Happy Jack

Despite the date of manufacture, this bass is actually nine years old since I bought it new in 2011. Despite the date I bought it, this bass is really only one year old since that's how long I played it for before my rock 3-piece broke up. It's been in a hardcase ever since. Despite now being in another rock 3-piece, this bass is currently up for sale because I'm playing my new Rickenbacker 4003s5 instead and I can't really justify hanging on to this any longer. What they said at the time #1: A beautifully sculpted, lightweight basswood body joins forces with a super-stable Maple/Walnut neck and 24-fret 34" Rosewood fingerboard. Two Soap Bar pickups are controlled by a custom active 2-band preamp. Features Grover tuners, black hardware, dot inlays and an adjustable 8-string die-cast bridge. Gloss Black finish. Case not included. What they said at the time #2: Edge 8 is a special segment of the Edge series, for it offers the regular four-stringed Edge bass with double-course set of strings. Instead of four, it has eight strings. Very few brands offer such instruments, as there are not many players capable of handling and playing them. Edge 8 comes with a solid and double-cut body made of basswood and a bolted neck made of maple. Flat top design and bolt-on neck joint construction are featured on this Edge model. Dean assigns only black color with gloss finish and black hardware to Edge 8 color palette. Hardtail bridge on the top is fronted with a pair of active humbucking pickups. Fast and slim contour is featured on the back of the neck and it`s topped with a 24-fret rosewood fingerboard. Apart from some light scuffs on the back where it has been on a wall hanger for a while, condition is excellent verging on pristine. As an intro to playing a multi-string bass this thing is hard to beat. Long discontinued, there's not much out there for anyone fancying an 8-string bass. There's the famous Hagstrom (at over £600 these days ) and I believe ESP still make one, but that's about it. The bass is in Harrow (NW London) and I always prefer to meet Basschatters face-to-face when selling (or buying) basses. It's always good to have the opportunity to play the instrument, reassure yourself that all is as it should be before parting with any dosh. That said, I am happy to explore ways of doing business with Basschatters wherever they are. However, please note that I do not have a decent case or gigbag for this bass. A lot can be achieved with a cheap & flimsy gigbag, copious amounts of bubblewrap and a bicycle carton from Halfords but that's not the same as having a proper, padded gigbag. Just saying ...

What does it actually sound like? Here's something from one of the odder gigs I played in the last ten years, with an originals band in Ealing. This was played outside during a rainstorm at a beer festival, and I had no control over FoH sound.

Most people who try to sell one of these on eBay will claim that this is a Monkees bass or a Peter Tork bass. Well it ain't. Tork played a Model 6073 with in-line tuners (in Bergundy) before moving on to a Guild Jetstar. The current Gretsch G6073 Electrotone seems to be a generic Far Eastern bass with 2-a-side tuners but very little resemblance to any original Gretsch model. Of those who don't make the Monkees claim, most will instead call this a Gretsch Country Gentleman bass. Well it ain't. The Gretsch Country Gentleman was only ever a guitar, and a mighty fine one at that. Just because they made some basses with a strong family resemblance does not mean that they ever marketed any bass under the 'Country Gentleman' label. In all fairness, so many people and so many articles have referred to the 6070 and 6072 as Country Gentleman basses that there's little point arguing any more. This is a large-bodied bass. It's a 34" scale, but the sheer size of that paddle headstock and generous body mean that you can forget using any normal gigbag. These things are usually kept in keyboard cases. Seriously. Did I mention that all the hardware was originally gold-plated? Amongst the many unusual features, the bass comes with a 30" brass peg-end which slides inside the bass, allowing you to play it like an upright bass. If you're completely mad. This feature still exists on some current basses, including my much-loved Takamine TB10 which I sold last year. I took the peg-end out as soon as I bought the Gretsch and used the thumbscrew (with a 3" leather punch inserted) as the strap button. Speaking of strap buttons and unusual features, the top strap button is a screw-in type that you'll never see on another bass. Staying with the unusual, the bass features a single Supertron pickup with a 3-position flick switch (upper bout) to select different tones. The three are essentially dub, Precision, and fairly nasal. The large knob on the lower bout is the volume control. The flick-switch at the lower rear of the bass is an on/off switch. More accurately the low/mid/up switch is on/off/on. This is all mad as a box of frogs ... and yet, and yet, it all works remarkably effectively. Unfortunately, the final unusual feature can only really be admired, rather than used. The bass has a muting knob (near the tailpiece) which, if physically pulled up from the body, operates a convoluted system of levers inside the bass, in order to clamp lightly against the strings that large rectangular rubber ... erm ... thing that you see by the pickup. As you can imagine, this feature needs regular maintenance and adjustment, and this is facilitated by the large, round, leather cover on the back of the bass (you thought that was to prevent buckle rash, didn't you?) which is held on with big poppers. I'm not making this up, you know. Well I had the system checked and adjusted by Andy Gibson in Denmark Street when I bought the bass. He told me that the system still works, after a fashion, and all the bits are there, but that vigorous use of this feature on a 50-year-old bass (as it then was) would be counter-productive. Despite the sheer scale of the whole thing, this is a very playable bass with a truly majestic sound and of course huge stage presence. The neck is more Precision than Jazz, the bass hangs very comfortably on a strap, you barely notice the size of the body when playing though the paddle headstock is always a surprise when you catch a glimpse of it from the corner of your eye. The bass was clearly played a lot at some stage in its history, and the amount of wear on the upper side of the neck (first five frets) is surprisingly a good deal less than on the lower side. Either this bass was played by a lefty and upside down, or it was played by a righty who favoured lots of big rings. The fretboard has an odd finish too; it looks more 'painted' than anything else, but that also seems to be original and very hard-wearing. For the discerning bass connoisseur wishing to look and sound a bit different and attract informed attention, this bass is an excellent choice. The bass is in Harrow (NW London) and I always prefer to meet Basschatters face-to-face when selling (or buying) basses. It's always good to have the opportunity to play the instrument, reassure yourself that all is as it should be before parting with any dosh. That said, I am happy to explore ways of doing business with Basschatters wherever they are. However, please note that I do NOT have any case suitable for shipping this bass anywhere. A lot can be achieved with copious amounts of bubblewrap and a bicycle carton from Halfords but that's not the same as having a proper, fitted case. Just saying ... https://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/gretsch/bass/6070.php

I might buy these just so that I can park next to @bassace at the next Bass Bash ...

Hah! You might need to tell me which date you have in mind ... move to PM, cross-check, and doors to manual please.

No ... to buy my modded Precision!

And guess what Vin used those funds for ...

Carton gone. Oh well, I'll think of something.

Sad to relate, the hardcase in storage proved to be for the Magnum II rather than for this bass. Semi-rigid gigbag it is, then ...