Weird & Wonderful Basses

[paul, the]

Talking of money, check these out for great expense:


[url="http://www.ritter-royals.com/instruments-available.php#"]http://www.ritter-royals.com/instruments-available.php#[/url]

[gypsymoth]

that excalibur is very nice - not weird for the sake of being weird.

those little round pickups make sense - again iely not weird just for the sake of it.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='paul, the' post='60203' date='Sep 14 2007, 12:55 AM']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.[/quote]

There will be some basses under £1000, but unfortunately on the whole when your tastes run to the non-standard and unconventional for the most part you are into the territory of low volume, individually hand-made instruments and the prices that go with them. As for retro if you didn't think the Pagelli Splash had enough retro styling features then you'll probably be disappointed...

Is the bass from the Gallery [url="http://www.thebassgallery.com/eccles4fl.html"]this one?[/url] If so I was interested in this until I actually played it (something that may well be true of a lot of he basses I'll be posting here). Interetsting construction, seeming made from a single piece of wood, but the body is extremely thin and lightweight and consequently the sound has no oomph... Not sure about some of the design features either esspecially the tuning mechanism. If it was significantly cheaper and strung with something more low tension like TI Flats I might be tempted to re-evaluate.

[gilmour]

Thanks BigRed I love this thread.

My Fave so far is the Bas Extravaganza Parelmoer (Mother Of Pearl).

I looked at the website - that guys got some amazing designs - I fell in love with his Lightwave Jazz, a Jazz Copy with Lightwave Optical Pickup and € 1.200,00 doesn't seem so steep for such an innovative instrument.

I'd be really interested to know if anyone has played any of his stuff, or if there is any way in the UK that you can try it out?

[ped]

Me and Kiwi had a look at that fretless leaf thingy at the Gallery - didn't plug it in but it felt really nice to hold. I couldn't work out how it was tuned at all!!

[BigRedX]

Time for Friday's bass and here it is:



This is a TK Signature Series 524 Bass
Made by Todd Keehn in Colorado. I'm a sucker for the fanned-fret look, and now having played a Dingwall Afterburner, I can say that it's surprisingly easy to adapt to. In fact the fanning looks more difficult when you look at a bass from the front than from the playing position. The fanning on this bass doesn't seem as extreme as the Dingwalls this one's 37-34" (I believe that the Dingwalls are shorter scale on the G?)

I'm not entirely sure about the current status of TK instruments. There's lots of conflicting info about what he will and won't build at the moment, but it seems as though this bass can be custom ordered and there's a long a complicated page that takes you through all the different options possible. It does seem as though these days he's more interested in his hybrid guitar/violin type instruments.

[thumb4bob]

I remember seeing eubassix's marleaux-pagelli on his avatar when i first joined bassworld and its still the nicest looking bass ive ever seen! Anyone know if he sold it to another BW'er or BC'er. If I start saving now I may be able to afford it in a couple of years

[thumb4bob]

forgot to say, cool thread

[ped]

I will ask Eubassix about it, I always forget. I'm on it!

[MB1]

MB1.

There all a bit Bender Telecaster these arent they?.

[BigRedX]

Saturday's selection is in a way a bit obvious; Basslab

This one is the STD


This the L-Bow


and this is one of their custom models


These are made out of what Basslab describe as "Tunable Mixed Composite" and are completely hollow - including the neck! This reults in an extremely light instrument. From the pictures these are basses that make a lot more sense once they're being worn by the player rather than just in picture of them on their own.

There is also a more conventional shaped bass, for those who like the sound and lack of weight but can't get on with the extreme looks

[bass_ferret]

Where do you finds this stuff - google "dodgy basses"?

[setekh]

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='60996' date='Sep 15 2007, 10:05 PM']Where do you finds this stuff - google "dodgy basses"?[/quote]

[BigRedX]

I'm hoping there's nothing dodgy about any of the basses I'm posting here. Most of these come from manufacturers and luthiers who's reputations extend further than just the creation of instruments with weird shapes. There are sound reasons behind the designs and construction methods I'll be showing here. Admittedly these instruments aren't for everyone which is exactly how it should be - some of the design features that appeal to me and my playing techniqes may well render them unplayable by others, just as I find some of the 'classic' designs particularly uncomfortable to play. What I'm hoping to show that it's possible to create fine sounding, playing and looking basses without having to follow exactly in the footsteps of Leo Fender.

