Eastwood Custom Basschat Edition Bass?

[oldslapper]

Watching this with interest. 

I’m not “in” as I have the dullest of dull tastes in instruments and no money.         

But will be intriguing to see if a minimum of 10 bass players can agree on a design and spec and cost.

So far it may end up as a long/short scale, headless/headed twin neck, natural sparkly 4 string bass VI with minimum of 7 pickups.

Just for sheer entertainment, I think there should be a minimum of 12 months/weeks/days (after initial delivery) before they are allowed to appear in the FS section 😂

Good luck though with this, seriously. I do think it’s a great idea even as a social experiment. 

[stewblack]

2 hours ago, oldslapper said:

But will be intriguing to see if a minimum of 10 bass players can agree on a design and spec and cost.

I agree. Except I'm not sure if it's intriguing or just a really remote and unlikely proposition. 

With so many variables and with us bassists able to disagree over such trivialities as a couple of mm of nut width, achieving consensus on an entire bass might be a step too far. 

 

[NancyJohnson]

Re-reading this thread earlier, I honestly started it with all best intentions, the mindset that we could ape what the Lakland Owners Group had done previously and the remit really couldn't have been easier or clearer (if you wanted a Precision/Jazz etc. then just buy a Fender etc) and this was not really intended to be a route for Eastwood to produce a knock-off of Serek designs because it was the more affordable route (and f*ck any litigation they may be subject to as a consequence) and so on. 

I had a few email exchanges with Eastwood and they were extremely positive about trying to do a Basschat bass for us if only we could decide on the specs and the sadness is that had we gotten our metaphorical poop together, we could all be enjoying these by now.  We're all different I suppose, so it was never going to work.

Looking through these pages, my heart just sinks reading the suggestions of a Fender Bass V or the Rickenbacker 4005.  I just don't understand how people could even suggest these for gods sake, Rickenbacker are probably difficult enough to deal with at the best of times...the Eastwood guys are smart enough not to touch that design with a barge pole.  With the best will in the world, it's almost like people here don't even have a clue what Eastwood's remit actually is.  You would stand a better change cloning a 4005 by going to Ali Baba or one of the plethora of Chinese knock-off sites.

They're really not about copying Fenders or Gibsons, aside from a handful of designs, the bulk of their output is frankly quirky updates of long lost designs, things you might expect to see in Hanna-Barbera Jetsons cartoons:

[oldslapper]

Don’t be disheartened @NancyJohnson 

I think it would be a triumph if BC managed to end up with its own “model”. 
Yes it’s ambitious but, as you said, has been achieved before. 
Good on you for sticking your neck out. 

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

I was about to say something similar last night @NancyJohnson, but thought better of it as most of the thread turned out a bit weird. I think you know me well enough that if I say I would buy one, however it turns out (if it happens), then I’ll see it through. There isn’t enough quirky in the world to my eyes. 

[BigRedX]

The fact that we are unlikely to get enough people to agree on the same thing at the same time to make it worthwhile not withstanding, having just had dealings with Eastwood's custom shop, I'm not entirely sure that they would be capable of producing anything within a suitable timescale for Basschat's members. I have just this week received my Eastwood Hooky Bass 6 Pro bass. This is an instrument that was announced in January of this year at a point when the prototype had already been in use by Peter Hook for some considerable time, and therefore the bulk of the design process should have been complete (especially given that it is essentially a direct copy of his Shergold marathon 6 String Bass). That's a whole 9 months to produce and ship a couple of hundred instruments. Could we really wait that long once the design process was complete?

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

6 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

The fact that we are unlikely to get enough people to agree on the same thing at the same time to make it worthwhile not withstanding, having just had dealings with Eastwood's custom shop, I'm not entirely sure that they would be capable of producing anything within a suitable timescale for Basschat's members. I have just this week received my Eastwood Hooky Bass 6 Pro bass. This is an instrument that was announced in January of this year at a point when the prototype had already been in use by Peter Hook for some considerable time, and therefore the bulk of the design process should have been complete (especially given that it is essentially a direct copy of his Shergold marathon 6 String Bass). That's a whole 9 months to produce and ship a couple of hundred instruments. Could we really wait that long once the design process was complete?

Well, like most things, some will be able to wait and some won't. Another handful of basses will have arrived and departed my hands before it even gets green lit, but I'm up for it.

[itu]

If the basic specs were clear (scale length, amount of strings, pickups...), the question about a special model is mostly about design. If our basses were like Diddley's square instruments, a J shaped body would be radical. To get a dozen of players behind a J design might be hard.

Take some time to sketch the unit and listen to the comments. Only if they are reasonable, make changes. A basschat.co.uk instrument could be rad or radical, but definitely different. As said before, no need to copy existing shapes.

[TheGreek]

I'd like to see some sketches before committing to anything.

[NancyJohnson]

6 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

I'd like to see some sketches before committing to anything.

We hadn't even got to an acceptable number of people showing interest before members started down the route of saying what they wanted.  Had we got, say 50 interested parties, we could have taken it private, haggled over the design perspectives and gone from there; personally it was soul destroying seeing what started as a fun and simple idea, turned into a me! me! me! thing.

Even if I'd posted that it was going to be (at the most basic of levels) a 4-string, 34" scale, alder body etc. people would still have been saying they wanted short-scale, 5-string made out of bamboo and chewing gum.

