BigRedX Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 When I first saw photos of the original Gus designs (which more much more radical than the ones being made now) I knew that I wanted one. The design was everything I was looking for in a guitar or bass. I'm lucky enough to own two basses and a guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misdee Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 (edited) 15 minutes ago, BigRedX said: Not sure what this is supposed to prove. 😀🙂 13 minutes ago, fretmeister said: This is why I want one. They were amazing. Okay, my mistake. It must be me then. Edited July 22, 2022 by Misdee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 6 minutes ago, Misdee said: Not sure what this is supposed to prove. 😀🙂 Okay, my mistake. It must be me then. No need to be defensive. Just different tastes, that's all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 1 hour ago, Misdee said: Rob Green retiring also raises the question, if you want to buy a new bass with a graphite neck who would make you one? According to some folks on Talkbass, Zon are hopelessly back-ordered and unable to deliver completed instruments within a reasonable time frame. I am scratching my head trying to think of other options. As others have mentioned, Modulus are still around, but they're not making many instruments these days are they are severely backordered, much like Zon. Their prices have also skyrocketed. Bogart are still producing basses in Germany, and they're great, even if they are, a bit like Gus, an acquired taste in the looks department. I wonder if Mike from Zoot is still geared up for making them? His early basses (back when he used the Iceni name) all had the option of a graphite neck. Moses in the US stopped making replacement graphite necks a couple of years ago, and only make carbon fibre speaker enclosures and violin fingerboards now. They would have made you a graphite replacement neck for almost anything. There's loads of carbon fibre acoustic instruments around at the moment (mostly coming from China) so there's obviously some demand for it. I'd just rather not buy a replacement graphite neck from AliExpress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Maybe these guys could be interested... https://luisandclark.com/ They make spectacular stuff. Prices are closer to classical instruments though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misdee Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 6 minutes ago, fretmeister said: No need to be defensive. Just different tastes, that's all. I'm sorry if you feel that way. I'm just genuinely surprised about the Sigue Sigue Sputnik business. Maybe it's me that was/is out of touch with the consensus of informed opinion. I'm glad you enjoyed them. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 9 minutes ago, fretmeister said: Maybe these guys could be interested... https://luisandclark.com/ They make spectacular stuff. Prices are closer to classical instruments though! Wow. Their upright costs $12,000! On the other end of the scale, there's these guys: https://www.enya-music.com/collections/guitar/products/x4-cutaway Surprisingly nice acoustics for not an awful lot of money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Another name for the list of people who still make graphite neck basses is Geoff Gould - original founder of Modulus. He has his own G.Gould brand now, and their stuff is very nice, if very much in the Modulus mould (no pun intended): https://www.ggould.com/home.html If anything, his website looks older than Status' one. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 34 minutes ago, Russ said: Wow. Their upright costs $12,000! On the other end of the scale, there's these guys: https://www.enya-music.com/collections/guitar/products/x4-cutaway Surprisingly nice acoustics for not an awful lot of money. 12K isn't a lot for a proper DB. https://contrabass.co.uk/collections/quality-basses?sort_by=price-descending These are just the "Quality" ones. The "Top Quality" are price on application! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 56 minutes ago, Russ said: I wonder if Mike from Zoot is still geared up for making them? His early basses (back when he used the Iceni name) all had the option of a graphite neck. They may well have been made for him by Simon at Gus. He was responsible for the graphite necks on the Enfield basses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 17 hours ago, itu said: I also wish that the molds stay in UK. I would not fell in love with Xhina-made Xi-fux-U basses. China has very limited experience in composite musical instruments. It's restricted to a few companies although it's growing slowly. Only one of those builds guitars and they're acoustic. 17 hours ago, Russ said: Moses in the US stopped making replacement graphite necks a couple of years ago, and only make carbon fibre speaker enclosures and violin fingerboards now. They would have made you a graphite replacement neck for almost anything. Even before then, Steve Mosher wouldn't make custom anything for less than an MoQ of 10,000 units. I hated the jazz necks they made but the steinberger music yo necks are alright. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 18 minutes ago, BigRedX said: They may well have been made for him by Simon at Gus. He was responsible for the graphite necks on the Enfield basses. Could have been. Might have to ask him. Weren't the Enfield ones just a graphite wrap around a regular maple neck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 (edited) Mike from Zoot has his own moulding tools for carbon necks - he set it up about 2 years ago. But he is very much a small volume builder, not wanting to detract from his quality by subbing out any of the work. Plus he has a helluva waiting list at the moment. So whilst definitely an option (I'd love a Zoot carbon-necked bass when I can!) it's not on the same scale of manufacturing as Status were... As for the Status news itself, it's sad but perhaps not a massive surprise. I used own 4 Status basses back in the day, before I discovered shorter scales...: Edited July 25, 2022 by Merton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 2 minutes ago, Russ said: Could have been. Might have to ask him. Weren't the Enfield ones just a graphite wrap around a regular maple neck? Jon Shuker's JJ Carbonlite basses have a similar construction. It's a good way to build, low overheads, sound great with most of the stiffness without being too stiff and brittle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 I was forgetting a couple of others - there's Emerald, out of Ireland, who mostly do graphite acoustics, but also do a nice acoustic bass, and they've done replacement necks in the past. And there's Basslab out of Germany, who make some crazy stuff (as well as some more conventional stuff). They use "composite", but it's basically carbon fibre. I remember trying one of their Soul basses, and the thing was unbelievably light. I think they're hollow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 2 minutes ago, Kiwi said: Jon Shuker's JJ Carbonlite basses have a similar construction. It's a good way to build, low overheads, sound great with most of the stiffness without being too stiff and brittle. I wonder how different they are to regular wood necks when it comes to temperature and humidity changes and so on - would just having the graphite wrap keep that in check? That, to me, is the killer app of graphite necks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 14 minutes ago, Russ said: Could have been. Might have to ask him. Weren't the Enfield ones just a graphite wrap around a regular maple neck? Probably. The Gus guitars and basses are a 2mm carbon fibre skin over cedar. 