CSL Plexi Bass

[basskit_case]

GuitarGuitar have a pre-owned CSL Plexi Bass for sale here

I always liked the idea of a Dan Armstrong but wonder if this is a decent compromise?

Anybody know of CSL or these plexi basses?

Had heard that they were possible Ibanez manufactured?

Thanks

[basskit_case]

Now sold, was £499.

Will keep looking.

[Teebs]

Interesting looking thing.

I remember seeing Page & Plant in concert years ago & their bassist had a transparent acrylic bass - looked really good under the stage lights!

[Telebass]

This was great, but stupidly heavy at nearly 14 pounds!

Edited November 1, 2019 by Telebass

[fleabag]

2 hours ago, basskit_case said:

Anybody know of CSL or these plexi basses?

Charles Summerfield Limited , long since gone from the UK.  Think they had some connection to Fujigen Gakki.  @Bassassin will know in depth info

Back in the 80's , a  guitarist pal had a CSL strat copy and it was awesome.

Edited November 1, 2019 by fleabag

[el borracho]

Summerfields were Newcastle and Gateshead based and were the Ibanez importers in the 70s/80s. I think the company still exits in some form.

My first ever guitar was a CSL Strat

Edited November 1, 2019 by el borracho

[Pea Turgh]

I have a Perspex strat copy from the 70’s - also stupid heavy!

[Bassassin]

1 hour ago, fleabag said:

Charles Summerfield Limited , long since gone from the UK.  Think they had some connection to Fujigen Gakki.  @Bassassin will know in depth info

Back in the 80's , a  guitarist pal had a CSL strat copy and it was awesome.

Cheers Mr 'Bag!

Summerfields was UK importer for Ibanez during the notorious 70s copy era, and it seems as part of the deal they sourced their own CSL brand from Ibanez owner, Hoshino Gakki. Ibanez has only ever been a brand name, not a manufacturer, and I think the CSL Dan Armstrong copies very likely are the same instruments as Ibanez, and as Fleabag says, made by Fujigen. Later CSLs were rebrands of Hoshino's Cimar range & don't look like Fgn builds to me.

Looks like most of the Japanese factories in the mid-70s had their own version of the acrylic Armstrong - there's a long & interesting (if you like that sort of thing) article about them on the Dan Armstrong info site:

http://www.danarmstrong.org/copies.html

Regarding acrylic basses in general, a few years back I lobbed this together - body came from a cheapo thing branded AXL and everything else from the parts box:

Absolute back-breaker, and unfortunately the neck turned out to be like a bendy tree trunk. Would be the very definition of a wall-hanger, assuming I wanted huge lumps of plaster & brickwork ripped out of said wall.

[gjones]

3 hours ago, Teebs said:

Interesting looking thing.

I remember seeing Page & Plant in concert years ago & their bassist had a transparent acrylic bass - looked really good under the stage lights!

That's Charlie Jones. I saw him playing with Goldfrapp with his see-thru bass. He's a cool cat.

 

[Bassassin]

Just had a look at the GuitarGuitar listing - not surprised it sold, these are like rocking-horse poo & that's in excellent nick for a 1972-ish bass. Would've been tempted myself if I'd seen it, tbh, and I don't even have GAS for one!

Checking out the old Ibanez catalogue images, yes, the CSL is the exact same bass as Ibanez:

 

If you're wondering why the bass in the Ibby catalogue has no brand, it's because the images were Fujigen factory shots - if there was a CSL catalogue, it would've used the same pic, as would Antoria, who also sold these basses in the UK. They also used the same model numbers.

[Richard R]

Looks fantastic!

 I just googled the density of plexiglass, and acrylic polymer is around 1,000kg/m^3, whereas mahogany is around 850. No wonder those basses are so heavy!

[Delberthot]

3 hours ago, Telebass said:

This was great, but stupidly heavy at nearly 14 pounds!

At least you wouldn't have any trouble with neck dive 👍

[three]

4 hours ago, Telebass said:

This was great, but stupidly heavy at nearly 14 pounds!

Was this the one that Andy Travis built?  I recognise that Celinder pickup - 'think it used to be mine

To continue the plexiglass theme, I was in a famous Manchester music shop late on a '70s Saturday afternoon.  A mate of mine that worked there offered me an original Dan Armstrong plexi bass for £40.  I just about had the money but wanted a pizza on the way home.  I'm sure the pizza was lovely but not the best decision

[fleabag]

Might have been tempted to drill some holes in the plexi body, if i owned one.

[Geek99]

Gary Gary beers of Inxs played one 

[floFC]

4 hours ago, gjones said:

That's Charlie Jones. I saw him playing with Goldfrapp with his see-thru bass. He's a cool cat.

 

Saw him with Goldfrapp too. The only plexiglass bass I have seen that also has a plexi headstock.

[pete.young]

I'm pretty sure that the Charlie Jones basses were made by Crimson Guitars. When they used to publish a workshop diary there was a series of pictures showing its construction. The web site has since been revamped but the content might still on the Wayback machine.

[AndyTravis]

1 minute ago, pete.young said:

I'm pretty sure that the Charlie Jones basses were made by Crimson Guitars. When they used to publish a workshop diary there was a series of pictures showing its construction. The web site has since been revamped but the content might still on the Wayback machine.

The one he has above is a nightingale, the crimson one is ugly as sin.

miss the one I made...😕

 

[AndyTravis]

10 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Gary Gary beers of Inxs played one 

His had a plexi neck too

[AndyTravis]

[AndyTravis]

[fleabag]

Lol  !!!

 

 

[BigRedX]

I've played Charlie Jones' Crimson Plexiglass bass (the one with the plexiglass neck and body) and it's pretty horrible. Big, clunky and heavy and up close it doesn't look particularly good; none of the interior surfaces have been polished so it's full of very distracting opaque regions which ruins the overall effect of having an instrument made out of a transparent material. Fine for a video shoot, so long as you could take it off or sit down between takes but I wouldn't want to do even a 30 minute gig with it.

Plexiglass is fine for guitars with their smaller bodies, the Shaftesbury branded Dan Armstrong guitar I tried in the 70s was no heavier than a typical Les Paul, however the extra material required for a standard P or J bass body makes it much heavier.

The best acrylic bass I've played was surprisingly one of the cheap Wesley branded models that we prevalent on eBay about 15 years ago. I picked up a purple acrylic J-style bass which had been defretted, second hand for £70. It has a much smaller (and slightly thinner) body than a standard J shape which allows it to be a similar weight to a typical wooden-bodied bass. The body shape also allowed a 24 "fret" neck and decent access to the upper reaches of the fingerboard - both pluses IMO. Also these instruments came in variety of transparent colours as well as clear and IIRC there were both 4 and 5-string versions available.

The body would make a great starting point for someone wanting to make a decent plexiglass/acrylic bass that didn't weigh a stupid amount.

Edited November 2, 2019 by BigRedX

[Lozz196]

18 hours ago, fleabag said:

Charles Summerfield Limited , long since gone from the UK.  Think they had some connection to Fujigen Gakki.  @Bassassin will know in depth info

Back in the 80's , a  guitarist pal had a CSL strat copy and it was awesome.

A mate of mine had a CSL Jazz copy and it was a great bass, seems their whole range was good.

[yorks5stringer]

Ben from Crimson Guitars brought a plexi prototype for Charlie Jones to a Dorset Bass Bash some years ago. The neck was (as said) plexi too and it did 'flexi', so much it was unplayable. But it made a nice conversation piece....!