JanSpeeltBas

[quote name='Kees_SoS' timestamp='1368024591' post='2072190']
Wow! It's very unusual to see an Overwater on Marktplaats. Do you still have the bass? I've been using them for years.
What kind of headstock does it have, BTW? A Progress headstock or the Original Series type?
[/quote]

Hi Kees...
haven't been around here for a long time and just read your comment. I still have it, but it's sadly gathering dust. The last few years I fully turned to playing upright and I just don't play regular electric bass anymore. It's an original type of headstock. I know it's quite rare, but there's a guy living close to me who has another one...I presume that's the one Nels Busch (Frank Boeijen Groep) used to play after he sold his Wal basses. If you're interested in seeing more of it I can send you pictures...the Overwaters are real beauties!

These are wonderful basses, made in Japan. Good stuff!

I stumbled on a Gewa "Ideale" today....it's a cute little 3/4 acoustic with decent sound and very good playability. It's loud enough without amplification...I didn't get to try it amplified. It's all solid wood...but cheaper than Eminence or Kania. I suppose it's pretty rare...it's listed in the EUB Database as Gewa Jazzy.

Is it still for sale?

Beautiful bass....what year was it made? Does it have the Highlander electronics or the current D-Tar pickup?

Do you have sound samples of this bass? Comparable to Eminence?

Thanks!

Next chapter will be France....

Here it is: [attachment=33230:ENCYCLOP...ASSES_v1.pdf], a sequel to the [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57278&st=0&p=566909&#entry566909"]British edition[/url] published a while ago .
Well, I challenge you to name ten bassmakers from the Latin American area? Here's 130!

Disclaimer: I've done my very best to provide accurate information. My sources are the Net, many books, dealer stories and many many catalogues. I may have gotten some things wrong - don't hold it against me...
If anyone likes to use this information - feel free to do so but mention where you got it from...if anyone intends to misuse this information (for commercial purposes) - I'll hunt you down and sue you! This project has cost me hundreds hours of work without any financial compensation.

Cheers,
Jan

Work got in the way of completing the alphabet - here they are now...
U, the vintage japanese Univox Precisely[attachment=32797:Univox_P...y_p_copy.jpg]
V, the Vincent Jazzforce from Germany [attachment=32798:Vincent_...uitsland.jpg]
W - Witkowsky [attachment=32799:Witkowsk...s_j_copy.jpg]
X - Xavier Petit [attachment=32800:Xavier_P..._copy_g5.jpg]
Y, Yamaha PB and JB-series sold only in Japan this catalogue is from '85 [attachment=32801:Yamaha_P...00R___85.jpg]
and Z: can't help putting up this one...Zoolander [attachment=32802:Zoolander.jpg]

After all these F-style instruments we'll continue with G-styles soon - which will mean a fair amount of japcrap basses!

After a week absence - back online...

Another Shark, mady by Giannini of Brazil. They're most known for their kidney-shaped acoustic Cravioli guitars but have made a lot of basses too. Most of them are rather cheap looking copies - a bit like Aria in the '70s, but the Shark is quite original - the headed guitar version was introduced round '78 - this [attachment=32791:Giannini_Shark.pdf] headless bass with a wooden throughneck and fibreglass bodywings dates from 1980.

The Verdi family makes instruments in Argentina. They developed their "Virtual Bass" and similar guitars. [attachment=32792:Verdi_Virtual_Bass.jpg] [attachment=32795:Verdi_Vi...l_bass_2.jpg] There's an EUB too: [attachment=32793:Verdi_Pr...ntrabajo.JPG], closeup of the partly carbon body: [attachment=32794:Verdi_Vi...bon___05.JPG]

In Equador there's a luthier called Olivo Chiliguenga making classical guitars. In the '70s he lived in Canada working for Lado.
That's when he made some real nice Alembic-style basses like this one: [attachment=32796:Olivo_ba...ic_style.jpg]

Look for the second chapter of my world bass encyclopedia (South America) soon and exclusively on Bass Chat!

