BigRedX Posted September 9, 2007 Share Posted September 9, 2007 (edited) OK as discussed with Ped in the McIntyre Guitars thread, here is a selection of weird and wonderful bass manufacturers and luthiers that I have bookmarked. I'm going to try and post one a day going through my list. Hopefully there will be something here for everyone eventually and also hopefully some new makes that not everyone will have seen before. Feel free to comment, dis my taste in musical instruments etc... And without further ado here's the first on my list This is an Aquilina Triton 5 string. More information from the [url="http://aquilinabasses.free.fr/"]Aquilina Website[/url] Based in France. Reasonably conventional by my standards, but there's some nice design ideas here such as the balanced XLR out as well as the standard jack and the unusal truss rod access. It's an elegant shape, although I think more could have been made of the extended cutaway access. This will set you back about €2,000. There's two other models and they're all available with 4-7 strings. More tomorrow... Edited September 9, 2007 by BigRedX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopthebass Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 As its got such good access to the high frets, I think I'd have stuck some more frets in and had the truss rod access somewhere else. Quite a nice shape, although the timber choice on that pic doesn't do it justice. Keep 'em coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charic Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 Reminds me of one of those danelectro basses... not for me cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 10, 2007 Author Share Posted September 10, 2007 Here's Mondays choice from [url="http://www.atlansia.jp/"]Atlansia[/url]. Designed by N. Hayashi, better known to all those late 70s Aria Pro II fans as H. Noble we have a Galaxy and a Stealth In many ways these are two of the more convetional designs available, although check out the convoluted "back-to-front" tuner arrangement on the Stealth - that would probably take some getting used to and I'd love to know what the rationale was behind it, but overall a good mix of weird shapes and practical features. I particularly like the recesses around the pickups and above the neck which I suppose offers more area to rest your thumb, if that's your playing style. The site is rather poorly designed (something a lot of Japanese musical instruments sites suffer from) but for what seems to be a smallish company there's a massive range of models listed. Does anyone here have one? - I've not seen any pictures of Atlansia instruments other than on their site, and no-one in any of the J-pop or J-rock bands I follow uses one. Hopefully I'll be finding out more when I go to Japan next year, in the mean time it does appear to be possible to buy on line from the Net shop and E Shop (in the left hand frame) The two shown here are about £1300; a single string bass will set you back about £400 and the bonkers 48 quarter tone fret Victoria bass is about £1500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul, the Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 You can tell they are conscious of style and design but they look two or three decades out to me. Interesting pups on the left... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 11, 2007 Author Share Posted September 11, 2007 There are even weirder pickups on some of the other models including ones that look like individual magnets/coils for each string. You can see details in the [url="http://www.atlansia.jp/PARTS%20SHOP.html"]Parts Shop[/url] although the pickups themselves as spares/replacement no longer seem to be sold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzz Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 Cooo, those 2 are nice. I'd love a combination of the Galaxy's headstock on the Stealth though, would look the dogs danglies in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 Excellent!! Thanks for this thread! I find the Aquilina basses interesting because 1) they are French ;0) and 2) some models have Benedetti pickups. I really like the Stealth bass too - I came close to buying a Stealth Deluxe from Japan a while back. A couple of nice pics: One for Dood?? Innovation! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 11, 2007 Author Share Posted September 11, 2007 [quote name='ped' post='58699' date='Sep 11 2007, 01:34 PM']I really like the Stealth bass too - I came close to buying a Stealth Deluxe from Japan a while back.[/quote] That's a nice looking Stealth! Was that a private sale or from a Japanese music store? Other than the Atlansia site there seems to be very little info or pics available. Aparently one came up on ebay last year and that seems to be about it... I'll definitely be looking for one next time I'm in Japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 It is actually the 'Concord' bass I have shown above, and the stealth I nearly got has long gone now. I was going to buy it through a music shop on Digimart [url="http://www.digimart.net/gk_detail.do?instrument_id=DS00228327"]http://www.digimart.net/gk_detail.do?instr...t_id=DS00228327[/url] They have lots of lovely basses!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 11, 2007 Author Share Posted September 11, 2007 Ta for the link! Pity they all seem to be sold except the Concord Bass. I have various contacts in Japan who are musically inclined so hopefully I'll know where to look in order to find these basses... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilmour Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 On the Galaxy and stealth Bass pics above they both have angled pickups, rather than at a 90 degree angle to the strings as normal. Does this significantly affect the sound, or is it just a cosmetic thing? I'd have thought that it would make the low strings bassier, and the top strings punchier and more trebly. And if that's the case why don't more manufacturers do it? Any way just interested to know if this does affect the sound really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 11, 2007 Author Share Posted September 11, 2007 It depends on the bass as to how much, but it does have an impact on the tone. Later in this series you'll see some basses with movable pickups (not going to show my hand just yet...) Whether than's a good thing or not is personal preference. I've played several basses with angled and P-type pickups where the D and G strings sound weedier than the A and E, and IIRC one of the Fender Signature P-Basses has the pickup with the halves reversed. Personally I find a lot of basses with angled J-type pickups to be uncomfortable to play if you use the pickup to rest your thumb on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wotnwhy Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 weird and wonderfull, just my kind of thing! will be watching this one with much interest. Ped, any knowladge on that weird pickup arrangement on the stealth you showed?