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Commodore Bass - made in New Zealand.


Citylimits

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I surfed onto a listing featuring this Commodore Bass

The listed amount is $NZD1899.00.

There is very little by way of a written description, but there are a fair number of images to take the place of the proverbial one thousand words.

So here we go, I hope you enjoy what I've posted here.

Cheers and best wishes.

Bruce

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I love the aesthetics but I’m not sure I’d go the full price on it.

I used to have a short scale Commodore bass years ago, but I think it was a rebadged MIJ Aria from the 70’s. It didn’t look as cool as the one in the ad though :)

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Never encountered the NZ Commodore brand before, clearly not related to the Matsumoku-built UK Commodore brand of the late 60s/early 70s.

Did a very quick Google which unearthed this article which covers the origins of the NZ company & its founder, plus a few Commodore gutars:

https://www.audioculture.co.nz/scenes/ten-guitars-nz-made-guitars

And this Reverb listing for a very pretty Commodore 6-stringer, its styling owing an awful lot to 50s/60s Italian instruments, IMO.

https://reverb.com/item/8244871-extremely-rare-vintage-commodore-electric-guitar-new-zealand-rare-50-s-1958

Aside from Australian manufacturer Maton, I'm hard-pressed to think of any Antipodean guitar & bass manufacturers. I'll see if I can dig up anything else about Commodore.

Edit: Thread on Offset Guitars forum discussing the brand:

https://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=53549

It's a 10-year old thread so probably a few dead links.

 

 

 

Edited by Bassassin
Moar stuff.
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  • 2 months later...
On 19/05/2021 at 03:16, casapete said:

Love it! Appeals to my liking of quirky basses ( Danelectro, Kay etc), not sure if it’s worth nearly £1k though ( to me anyway). But then find another one....😄

In the end, this Commodore Bass sold locally at $NZD600. Even locals had similar thoughts to you, mate.

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43 minutes ago, Citylimits said:

In the end, this Commodore Bass sold locally at $NZD600. Even locals had similar thoughts to you, mate.

That’s around £300 here, probably even a good price at that? With stuff like this it’s usually about finding that one person who will pay for quirky and rare. 

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A few years back, I approached Eastwood to see whether they could do us a limited run of an Eastwood BC bass. 

 

We had a few interested parties, but before we even got as far as agreeing on a body/neck design, the thread took an inevitable downward spiral of member-bickering about hardware/electrics, with members chipping in as to why they wouldn't be interested (which really wasn't the point of the exercise).  Despite the number of members here, it would never have worked.

 

In my head though, this bass is very close in looks to what I thought we should be doing and it certainly fits the Eastwood build ethic; a bit of a quirky 60s throwback, wouldn't look out of place on The Jetsons, I bloody love that headstock!

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On 18/08/2021 at 08:31, NancyJohnson said:

A few years back, I approached Eastwood to see whether they could do us a limited run of an Eastwood BC bass. 

 

We had a few interested parties, but before we even got as far as agreeing on a body/neck design, the thread took an inevitable downward spiral of member-bickering about hardware/electrics, with members chipping in as to why they wouldn't be interested (which really wasn't the point of the exercise).  Despite the number of members here, it would never have worked.

 

In my head though, this bass is very close in looks to what I thought we should be doing and it certainly fits the Eastwood build ethic; a bit of a quirky 60s throwback, wouldn't look out of place on The Jetsons, I bloody love that headstock!

 

But how much of an Eastwood version would be true to the original and how much would be cobbled together from standard off the shelf parts, thereby loosing a good deal of what made the instrument different and interesting in the first place?

Edited by BigRedX
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