Fanta Beadoux (this bass is an old one from '85): [attachment=32217:Fanta_Be...headless.gif]
This one's from an unknown argentine luthier - really one piece construction: [attachment=32218:Onbekend...ke_toets.gif]
MM Basses (Colombia): [attachment=32219:MM_Basse...ail_body.jpg] [attachment=32221:MM_Basses_M01dc.jpg]
Roger Morillo (Venezuela): [attachment=32220:Roger_Mo...semiak_6.gif]

Q is a hard letter but what about the Swiss-made Q Basses Mythos?[attachment=32147:Qbasses_Mythos.jpg]
Not enough F for you?
R = R.Baudry with a neckthrough J-style [attachment=32149:R_Baudry...zBass_nt.jpg]
S = Schecter USA [attachment=32150:Schecter..._PJ___79.jpg]
T = Thorndal (Germany) [attachment=32151:Thorndal_JB.jpg]

Freddy Pizzaro headless (Chile):[attachment=32144:Freddy_P...headless.jpeg]
Lopez Luthier (Argentina): [attachment=32145:Lopez_Luthier.jpg]
Maese (Argentina):[attachment=32146:Maese_EUB.jpg]

Opening with another scroll bass (very soon we'll be moving to scrolled headstocks...) by Ken Bebensee: [attachment=32075:Ken_Bebensee.jpg]

Recently I learned that Peter Malinosky is making instruments again. He's an artist and guitars are only part of his work but they're very nice: [attachment=32076:Peter_Ma...osky__35.jpg] [attachment=32077:Peter_Ma...osky__36.jpg] [attachment=32078:Malinoski_5.jpg]

Tomorrow we'll check out some southamerican instruments: this appetizer is made by Pablo Massa of Argentina: [attachment=32079:Pablo_Massa_4.jpg]

No, haven't heard the Optomik - the guys at Colmann mailed me today the "the production is on stand by"....the only chance to hear it is in the basses of DNG or Roadrunner who have made protoypes with the Optomik bridge. Since I'm very interested in this technology I'm going to contact Roadrunner.
I've only briefly experienced Lightwave and don't know about the flaws - I do think there's too much technology behind it. I actually have someone work on a system based on Hoag's design which is much more basic. Hoag was the first to patent optical pickups in '70 but never really sold anything - he officialy retired in '07 but still works on promoting his system - he mailed me last week about finishing another videoperformance for his youtube channel.
I'll keep you optically informed... Your Lightwave is the one that Tune made? I remember it used to be called Audio Optics.

Now for P: Prose, british basses by Paul Rose:[attachment=32074:Prose_J_..._H_H_pus.JPG] For the record: he now makes original style basses.

O = Optomik from France. These instruments are based on Optomik's optical pickup system and marketed by a French piano company called Colmann.[attachment=31972:Optomik_pu.jpg] This is the pickup (actually an older version of it - the latest model has seperate units per string much like Lightwave's Monolith construction) - the bass (a black P-model) can be seen on the [url="http://www.colmann.com/colmann-optomik_b1-ang.html"]Colmann Optomik[/url] website.

John Paul Jones has caught our attention again with the recent Them Crooked Vultures project.
He has played a lot of basses over the years but somewhat simplfied it's like this:
After starting out on a British made cheapo Dallas he turned to Fender until '75. Then he played Alembics until the
mid '80s when he turned to Manson.
Two Alembics come up, a regular Series I and the eight-string'Omega'bass he co-designed. [attachment=31967:Alembic_JPJ.png]Rick Turner (then main luthier at Alembic) has stated
that he has built it. But other sources point to BecVar. Here's a fourstring: [attachment=31968:BecVar_a...ic_style.jpg] [attachment=31969:BecVar_kop.JPG] And here another model:[attachment=31970:BecVar_C...6000_USD.jpg] Bruce BecVar (who's now a recording musician specializing in spiritual and healing music)
worked at Alembic from '72 to '77 after which he set up his own workshop in Sonoma,CA until some point in the '80s.
In the early '70s there were about eight people working for Alembic. It was common practice to work for themselves after
regular hours. That's when Doug Irwin (he came up yesterday as the mentor of Tom Lieber) first made his own instruments for Jerry Garcia and BecVar
did this too. His instruments resemble Alembic very much and often use Alembic bridge parts, pickups and electronics.
When he started out on his own he started using Hi-A (early Bartolini) pickups and Hyak electronics. Hyak was mentioned
two days ago. It was founded by a third Alembic employee from the early days, Brian Smith and existed for only 2 years
/ 200 guitars & basses - Smith had to quit guitarmaking because of a wood allergy. He's still on friendly terms with Alembic but
both Irwin and BecVar aren't. A fourth Alembic spin-off is Oasis, made by Gary Cooper in the mid '70s. His best known creation (#2 c.1973) was for Robert 'Kool'Bell of Kool & the Gang. See it [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwEMxYggoKQ"]here and celebrate![/url]
Well back to JPJ- BecVar did make some Omega JPJ models and one of them seems to have landed with JPJ. So was
he playing an Alembic or a BecVar?
(Most of this info comes off the Alembic Users Forum)
Edit: I forgot a fifth '70s Alembic employee going solo in '77: Michael Dolan, stiil making custom basses and guitars in Sonoma,CA. Here's an Alembic-like fivestring bass: [attachment=31971:Dolan_custom_5.jpg]

