Rare Basses

[itu]

Moses has these carbon necks, too, but they are pretty rare here in Europe.

Comments on my Modulus Graphite Quantum 5 SPi (bolt-on neck, not a TBX): a bit on the heavy side, I would love to have a wide neck version (17 mm is just not quite suitable for me). But with a hardshell case it is a ultimate travel bass. Stays in tune, and with a good case it can withstand all the abuse it gets at the airports.

Modulus and G Gould both produce instruments nowadays. Prices seem to be sky high. A used one might be a reasonable alternative for those interested.

[kodiakblair]

@itu

Had a pc crash last night so no photos until I'm back from work. 

A wee correction, the B-Quad had a Modulus neck but for the G-bass and G-V basses Peavey sent their necks to a gun stock maker for wrapping. Been plenty confirmation from Peavey over the years the company involved was Bell and Carlson. 

[Cuzzie]

Nice thread.

Can I quantify before adding or not.

If it’s a production bass, but differently spec’d, not aftermarket but from the factory using components they have, but not necessarily the norm, does that count?

Edited November 17, 2018 by Cuzzie

[Hellzero]

To me, yes. But that's up to the OP. 

[Cuzzie]

I’ll risk disqualification after drug testing.

Sandberg TT Bass, old shape pre 2015.

Haüssel pick ups, passive, Hard core aged, reverse matching headstock, P instead of jazz neck profile.

[Cuzzie]

G&L ASAT silver flake, white binding, #6 neck (old school P bass dimensions) and the extender strap.

Bought from the guy who invented the extender and only about 10 made of them. That bass I believe is an unusual spec for it, and it’s next to a semi hollow I had which was an unusual spec, but prob not rare enough a model.

This one may be stretching it....

[kodiakblair]

@itu

Here's some photos. For the preamp Tune just used their standard one and hooked the piezo bridge to it.

The neck pocket is very long but really secure.

 

 

Since I had the camera working here's a few Peaveys folks don't normally see.

 

L to R  G-bass, Randy Jackson -IV, B-Quad and the Midibase. Yes, Peavet spelt it with an 'e' 😊

[Hellzero]

The B-Quad and the MidiBase are real rarities too. Brian Bromberg and Alain caron wouldn't say the opposite. 😉

[itu]

6 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Here's some photos. For the preamp Tune just used their standard one and hooked the piezo bridge to it.

The neck pocket is very long but really secure.

Since I had the camera working here's a few Peaveys folks don't normally see.

L to R  G-bass, Randy Jackson -IV, B-Quad and the Midibase. Yes, Peavey spelt it with an 'e' 😊

Kool, lots of information in these pictures and notes. Thank you, sir. 

Had to look after the Cyberbass/Midibase -thing and I found this from Talkbass:

"My name is Mick Donner and I was the design engineer for the Midibase and Cyberbass projects while I was at Peavey.
Hopefully I can answer some of your questions.
There wasn't actually any trademark conflict with the guys at 360 systems. We just talked about it and came to a gentleman's agreement that changing the name was the right thing to do.
There were several reasons for the physical changes from the Midibase to the Cyberbass.
The Midibase body was based on the Peavey B-90 which had been discontinued. We wanted to bring the Cyberbase in line with the current bass shapes which were like the Palladium and Axcelerator basses.
The Midibase note on and velocity sensors were built into the bridge pieces. Steve Chick and I found that if we moved the sensors away from the bridge pieces, we would get a more accurate read of the string so we put them into half of the bridge pickup.
The software had several upgrades including a total reset, faster tracking and a "fretless" mode that blurred the note on/off triggered by sliding from one fret to another.
Bending from one fret segment to another on the neck was done in the software. This was partially accomplished by making the cuts in the fret at a diagonal which caused the string to connect with both frets for an instant. This told the engine that the string was moving to another segment. This was not available on the Wal or Valley Arts versions of the basses that had cuts perpendicular to the frets.
You had to play accurately. During my time as a product specialist for the Cyberbass my technique improved a lot because it had to.

I still have one of the first Cyberbasses along with a rack full of Peavey sound modules and everything seems to be working just fine."

AND this one (question was about suggested string types):

"The two concerns with Stainless (steel strings) are the excessive overtones generated by the SS string and fret wear.
The bass just seemed to track better with the nickels because the center of the note seems to be more dominant.
As you can imagine, a fret job on one of these would probably be beyond a nightmare. The nickel strings are softer than the stainless so it would take a lot longer for the strings to be part of the problem."

