Left handed violin bass

[throwoff]

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Electric-Violin-Bass-Guitar-LMNY-LM-VB-BK-LEFT-HANDED_W0QQitemZ350276359695QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item518e19160f"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Electric-Violin-Bass...=item518e19160f[/url]

Le Marquis NY?

I fancied a violin for a while just as a bit of a toy and something to hang on the wall. For that money it aint gonna be a stunner but anyone used/heard about them before.

Just plain average will be ok.

EDIT!
Oh and I have noticed the pictures wrong as well, i'll ask for a proper one if I bid!

Edited March 19, 2010 by throwoff

[Happy Jack]

That's a reasonably-close copy of a Hofner CT ... but I'd be very concerned by the description of a "Basswood body".

If that's the case then either it's a solid-body (will weigh a ton, balance all wrong, and sound totally different from any other violin bass) or it's a hollow-body made from cheap stuff (will be slightly stronger than a cigar box and sound about the same).

Your best hope is that the description has been carried across from another listing and that the body is actually plywood. Best check first.

[throwoff]

Yeh I noticed the wood issue.

I'm wondering if basswood is just a mistranslation of a wood used to make basses as opposed to actual basswood

[BigRedX]

I thought the Epiphone was a copy of the Gibson EB1, which apart being violin shaped has nothing else in common with the Hofner.

[Annoying Twit]

I like the look of the Gibson. Was that the first Violin bass? And the Hofner a copy? I always thought the Hofner was "the original".

[throwoff]

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='779765' date='Mar 19 2010, 02:49 PM']I like the look of the Gibson. Was that the first Violin bass? And the Hofner a copy? I always thought the Hofner was "the original".[/quote]

I did as well...

Someone find McCartney!

[BigRedX]

The first Gibson EB1 was produced in [url="http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/"]1953[/url].

The Epiphone violin basses I've seen were all copies of the Gibson. I wasn't aware that they'd copied the Hofner too.

[Happy Jack]

The Gibson was the first violin bass but, apart from the general shape, had very little in common with the Hofner.

The Hofner 500/1 was intended as an affordable version of the Gibson for the impoverished West Germans (if that sounds like a weird description of Germans, you're probably quite young ) but there is no record of the decision-making process at the time, and certainly no admission in Hofner's records or literature that this was a copy of someone else's bass.

It was designed during 1955 and launched at the Frankfurt Musik Messe in February 1956. The original design was noticeably different from the iconic Beatle Bass. The choice of a classic-construction hollow-body meant that it would always be a very different beast to the Gibson.

You could make a strong argument that the 500/1 was NOT a copy of the Gibson, simply because there are so many substantial differences between them. Ultimately, both of them are distant copies of the orchestral violin.

It was seen (like the Gibson) as a transitional instrument for DB players looking to branch out into electric bass, and was never particularly intended for the export market. In fact, it was unavailable in the UK until Selmer brought in the first batch of 300 in 1963 to cash in on the Beatles craze. By that time Selmer had already shipped well over 3000 Hofner basses in half a dozen models, so clearly the 500/1 was seen as an irrelevance until Macca moved the goalposts.

[Annoying Twit]

Thanks for all the info, all.

Also: Alden L/H Violin bass. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Alden-Violin-Beatles-lefthanded-Bass-Guitar-Sunburst_W0QQitemZ350327808413QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item51912a219d"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Alden-Violin-Beatles...=item51912a219d[/url]