[ped]

It’s a chicken and egg situation. People are unlikely to put their hand in with no idea about the spec, and if you decide on a spec first then people will say ‘yes but what if’

The only way forward would be for you to put together some mock-up designs, vote for the fave and see if enough will back it.

[LeftyJ]

Cool idea, I will be watching this thread to see how this turns out.

I'm not joining though, because money. And a lefty probably isn't going to happen anyway unless they get enough requests to be able to make a full batch of lefties. 

[Sercet]

I think you only need 10 purchasers to get an Eastwood bass made. I still think the bass mandola twin neck is the only thing we will all agree on. 

 

[stewblack]

22 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

just don't understand how people could even suggest these for gods sake,

There's your problem in a nutshell. People like what they like. Why would you expect them to conform to your ideas and your tastes? 

 

 

[NancyJohnson]

31 minutes ago, stewblack said:

There's your problem in a nutshell. People like what they like. Why would you expect them to conform to your ideas and your tastes?

My problem?  My ideas and tastes??  Conform???

Read the thread mate, try and grasp what Eastwood are all about and embrace that; they would never have made a 4005, a BassV or a Serek clone. 

Do you honestly think this was some kind of forking vanity project on my part?  Not once did I push design schematics on to anyone, I just proposed something that could have been a fun project to follow...it just deteriorated when members here started posting the inevitable pink torpedo gags and crap about what they wanted.

FFS. This sort of post just enrages me.

Edited September 12, 2020 by NancyJohnson
Potato/Potato. Derek/Serek

[Sercet]

25 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

Read the thread mate, try and grasp what Eastwood are all about and embrace that; they would never have made a 4005, a BassV or a Serek clone. 

To be fair, you said the same about the Shergold Bass 6, which is now available from Eastwood. I think they would make a 4005 if it wasn’t for the legal problems.

[NancyJohnson]

49 minutes ago, Sercet said:

To be fair, you said the same about the Shergold Bass 6, which is now available from Eastwood. I think they would make a 4005 if it wasn’t for the legal problems.

Shergold, as I understand it, is a guitar maker that's been dead in the water for some time and Rickenbacker, from what I understand, is still trading in some capacity.  It's apparent that Eastwood are working with Hooky to make some.  Fair play to them.

My point, two years ago, was that you could likely have picked up a vintage Shergold off eBay for not much £££.  Sadly my forking crystal ball was away for servicing in August 2018, but if I'd had it I could have simply predicted Eastwood's business plan 24 months in advance, saved you the bother of posting, 'Well, you said...' and maybe saved nearly a million people from dying of a virus.

It was a poll to see whether anyone would be interested.  No designs, no money changed hands, emails were exchanged for the benefit of feasibility, it was just a poll, now you're coming back and going, 'Look, I was right!  You said they wouldn't make Shergold.'

Again.  FFS.

[Sercet]

7 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

My point, two years ago, was that you could likely have picked up a vintage Shergold off eBay for not much £££. 

But you couldn’t. The Shergold bass 6 has been very hard to get for a long time. My point isn’t that I was right.  At the time, you said I was an idiot for suggesting a Shergold, and you’ve talked about how people do not understand the Eastwood business model. The business model is to reissue quirky designs that are no longer generally available. The Shergold is a perfect example. 
 

x

[NancyJohnson]

14 minutes ago, Sercet said:

But you couldn’t. The Shergold bass 6 has been very hard to get for a long time. My point isn’t that I was right.  At the time, you said I was an idiot for suggesting a Shergold, and you’ve talked about how people do not understand the Eastwood business model. The business model is to reissue quirky designs that are no longer generally available. The Shergold is a perfect example. 
 

x

I don't think I actually called you an idiot, but hey, if it makes you feel better then just reinterpret my words in whatever way you want to support that claim. 

And yes, you were right.  Go you.  Congrats to you for your incredible foresight and business acumen.  Give yourself a gold star.

A lickle kiss?  For me?  Aaaw.

[ped]

🙄

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

31 minutes ago, Sercet said:

But you couldn’t. The Shergold bass 6 has been very hard to get for a long time. My point isn’t that I was right.  At the time, you said I was an idiot for suggesting a Shergold, and you’ve talked about how people do not understand the Eastwood business model. The business model is to reissue quirky designs that are no longer generally available. The Shergold is a perfect example. 
 

x

I thought the idea behind this was to get a quirkily designed 4 string for a decent price, not a more expensive niche 6 string that would appeal to only the minority? You’ve looked at the concept and run with something that wouldn’t have got off the ground when this thread started 2 years ago. The only reason that Eastwood 6’er exists is because of the name attached to it.

Edited September 12, 2020 by hiram.k.hackenbacker

[spencer.b]

23 hours ago, ped said:

 

The only way forward would be for you to put together some mock-up designs, vote for the fave and see if enough will back it.

This seems very sensible to me

I've always fancied a strat bass!

[Bassassin]

Eastwood only make copies. The whole flaw in the notion of a BC Eastwood bass is the idea that a bunch of us would agree to (and be prepared to cough up for) a specific copy that no-one else makes already, and that Eastwood would agree to/get away with making.

IMO a collaborative original design is a more interesting idea, and might be achievable. Doubt Eastwood would be interested, so we'd  probably be better off talking to people like Retrovibe or Chowny.

[Delberthot]

On 11/09/2020 at 13:42, TheGreek said:

I'd like to see some sketches before committing to anything.

Here are a couple I've come up with:

 

 

[Bassassin]

QED.