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Headless basses


Kevin Dean
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If you don't mind the lack of body there's always the Hohner B2A and the Steinberger Spirit series. The Steinberger Synapse which usually sell used within your budget. Status Energy basses are used and you get a lot of bass for the money. The S3000 is wood body and the S4000 has a composite body.

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[quote name='Wilco' timestamp='1469039246' post='3095332']
Seen this?

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/288559-steinberger-synapse-5-string/"]http://basschat.co.u...napse-5-string/[/url]
[/quote]Yes , just checking some reviews & new prices .thanks.

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They are cool no matter what anyone says!! Mine comes out every gig. I've got a hohner b2a and its great with ghs boomer strings. I would prefer a bodied headless so am personally lusting after a status...
My mate is shifting a hohner the Jack soon with case, I'll let you know when it's available.

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Hi. :)

If you can wait. . . . every now any again, one of these comes up but it could be quite a wait! :blink:

[url="http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/gordy-headless-bass.html"]http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/gordy-headless-bass.html[/url]

Absolutely brilliant and the build quality is A1.

These were and are a serious bit of kit. :gas:
Hark from the 80's and in today's money, would be around £2500!!

Start looking! :D

Cheers. :)

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[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1469132055' post='3096081']
I always wanted a Westone Superheadless... dreadful name but a cracking instrument. I'd still like one.
[/quote]

That's high on my Headless GASlist too.

No. 1 is a Riverhead Unicorn:



Wanted one of these since 1985. Don't care that it's a bit (a lot!) of a Burns Flyte knockoff...

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I've had a few Hohner B2As and currently a B2V to ease me gently into the world of 5ers. But best of all of them is a B2B, which doesn't get a lot of press. This differs from the others by being passive with P/J pickups and a bolt on neck. Doesn't have the leg rest or drop D facility, neither of which I miss. For me, and the tone I like to hear, it is better - more P/J like - then the EMGS on the active ones.

I think these little cricket bats are just perfect as back up - they take up no room in the car or on stage - or tiny space gigs where you would be otherwise forever smacking the headstock against the drums/guitarists/singer etc with a normal bass.

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  • 6 years later...

Resurrecting this thread...

A couple of weeks ago I had a mad weekend and bought three basses; I only intended to buy one, but I went to the shop and whilst we were looking for the case for it I spotted a Hohner The Jack project and picked that up too, then when I got home I found that my spotter bid had also won the auction for a Westone Quantum in need of some TLC, so I ended up with all three.

 

Hohner The Jack

 

The Hohner The Jack had a bridge mech missing, no strings, and dead electronics, and looked like this.

1479427453_bass-HohnerJack-front-asbought-221203.thumb.jpg.3ea7914a0c52d14ea1864acfb7df9b4e.jpg

 

I managed to acquire a replacement bridge and used it as a donor for the missing parts; the remainder went onto another project (see later).

So, I gave the instrument a light polish, completed the bridge, and put on a set of Status strings:

246649461_bass-HohnerJack-front-withstrings-221203.thumb.jpg.92ad811a693f15ac1e5d1fdb07185579.jpg

 

I put in a battery but it didn't light up, so I set about finding a fix for it.

Coincidentally I found someone selling a The Jack with a twisted neck, so I contacted them and agreed a price to buy it, pending confirming mine didn't work.

 

A couple of days later I got to spend a bit more time on it and I plugged it in; lo-and-behold it worked (both passive and active)!

So, it looks like it's just the LED; apparently not an uncommon issue with these, but I can live with that.

 

So, I've ended up with a rather nice bass for not a lot.

 

Westone Quantum

 

A few days later the Westone Quantum arrived; the seller kindly agreed to post it to me, as I had a change of plans from my intended drive to collect it.

It looks like it may have been overpainted from blue and it needs a back cover for the control bay, but it's kindof cool as it is.

 

1371592923_WestoneQuantum-front-230103.thumb.jpg.854d8672f860b55174cf33a272796946.jpg

 

 

996010447_WestoneQuantum-bodyback-230103.thumb.jpg.0b7c3798d03ef5a8de07293ca1a58348.jpg

 

The headstock has a serial number.

(And yes, I will sort out those strings!)

885479564_WestoneQuantum-headstockbackserial-230103.thumb.jpg.213a0ff04875f02e50f00a3919857c82.jpg

 

So that's a nice one for the collection.

 

The rest of the headless bridge...

 

So, after using the bridge for donor parts for the Hohner The Jack, I used the rest of the unit on a headless doubleneck which had a cheapo "Overlord" one on it.

 

469690966_headlessdoubleneck-front-230103.thumb.jpg.afa58862ab655901dcc955c6266d1fb0.jpg

 

The bass neck is now pretty good and it has quite a nice deep resonance to it.

I've got to do a bit of work on the guitar half, replacing the pickups (I'm pretty sure those are not really EMGs!), sorting the nut (it's too high, so pressing the 1st fret makes it out of tune), and the "Overlord" bridge's trem mech is poop so it's only usable in the locked position.

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Legator (a brand I'd never heard of) have a headless Bass 'Wreith' that looks like a copy of the Ibanez EHB 1005 MS, right down to the colour options of black and sea foam green. Longer scale lengths at 34"-37" though, and more expensive at £1,466 from Thonmann:

 

Screenshot_20230113_151136_Chrome.thumb.jpg.cf5f1c6048b27fd4618adfc0052ceb2f.jpg

 

Has anyone here played one? I like the idea of the longer scale length than the Ibanez EHB, Dingwall scale but a bit lighter and headless should be good. 

 

https://www.thomann.de/gb/legator_wraith_wr5f_bk.htm

 

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