And to answer your questio more directly, I started with the custom bass luthiers list on Bunny Bass and took it from there... Google in this case isn't really very helpful at all.

[ped]

Well said. Most of them I find too 'different' for my tastes, but they are nonetheless fascinating. Keep them coming sir.

Incidentally, have you ever looked at the BBMIA archive at bunnybass? You can register for access free and there are some amazing photographs there - of some custom and not so custom basses. I try and take pictures in the same way as on that site.

ped

[ped]

Searching google is pretty useless - I tried 'Dodgy basses' and it came up with a GB ;0)

[Tait]

the basslab soul bass is nice, but all of the others are way too wierd for my taste.

good idea for a thread by the way

[ARGH]

[quote name='ped' post='61083' date='Sep 16 2007, 11:26 AM']Searching google is pretty useless - I tried 'Dodgy basses' and it came up with a GB ;0)[/quote]

[silverfoxnik]

Cool thread this.. makes me think of all the reasons why I like my boring normal basses like the Wal and the Lakland DJ5.

Mind you, can you imagine how [i]wierd [/i]people thought the first P-Bass was when it was first introduced by Fender in the 50s? After all, the only other bass then would have been the Double Bass wouldn't it?

[bass_ferret]

[quote name='ped' post='61083' date='Sep 16 2007, 11:26 AM']Searching google is pretty useless - I tried 'Dodgy basses' and it came up with a GB ;0)[/quote]
You got me

[BigRedX]

Sunday's selection is from my favourite UK luthier [url="http://www.gusguitars.com/"]Gus Guitars[/url]

Here's a pair of G3 basses, a fretted 5 string and a fretless 4


I've been interested in the work of Simon Farmer ever since I saw photos of one of his early prototype guitars in one of the musical instrument magazines in the mid to late 80s. I think that was the first time that I'd seen a guitar that had an impact that went beyond being a nice piece of wood or a less than conventional shape. I can pretty much remember thinking from the moment I first saw the photos that I wanted one of those guitars, and as those of you who've followed my posts in the bass porn section know, I'm lucky enough to own these two basses.

If you take the workshop tour on the Gus site you'll know that there's a lot more to these instruments than just the signature chromed tubes. The body and neck are made from cedar - a tone wood more usually found on acoustic guitars - with a carbon fibre exoskeleton to give the strength. All the parts for these guitars except the machine heads are made in house. The pickups are probably the loudest and fullest sounding that I've come across on a bass so far. The passive 5-string has an output that puts many active basses to shame. If I was honest with myself and if there was no such thing as GAS with these two basses I might not need anything else...

[ARGH]

THEY LOOK GROWLY!!!

Is the tone pi55ed?

[BigRedX]

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='61423' date='Sep 16 2007, 10:31 PM']Cool thread this.. makes me think of all the reasons why I like my boring normal basses like the Wal and the Lakland DJ5.

Mind you, can you imagine how [i]wierd [/i]people thought the first P-Bass was when it was first introduced by Fender in the 50s? After all, the only other bass then would have been the Double Bass wouldn't it?[/quote]

And 25 years ago Wal would have been near the top of my list of Weird and Wonderful basses along with Alembic and the aluminium-necked Kramers, and who knows what innovations the next 25 years will bring to the bass guitar.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact the we are trying find instruments that are capable of articulating some fairly extreme sounds, and the moment even the most sophosticated of basses can't reproduce both the depth and clarity of some of the more extreme electronically produced bass sounds.

[E_MaN]

fugly...keep it up with the fretlesses though!!! I want one sooo bad!!!

[odub]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='61433' date='Sep 16 2007, 10:50 PM']I've been interested in the work of Simon Farmer ever since I saw photos of one of his early prototype guitars in one of the musical instrument magazines in the mid to late 80s. I think that was the first time that I'd seen a ...[/quote]

Wow how much do these things cost?