[Hellzero]

I also owned this original 1970 Ampeg Dan Armstrong see-through fretless, pictured on the office floor in our previous home :

[Shaggy]

A few more rare-ish ones in my arsenal....

• '58 Gibson EB-2 (so pre-baritone switch, with Kluson banjo tuners and single-coil Bakelite pickup)
• '77 Ovation Magnum 1 fretless (rare, as the only factory fretless one I've ever seen)
• Early Travis Bean TB2000
• '79 CF Martin EB-18
• Late '80's Steve Smith (ex-Goodfellow luthier) long scale "EB-2"

[drTStingray]

I have this Musicman Sabre - Sabre's are relatively rare anyway but this one is probably unique as it has a mahogany body and also in this very cool finish - with figured roasted flamed maple neck.

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2018 by drTStingray

[Hellzero]

Did it belong to the invisible man ? 😁

[Bridgehouse]

1 minute ago, Hellzero said:

Did it belong to the invisible man ? 😁

Heavy snow storm that day.. 

[drTStingray]

Look again - you missed it 😂 Real reason was the photo upload kept crashing 😕

[anzoid]

Not sure how rare this is - a newly acquired Hohner Jack Bass II. It's passive with a bolt-on neck and PJ pickups. I knew that Hohner did a bolt-on B2, but I've not seen one of these before. Don't think these are the original pickups, but they sound very good. Tone pot does absolutely nothing though

For those interested in old Hohners - found this recently: https://www.hohner.de/fileadmin/documents/service/guitars/Gitarren_Hohner-HistoricalModels.pdf - the Jack Bass II didn't come out until 1991... whereas the (more common?) 4-string Jack Bass was in production from 88 to 93.

Edited November 18, 2018 by anzoid

[BreadBin]

3 minutes ago, anzoid said:

Not sure how rare this is - a newly acquired Hohner Jack Bass II. It's passive with a bolt-on neck and PJ pickups. I knew that Hohner did a bolt-on B2, but I've not seen one of these before.

For those interested in old Hohners - found this recently: https://www.hohner.de/fileadmin/documents/service/guitars/Gitarren_Hohner-HistoricalModels.pdf - the Jack Bass II didn't come out until 1991... whereas the (more common?) 4-string Jack Bass was in production from 88 to 93.

Woah, that is an oddity!

I forgot to mention my B2AV - that's quite unusual. 

[anzoid]

Yeah, the B2 five-string is definietly worth a mention (and a picture). It doesn't feature in the PDF I linked, but I'm not convinced that everything is in there anyway - there's no mention of the B2A, though the B2A FL is in it... strange omission really.
The Jack II is a very nice oddity, for which I have plans

[Cuzzie]

If we are talking Hohner’s I have a B2 passive in white and a B2ADB in black, still got the old electrics but hammered in some EMG’s

[BreadBin]

[Bassassin]

If a paint job qualifies a bass for the thread - I have a first-run ('85) B2A in black & white, all original, had it from new.

Keep thinking about selling it, then deciding - it's a Steiny clone, doesn't take up much room...

[Paul S]

Interesting to see the Jack 5 on those lists.  I don't recall seeing one mentioned on here, other than me occasionally asking about them.  Anyone ever had one/got one?  I think I'd part with some hard-earned for a Jack 5.

[Cuzzie]

@Bassassin top notch 👊

Edited November 18, 2018 by Cuzzie

[Bassassin]

42 minutes ago, anzoid said:

For those interested in old Hohners - found this recently: https://www.hohner.de/fileadmin/documents/service/guitars/Gitarren_Hohner-HistoricalModels.pdf - the Jack Bass II didn't come out until 1991... whereas the (more common?) 4-string Jack Bass was in production from 88 to 93.

Just had a quick shufty through that list and I have to say it's tragically incomplete - none of the various Hohners I own or have owned are on it, it makes no differentiation between Japanese & later MIK etc guitars - and not even their arguably best-known instrument - The MadCat Tele copy, played and made famous by Prince - features.

Needs work. And consultation with geeks!

Edited November 18, 2018 by Bassassin

[AndyTravis]

22 minutes ago, Paul S said:

Interesting to see the Jack 5 on those lists.  I don't recall seeing one mentioned on here, other than me occasionally asking about them.  Anyone ever had one/got one?  I think I'd part with some hard-earned for a Jack 5.

Have seen 2 in the last 20 years 🤷🏻‍♂️

But not common at all