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 11, 2007 Author Share Posted September 11, 2007 Tuesdays selection comes from the very wonderful [url="http://www.bas-extravaganza.nl"]Bas Extravaganza[/url]. Here's the Parelmoer (Mother Of Pearl) and the Waaier (Fanned) All created by Bas Wittenberg in Holland. These two are my particular favouites, but there's all sorts of instruments on the site; basses made of corrian, covered in fur, there's even one or two vagually conventional J-bass types... I made some enquireies about a few of the instruments about a year ago and very nearly bought the Waaier, but procrastinated for too long and someone else got there. Still there's plenty more where that came from... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 No info as such Tom but I think each of the little circles is effectively a little single coil pickup. I think each is placed according to the sweet spot on each string and voila... Some of those Extravaganza models are great! I like the punk P bass and the Jazz bass with the tube in it!!! ped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 11, 2007 Author Share Posted September 11, 2007 (edited) For more info on the Atlansia pickups have a look at their [url="http://www.atlansia.jp/PAT.1.html"]patents page[/url]. It seems there are two pole-pieces in each coil and they can be rotated. My guess this acts as a mechanical string volume balance. Now I want more than ever to try one of these basses out! In fact there's 13 pages of patents to check out! Some fascinating pictures and some unexpected features on some instruments - hollow bodies with sound holes exiting at the sides! Edited September 11, 2007 by BigRedX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 12, 2007 Author Share Posted September 12, 2007 Wednesday's Basses come from [url="http://www.tdlguitars.com/"]De Lacugo Guitars[/url] Here's an Excelsior and an Excalibur Tony Delacugo specialises in custom metal-flake finishes like that on the Excalibur. You can buy his custom-painted conventional guitar bodies at very reasonable prices on Ebay. His complete custom guitars and basses are far more exclusive and carry matching price tags. According to the site these are $3500 and that may well be out of date by now... I love the amount of 3D sculpting on the bodies and headstocks of these two basses. To me, there's a good chance that the Andreas guitars were influenced by the De Lacugo designs - there's too many similarities for it to be completely coincidental. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 [quote name='BigRedX' post='58979' date='Sep 11 2007, 09:32 PM']All created by Bas Wittenberg in Holland. These two are my particular favouites, but there's all sorts of instruments on the site; basses made of corrian, covered in fur, there's even one or two vagually conventional J-bass types...[/quote] Bas actually joined BW late last year, he makes some really interesting stuff. I've always had a mild hankering for Spalt basses. There's something elegantly functional about them. I particularly like the adjustable body, but you'd only have to do that once after you'd purchased it. There were some prototypes available on the Spalt site with [url="http://www.spaltinstruments.com/forsale.html"]movable pickups[/url] but I haven't seen any of them on the production models. Apparently they sound quite good as well. [attachment=2251:ad1f_3.JPG][attachment=2252:ae80_3.JPG][attachment=2253:MSSPALT_...ote_Bass.jpg] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 12, 2007 Author Share Posted September 12, 2007 I like the Spalt Hybrids too. Another interesting bass that's sold short by the pictures on the poorly desined (and never updated site) - the last three pics you posted show the instrument off so much better than the "official" ones. Does that belong to someone here in the UK? I'd love to have a go on one. I exchanged a few emails with Michael Spalt a couple of years ago, but in the end I decided I couldn't justify getting one without playing it first as there's a couple of design aspects that might not sit well with my playing technique. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 13, 2007 Author Share Posted September 13, 2007 Thursday's basses come from Pagelli Here's a Splash and the Joel Reif version of the Ultra Zero Reduced Three Octave Comfort Balanced Body Fretless Bass (with Hyper Access) When I started bookmarking all these basses I was originally on a quest to find the ulimate fretless bass. For me this may well be it! Extreme high end access, continuous finger board which acts as a thumb rest so you can find the ideal place to give the plucking tone you want. Everything about this bass says quality. There was also a 'cheaper' version made by Marleaux, (called the Marleaux Pagelli bass). This venture seems now to have been discontinued, although there are two of the basses available on the Marleaux store for anyone with a spare €6,000 I know nothing about the splash but I'm hoping that maybe Burns will license the design like they did with the Jet Sonic Guitar (which would lend itself to an intereting bass too)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 Eubassix had a Marleaux-Pagelli. He liked it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 [quote name='BigRedX' post='59594' date='Sep 12 2007, 11:39 PM']I like the Spalt Hybrids too. Another interesting bass that's sold short by the pictures on the poorly desined (and never updated site) - the last three pics you posted show the instrument off so much better than the "official" ones. Does that belong to someone here in the UK?[/quote] They were 'borrowed' off US Ebay auctions. The asking prices were quite high and they didn't ship out of the 48 states so I just "appreciated" the pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 13, 2007 Author Share Posted September 13, 2007 Thanks for the info. I'll just have to dream on until I can get the visit LA. Someone posted some wonderful pics of a 6-string Spalt Hybrid on Talkbass some time back and I didn't bother saving them, and of course now I can't find them any more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul, the Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 (edited) Some really interesting stuff on here. I haven't fallen in love with anything yet, it's only a matter of time. Do you have any non-expensive or retro basses in the pipeline? There was a bass on The Gallery website that looked like a leaf. It was a light green coloured wood and looked like something elvish off Lord Of The Rings. A bit poncey for me to own but I would like to marvel in its majestic ethereal presence. Edited September 14, 2007 by paul, the Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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