basshead56 Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 (edited) Hi all, As part of a trade on an amp I was looking to shift, I managed to land myself a rather beat up old (late 50's I'm told) Selmer/Resonett Arco Futurama Bass What a weird but fun little instrument! Needs fair bit of work to get her back up and running again, but lot's of cool potential... Couldn't find a hell of a lot of info on it last night so if anyone knows much about them, feel free Edited June 15, 2015 by basshead56 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randythoades Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 I know nothing about it, but it looks very cool indeed. Good one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPJ Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 +1 Reminds me of a Warwick Triumph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljbass Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 (edited) I´ve seen this bass several times, but never hear it. It is an old Resonet Arco EUB made in Czechoslovakia. Factory in Blatna, named Drevokov (means Woodmetal), was producing them from 1955 and only about 100-150 of these basses were made. It has got a golden medal in Brusel in 1958 (bass for the exposition was made in transluscent violet colour with real gold plated metal parts) and instruments were distributed by Selmer then, on the end of 50´s, under the Futurama name (your EUB was for 52 pounds with waterproof bag for 4 pounds and 10 pence in Selmer catalogue from 1959 ). If it is not a rumour, John Paul Jones was playing this EUB, while Grazioso/Futurama guitar from the same factory was the first electric guitar of young Jimmy Page and George Harrison was also the owner. There were some really interesting people in 40´s and 50´s with great knowledge in developing electromagnetic pickup systems for musical instruments, but everything has gone down with communism later. More info and pictures here [url="http://www.jolana.cz/arco-resonet/"]http://www.jolana.cz/arco-resonet/[/url] or here [url="http://www.jolana.info/menu_blatna.html"]http://www.jolana.in...enu_blatna.html[/url] Private museum with Arco EUB in the corner here [url="http://retrojolana.cz/"]http://retrojolana.cz/[/url] It surely has a lot of similarities with Framus Triumph bass (later Warwick), which was in serial production from 1953 in Germany, but (I guess) it has slightly different construction (small resonant chamber of Resonet Arco?). Edited June 17, 2015 by ljbass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basshead56 Posted June 18, 2015 Author Share Posted June 18, 2015 [quote name='ljbass' timestamp='1434448784' post='2799601'] I´ve seen this bass several times, but never hear it. It is an old Resonet Arco EUB made in Czechoslovakia. Factory in Blatna, named Drevokov (means Woodmetal), was producing them from 1955 and only about 100-150 of these basses were made. It has got a golden medal in Brusel in 1958 (bass for the exposition was made in transluscent violet colour with real gold plated metal parts) and instruments were distributed by Selmer then, on the end of 50´s, under the Futurama name (your EUB was for 52 pounds with waterproof bag for 4 pounds and 10 pence in Selmer catalogue from 1959 ). If it is not a rumour, John Paul Jones was playing this EUB, while Grazioso/Futurama guitar from the same factory was the first electric guitar of young Jimmy Page and George Harrison was also the owner. There were some really interesting people in 40´s and 50´s with great knowledge in developing electromagnetic pickup systems for musical instruments, but everything has gone down with communism later. More info and pictures here [url="http://www.jolana.cz/arco-resonet/"]http://www.jolana.cz/arco-resonet/[/url] or here [url="http://www.jolana.info/menu_blatna.html"]http://www.jolana.in...enu_blatna.html[/url] Private museum with Arco EUB in the corner here [url="http://retrojolana.cz/"]http://retrojolana.cz/[/url] It surely has a lot of similarities with Framus Triumph bass (later Warwick), which was in serial production from 1953 in Germany, but (I guess) it has slightly different construction (small resonant chamber of Resonet Arco?). [/quote] Thank you very much for this. It is greatly appreciated I had no idea these were so rare. I had read something about a slight connection with Led Zeppelin. Very happy, at least I will be when i have finished fixing it up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljbass Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 (edited) You´re welcome It seems the bass sounds more like really woody PB than DB on these videos [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6950PLhDEM"]https://www.youtube....h?v=x6950PLhDEM[/url] [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLbJB6qBXwI"]https://www.youtube....h?v=HLbJB6qBXwI[/url] Edited June 20, 2015 by ljbass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatback Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 What great info. Such a cool bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.