And now for N: Novax Tribute with fanned frets: [attachment=31939:Novax_Tribute_4.jpg]

Fantastic bass! The ultimate modern-J...

Back to the US. Some years ago a new edition of the Spellbinder was introduced - it now is available.[attachment=31902:Spellbin...__achter.jpg] It's designed by Stanley Clarke with luthier Tom Lieber and made by Rick Turner in his California workshop. The original Spellbinder ('79 and all-graphite construction )[attachment=31903:Spellbinder_full.jpg] was also designed by Clarke and Lieber and produced in an exclusive limited run of 50 + 1 lefty for Paul McCartney. I wonder where that one ended up...Another '70s Lieber design is this Spider Grinder acoustic bass. [attachment=31904:Spider_G...ic___70s.jpg] Lieber was trained by former Alembic-man Doug Irwin who's most known for his Jerry Garcia guitars but made a small number of basses too like this one ('83 with Phil Lesh) [attachment=31907:Doug_Irw...esh___83.jpg]
Similar 'balloonish' shapes are produced by [url="http://www.jkguitars.com/"]Jon Kammerer[/url] in his guitars but his basses don't feature it. [attachment=31905:Jon_Kamm...idbody_5.jpg]
Talking about balloons - whatever happend to Chrysalis?[attachment=31906:Chrysalis_guitar.jpg] That's an inflatable guitar (on a carbon frame) that can be stored in a briefcase. A bass version was in the works too...
Tommorrow: John Paul Jones!

M is for...Morch from Denmark. Not quite as wellknown as Celinder but just as nice![attachment=31900:Morch_cu...derstyle.jpg]

Another Scroll bass that actually isn't really that scrolled at all - this Epiphone is made in Japan in the '70s: [attachment=31897:Epiphone...oll_bass.jpg], a far cry from todays Gibson copies...
And back to France: here's the Pagabass by Damico. [attachment=31898:Damico_Pagabass.jpg] It's a semi-acoustic signature bass made for Bernard Paganotti, formerly with the legendary French rockband Magma. Gougi (pictured two days ago) makes a Yannick Top model, another legendary Magma bassplayer. Top prefers cello-tuning an octave down(C-G-D-A, with fourstrings covering about the range of a fivestring) - rather like this special Damico Cellobass with cello tuning (regular octave) and 27" cello scale. [attachment=31899:Damico_Cellobass.jpg]

Thanks for posting the headless - indeed very Status-esque!

and L for LuK (Germany), this model is the Basstard: [attachment=31820:LuK_Basstard.jpg]

More scroll basses: this US made Damman claims to be more ergonomic than other basses. [attachment=31813:Damman_6_fretless.jpg] and once more back to France with a custom made Carl Thompson-style bass by Alexander Littee: [attachment=31814:Littee_c...CT_style.jpg]. I think that one of his extremely carved basses already came up earlier. These basses come from his standard range: [attachment=31815:Littee_SL.jpg] [attachment=31816:Littee_DB2.jpg] [attachment=31817:Littee.jpg]
Another French favorite of mine is Favino. Two generations of luthiers working mainly on gypsy-jazz guitars. Here's a nice ABG from Favino jr.:[attachment=31818:Favino_ABG___78.gif]