merkaba.sam

addendum to last post...you guys should know that after some years out of the music industry, Rolf Spuler is back and building amazing instruments, including the spectacular Paradis "acoustic" guitar, and his basses with compound headstocks. i chatted with him at the NAMM show in Anaheim a couple of years ago. be sure to check out Jerry Auerswald's work at www.auerswald-instruments.com and Michael Spalt who has moved from LA back to Vienna to team up with Andreas Neubauer and the infamous Thomas Nordegg to form Wien Gitarren Manufaktur...

hi kids, hope you all don't mind a guitar muppett joining your collective. i'm a 7 and 8 string guitarist and became an honorary bassist playing in some of my guitar students' bands and projects. i fell in love with bass and now i proudly own 3 of these lovely Affirmas... a 5 string with a 2 pc Flamed Maple body, another 5 string with a 2 pc Saman body which looks quite Koa like, and a 4 string with a 1(!) pc Saman body (quite low serial number too, maybe why the 1 pc body?). all 3 are fretted. i'm always on the lookout for another, like a Walnut 5 and esp a Walnut fretless after having a ham-fisted play on Michael Manring's instruments. i'd also be keen to find a WAL 4 or 5 so i can pretend to be Justin Chancellor while i play along to TooL songs just, for the craic of it. anyway, to answer the above quetion, it does look almost equally like Bubinga and Walnut. but when you add in Ibanez's serial production mindset, the obvious answer must be Walnut. they only made AFRs in 3 body wood types, which you all already know are: Flamed Maple, Walnut and Saman. i have a number Koa instruments, which vary wildly in colour, grain and texture. so it would seem sensible, that other species like Walnut would vary too. like this 1, it does look Bubinga-y. but looks even more like it could have been carved out of the same Walnut board as my Schecter CS-1 guitar. depends where and when the Walnut was harvested too, i suppose. English Walnut, much beloved by Jaguar dashboard makers or Californian Black Walnut? or a Far Eastern locally sourced variation? well, there's about 100's varieties of Ebony, so take your pick. this 1's Walnut i reckon. and i wish i'd bought it...tsk! sam