Basses in the 1980s

[NancyJohnson]

I caught up with Barry about a month ago, he's a top bloke and it's always great to have a natter about Wapping and his trade show experiences are priceless.

 

Ask him what SWR and Hartke stand for!

[Linus27]

The 80's was such a great period for interesting bass players, stadium rock like U2 and Simple Minds, to pop groups like Duran Duran, Talk Talk, Level 42, Culture Club, Tears for Fears, The Jam, Rock and Metal like Gun's N Roses, Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden and solo artists like Paul Young, Kate Bush, Phil Collins. They all had exceptional bass players with so much to learn from.

 

I loved The Bass Centre in Wapping, spent a lot of money in there thanks to the record company giving me a nice advance to buy new gear. Came out with a SR4 Stingray, Status Shark, Hartke HA7500 and a Hartke 4x10 and 1x15 with the aluminum speakers. The amount of Elite Stadium bass stings I bought was unreal. Good times.

[chris_b]

9 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

The amount of Elite Stadium bass stings I bought was unreal. . . .

 

I bought so many sets of Stadium strings that Nick started giving me a discount.

[BigRedX]

Unfortunately the only nice thing I can say about Elites is that they were more consistent than Rotosound if you needed 5-string and alternative scale-length sets. I haven't looked back since I switched to Newtone strings is the early 90s.

[gafbass02]

14 hours ago, Norris said:

My Aria Pro-II SB-1000 was made in 1980 - the "batwing" headstock, before they had a battery indicator LED and before the jack socket was recessed. I bought it from Humbucker Music in Leicester in 1985 and played it as my only bass for the next 10 years

My sonic blue jazz bass came from humbucker

[edstraker123]

16 hours ago, Russ said:

17 hours ago, cocco said:

The Kubicki is the ultimate in 80s bass vibe for me. What a mad looking instrument! 

Still available on a made-to-order basis: 

https://kubicki.com/store/basses/

Completely agree although the 2nd hand prices seem way too high - they have a nice one currently in Richtone but you could get a much better new bass for that kind of cash. Any idea how much the new ones cost ?

[Russ]

3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Unfortunately the only nice thing I can say about Elites is that they were more consistent than Rotosound if you needed 5-string and alternative scale-length sets. I haven't looked back since I switched to Newtone strings is the early 90s.

I've always liked them. Got to be the steels though, never liked the nickels. However, they're not sold in the US - the Bass Centre will ship them (and I still get "mate's rates" from them!) but I'd rather pick something up locally. Been using mostly Ernie Ball and Rotosounds, since that's what's most widely available. I am going to try some DR coloured strings on my Maruszczyks - the fretted one has a blue theme, the fretless a red theme, so this is just taking that look to its logical conclusion.  

 

I did dabble with Picatos for a while back in the day - they were good, and reasonably priced. Not sure what happened to them, but they seemed to vanish from the shelves about 15 years ago. 

 

1 hour ago, edstraker123 said:

Completely agree although the 2nd hand prices seem way too high - they have a nice one currently in Richtone but you could get a much better new bass for that kind of cash. Any idea how much the new ones cost ?

I think they're around US$3,500. Saw someone on TB talking about ordering one a while back and I seem to recall that was what they were asking for one. If that's the case, it's not terrible, since it's now a custom-order instrument, and they seem to go to relatively silly money on the used market - not Wal-silly, but silly enough. 

[crazycloud]

On 30/01/2025 at 01:43, markorbit said:

If I had a time machine and some funds I'd go back and get a Status S2000 in black weave preferably with the script font on the brass bridge plate. I love the look of early Status basses. All shiny and new.

I still have mine, but it's had the snot beaten out of it, as the previous owner told me it had over a million air miles on it.

Still have my XL2 I bought new.

[Bilbo]

I remember attending a couple of clinics at the Bass Centre. Both Jeff Berlin. I bought a Bass Rockman there but that was it. No basses or amps. Didn't know the staff. I wasn't cool enough. Still aren't.

Edited yesterday at 16:35 by Bilbo

[Mike Brooks]

3 hours ago, edstraker123 said:

Completely agree although the 2nd hand prices seem way too high - they have a nice one currently in Richtone but you could get a much better new bass for that kind of cash. Any idea how much the new ones cost ?

Around the $4.5 - 5k mark, depending on what you want.

[Mike Brooks]

2 hours ago, Russ said:

I did dabble with Picatos for a while back in the day - they were good, and reasonably priced. Not sure what happened to them, but they seemed to vanish from the shelves about 15 years ago. 

Ceased to be a 'company back in 2015-ish, lease came up for renewal I think and for whatever reason the company ceased, Rotosound bought some of their machines and the name became a brand, now under the stewardship of Strings & Things I believe. I could be wrong on all this of course.

 

I was an endorsee from 1997 -2015, loved their strings but by 2014, I was getting a lot of dead E and A strings in my orders, usually returned half an order's worth of strings for replacements, so I wonder if their eye was off the ball by the end.

[Captain Bassman]

Great shop, great people, great memories…

 

Bought my GB there in summer 1999. Still have it and it’s still my number 1 four string 25 years later.