Weird & Wonderful Basses

[BigRedX]

From a great example of the elegant use of woods to something altogether different from [url="http://www.switchmusic.com/index.html"]Switch[/url]

The Wild-I Bass


and the Innovo Fretless


I believe that Trevor Wilkinson has some involvement in the creation of the Switch instruments. Their unique feature is the [url="http://www.switchmusic.com/vibracell_page/vibracell_01.html"]Vibracell[/url] material they are made out of which allows them to be cast as a single piece with just the fingerboard added afterwards. I haven't tried the basses yet (although I'm hoping to get my hands on a fretless soon) as I haven't seen any in the shops, but I have tried the guitars which are interesting if slightly let down by the price they are constructed to. I think that the bass has the potential be a completely different thing as they tend to lend themselves much better to high-tech construction materials, and I do like the feel of a good ebanol fingerboard. There'll be an update to this once I've tried one out.

[ped]

Oooofff - £500 - nice

[wotnwhy]

hmmm, one of my posts has dissapeared...

basically all i said was, dont' stop this thread when you run out of basses! start showing some of the more well known weird & wonderfull, then move onto ones that aren't in production, and just make sure you put 'not in production' in the header of each of those posts. 'cos i don't want this to stop!

[Rich]

*uncontrollable drooling* god, that blue Tune 5 is the absolute [i]sex[/i]...
Oh bloody hell Ped, what have you done..? You've made me go and look at that bloody Ishibashi site...
Moon Jazz, £339...

[ped]

Sorry Rich!! Addictive isn't it? I think part of the attraction of Ishibashi is the mystique surrounding some of the models they have, as much as the good prices and service.

[BigRedX]

Nice Tune again ped, but not my thing as much as the first one you posted which unfortunately was "sold out" by the time Ishibashi got around to answering my email. I've bookmarked U-Box and will be checking it every day in the hope that more interesting basses turn up. The Japanese don't really do second hand unless it's 'rare' or 'vintage' and therefore collectable, so the prices can be very good indeed. The Rumblefish I also mentioned turned out to have a prohibitively expensive shipping price, but there's a couple of other interesting basses I have my eye on....

[BigRedX]

Next up are from [url="http://www.beebasses.com/"]Bee Basses[/url]

From left to right, The Worker, The Drone, The Thunderbee


A lot of the Bee Basses that seem to get posted to the bass forums are the outragous ERBs which are very nice, but I find the more conventional strung instruments more elegant. Again I'm not sure I could get on playing-wise with the single cut, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating it as a great design. Prices range from just under $2000 for The Worker and The Drone to over $4000+ for a 9-string exotic topped ThunderBee. There's also a 3-string 'Mini-bee' listed but unfortunately no photos.

Edited November 22, 2007 by BigRedX

[ARGH]

Fred Bolton has such amazing creations...

[7string]

Bee have another shape out called the "stinger". I think it looks far better than the rest of his range



Every review I've seen mentions how great Bee basses play and sound.

[wotnwhy]

the 3 string bee bass was made for a talkbasses IIRC. i used to have a pic of it saved on my computer, but it was a few years and unfortunatly the pics long gone.

[Alun]

That Stinger is beautiful.

[ARGH]

Im a 'Drone' fan myself.

[7string]

Yup, that Stinger certainly is something else ... and quite reasonable as the US dollar is so weak at the moment.

[ped]

Here's a nice one from Bacchus







Maybe not THAT 'weird' compared to some though!

[d-basser]

two words for teh Bacchus...me...want...

[eude]

Holy Moly!
I didn't realise Bacchaus did single cuts!

Where'd you find that Ped, what does it cost?

Eude

[OldGit]

[quote name='eude' post='96030' date='Nov 29 2007, 10:55 AM']Holy Moly!
I didn't realise Bacchaus did single cuts!

Where'd you find that Ped, what does it cost?

Eude[/quote]

The neck joint looks a lot like the W&T's BassDirect has .

[bnt]

One niggle about the Tune shape is that it's not the most comfortable bass to play sitting down. The lower horn digs in to your leg a bit.

If you're looking for another source of weird and wonderful, have a look at [url="http://www.chrislarkinguitars.com/"]Chris Larkin Guitars[/url]. I think his monster 9-string was mentioned here recently, and he also does EUBs, singlecuts and custom jobs with unusual woods e.g spalted Beech.

[BigRedX]

Nice find with the Bacchus ped! And only approximately £2500 plus shipping etc...

Unfortunately that model seems to be dicontinued. It's certainly not on the current [url="http://www.deviser.co.jp/bacchus"]Bacchus web site[/url] or in the [url="http://www.deviser.co.jp/bacchus/pdf/08BACCHUS.pdf"]2008 Catalogue (PDF)[/url] where only quality variations on the P and J seem to be the order of the day for basses.

However I did find this:




which proves that have ventured outside of the mainstream designs in the past...

[BigRedX]

Still a few more to go...

Although I'm waiting to hear back from a couple of luthiers to find out if they're still in business before I post.

In the meantime here's some basses I discovered only recently: [url="http://www.loewenherzbass.com/"]Löwenherz[/url]

They've recently built a couple of bass for Stanley Clarke, but here's one of the 'standard' models




A very Alembic vibe - especially with the 3 pickups which are actually configured as 6 individual coils with switches for each. Take a look at the [url="http://www.loewenherzbass.com/english/manual.html"]manual[/url] which explains how it all works.

And this bass takes the concept a bit further with 12 individual coils arranged in a ramp...

[setekh]

man, have I missed this thread!

great looking these Löwenherz btw

[wotnwhy]

VERY alembic-esque. but very very nive too.

[Rich]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='98351' date='Dec 3 2007, 07:25 PM'][/quote]Ugh. Sorry, but just yeucchhh. The headstock is horrid, the lion head thing looks silly, and that control layout couldn't have been more random if they'd got a 4 year old to arrange it.

[lee4]

[quote name='Rich' post='98962' date='Dec 4 2007, 04:49 PM']Ugh. Sorry, but just yeucchhh. The headstock is horrid, the lion head thing looks silly, and that control layout couldn't have been more random if they'd got a 4 year old to arrange it. [/quote]
+1for me.looks like it's a reject from "Pimp my bass"

[BigRedX]

Well I'm glad it got a reaction even if it's mainly negative. It worries me when I post some of these instruments and they go without any kind of comment.

It does seem though that it's the fairly normal basses that tend to get the most extreme reactions - as though people relate to them by their similarity to what they already know and react accordingly...

I have to say that the bling lion's head isn't to my taste either, and the control layout doesn't appeal - the large knob furthest from the strings is the volume...

However I was impressed that someone felt the need to fit 12 pickups on as bass and more importantly was able to do it and still have a sensible number of frets!

Edited December 4, 2007 by BigRedX