to compare them in a shop somewhere but usually you'd be lucky to find just one make of hollow body bass in any shop The lakland hollowbody and warwick star bass are looking and sounding good (although the warwick seems a bit overpriced) the epiphone jack cassidy looks like it could be OK but I don't know if it is up to the spec of the other two. Both the lakland and the warwick have a solid central core which seems like an advantage. Of course there are the vintage basses like the guild starfire and the gibsons but these are very hard to find. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 i've not played a star bass (i wish !), and i didn't get on with the short scale of the starfire i had, but the epiphone hc is an amazing bass imho. the pickup is amazing sounding, the neck fits wonderfully in my hand and if you string it with flatties... hmmmm...bistro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 I had a DeArmond Starfire for a while (Korean made reissue of Guild) - I quite liked it, but in the end the short scale made it feel a bit weird to me. It had a nice woody tone to it and was nice to play. I took it on as a repair job (the fingerboard was coming away from the neck) and while I successfully repaired that with a glue injection and a good clamping in the end I sold it on as I just wasn't playing it enough. I also had a Danelectro Hodad. These are hollow, despite their appearance. This one was regular 34" scale and I liked it a lot, played it live a couple of times, but an opportunity arose to increase my Gibson collection and this had to make way to help fund that. It would seem to me that your first narrowing down of the options should be a question of scale. A lot of hollow body basses are short scale, which may or may not be your bag. A lot of them are short scale - Gibson EB-2, Epiphone Rivoli, Guild/DeArmond Starfire, Hagstrom Viking, Danelectro Longhorn/other short scale. Long scales include the Gibson Les Paul Signature, Epiphone Jack Casady, Danelectro Hodad/other long scale, Lakland Hollowbody, Warwick Star, Spector Spectorcore, G&L ASAT Hollow etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry norton Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 [quote name='neepheid' post='1237871' date='May 20 2011, 11:37 AM']It would seem to me that your first narrowing down of the options should be a question of scale. A lot of hollow body basses are short scale, which may or may not be your bag. A lot of them are short scale - Gibson EB-2, Epiphone Rivoli, Guild/DeArmond Starfire, Hagstrom Viking, Danelectro Longhorn/other short scale. Long scales include the Gibson Les Paul Signature, Epiphone Jack Casady, Danelectro Hodad/other long scale, Lakland Hollowbody, Warwick Star, Spector Spectorcore, G&L ASAT Hollow etc.[/quote] +1 on that, plus are you going for it because you like the look of proper semis (in which case Ibanez do a semi and a fully hollow bass as well as Gretsch and a load of dodgy fleabay basses too) or do you just want the sound, in which case there are a fair few chambered basses you could look at asides from the Lakland, although I haven't yet found a chambered bass that sounded or felt quite as 'acoustic' as a proper arched top semi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dub Posted May 20, 2011 Author Share Posted May 20, 2011 Thanks for the replies. It's the sound I'm after and it would have to be a long scale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 (edited) [quote name='neepheid' post='1237871' date='May 20 2011, 10:37 AM']I had a DeArmond Starfire for a while (Korean made reissue of Guild) - I quite liked it, but in the end the short scale made it feel a bit weird to me. It had a nice woody tone to it and was nice to play. I took it on as a repair job (the fingerboard was coming away from the neck) and while I successfully repaired that with a glue injection and a good clamping in the end I sold it on as I just wasn't playing it enough....[/quote] That DeArmond Starfire with the fingerboard/neck issue was mine at one time. When it was with me it was sporting Hammon Dark Star pickups and was thunderous. I did a lot of gigs with a 60s covers band using it and enjoyed it very much. Definitely short scale though. Edited May 20, 2011 by EssentialTension Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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