Happy Jack

Gosh - aren't there a lot of violin bass copies out there? Pretty much every variation on Macca's Beatle Bass that you can imagine has been ... erm ... imagined, so what's left that could be new? Well, David Konig (the man behind Retrovibe, also works a lot with Chowny Bass) was curious about why all these basses are hollow but not semi-acoustic, i.e. they have a solid top without f-holes. Fairly obviously the answer must involve control of feedback, but he thought he'd use his Chinese manufacturers to experiment. And here's the experiment, the prototype Retrovibe Violin bass with f-holes. It's as well-made as all the many other instruments coming out of China these days, and both burst and finish are really rather nice. These basses always have a 'central sustain block', a highly misleading term for a big block of cheap wood that runs down the centre of the hollow body, adding strength but also a lot of weight. Because you can see through the f-holes, the central block on this one has been whittled back somewhat so that it can't be easily seen, which makes this bass rather lighter than its cousins. The bass came to me as body + meck with tuners, and the other components in a bag. I get the impression that David had lost interest before completing the project. I added black nylon strings plus a half-decent DB pickup under the floating bridge, and had my long-time guitar-tech Andy Gibson put it all together properly for me. Headstock & tuners are about as generic as they come. The bass plays and works absolutely fine. It's lightweight, shortscale, easy to handle, fun to play. My thinking was to set it up as an emergency fall-back for DB gigs where - for whatever reason - I couldn't actually use the DB. I've turned up at gigs where access was up a spiral staircase (seriously) or where the ceiling height on stage was less than 6' so I liked the idea of something light & small that could be left in the vehicle while I played the gig, but would be there if I needed it. I experimented with this idea first using my 1964 Hofner 500/1, but that is NOT a bass you leave in a car parked outside a pub. So that's why I bought the Retrovibe. And ... by the time I'd got the bass complete and ready to play I'd realised that I was much happier at 'awkward' gigs just playing my Mike Lull 54P, which I'd started using for a section of each set anyway. Doh! So there we have it. A custom-built prototype by a known manufacturer, virtually unplayed, which I am selling for less than the value of the components. Go figure. If you're interested, do bear in mind that this bass sounds WAY better if you run it through a decent pre-amp, especially one designed to work with piezo pickups. Yes, you can plug it directly into any amplifier, but in that case the tone you'll get will probably disappoint. The bass is in Harrow (NW London) and can be collected either from there or from the West End. I can post if you want, but at this price point there's no chance that I'll be offering free postage! There is NO gigbag or case.

Loving the settings on the Bass Terror ...