5 minutes ago, Russ said: I wonder how different they are to regular wood necks when it comes to temperature and humidity changes and so on - would just having the graphite wrap keep that in check? That, to me, is the killer app of graphite necks. The only time I have had to adjust the truss rod on any of my Gus instruments was when I swapped the extremely high tension flat-wound strings that came with the 4-string fretless I used to own for some more sensible Pedulla nickel round-wounds 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 17 minutes ago, Kiwi said: Jon Shuker's JJ Carbonlite basses have a similar construction. It's a good way to build, low overheads, sound great with most of the stiffness without being too stiff and brittle. I wonder if Jon offers them on anything other than the JJB range, or for necks with more than 4 strings? Last time I reached out to him about getting a quote he never got back to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 23 minutes ago, Russ said: I wonder if Jon offers them on anything other than the JJB range, or for necks with more than 4 strings? Last time I reached out to him about getting a quote he never got back to me. Maybe give him a call. He usually checks his emails in the evening at the pub. 37 minutes ago, Russ said: I wonder how different they are to regular wood necks when it comes to temperature and humidity changes and so on - would just having the graphite wrap keep that in check? That, to me, is the killer app of graphite necks. Well if the wood can experience heat then it'll expand/contract but perhaps to a lesser degree than say a Jaydee or Musicman neck. Even aluminium necks suffer from heat expansion but I doubt Jon's necks will be affected by humidity. I think he uses cedar for the neck too as maple is a little overkill and lively. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaddy Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Manson Guitar works would be a choice to take over thinking of companies that could afford it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 7 minutes ago, Chaddy said: Manson Guitar works would be a choice to take over thinking of companies that could afford it Manson is majority owned by Matt Bellamy of Muse these days, and I'm sure his pockets are sufficiently deep. They're still making great stuff (I saw James Leach - ex-Sikth - is using their basses now), and the Wolstenholme/Status connection could make it a possibility. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misdee Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Re the Gus basses, I've been looking into them this afternoon. I really like the sound and a lot of the design features. I really like the overall shape and the ergonomics. What I don't like is the tubular metal top horn and bottom bout. If I analyze what I couldn't reconcile myself to then it is that. It just seems like an unnecessary gimmick. Otherwise I might buy one. The Status Streamline, in comparison, is futuristic ( bearing in mind that the future is what happened circa 1983) but the aesthetic is practical. Form follows function, to paraphrase the much- vaunted Bauhaus principal. The thing about graphite basses is what are you looking for in terms of sound? Do you want it to sound like a wooden bass but with the advantages of graphite construction, or do you want it to sound unashamedly like it's made of carbon fibre? To my ears, Status basses sound like carbon fibre. The scant YouTube demos of the Gus bass I have seen sound much more wooden and organic. Neither is better than the other, just different. My reference point for graphite bass tone will always be the Steinberger L2. That's my ideal. Status basses don't sound like a Steinberger, but it's very definitely a graphite kind of tone. In contrast, I had a custom Zon Legacy Elite as my main bass back in the 1990s and it was distinctly and deliberately un-graphite like in its tone. When you see that a Gus bass is about seven or eight grand, you realise what good value Status basses are/were. I'm not saying the Gus Basses are overpriced,by the way, just that Status were a very reasonable price considering the world class quality of the basses. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombatboter Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Tastes differ but to me the German Clover (I own the orange one) or the Bogart brand are the best alternatives.. The Clover Slapper isn't produced anymore unfortunately but the Bogart still is.. Still different from the blue Kingbass I own which is a bit more "trebly" in a way but it's still an fantastic bass with a great response and unique sound. It's fantastic what Rob Green has achieved, he inspired so much bass players with that sound and they weren't really that expensive...rather cheap actually for what you get. Hope Rob gets the best out of this ànd that his health improves. A big thank you from someone in Belgium. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
40hz Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 As other people are alluding, when you actually stop to ponder it, considering the work that went into them and the materials used, Status were/are amazing value, especially compared to other UK bass brands that shall remain nameless. I'm really glad that I got to meet Rob and Dawn when picking up my first Graphite neck for my Stingray and look around the workshop. Real UK bass history, right there. As I left, Dawn remarked to me that I should "come back soon and order one of the proper ones". I'm sad I'll never get to do that as it was on my list! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicman666 Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 (edited) I believe the bogarts are all composite, no wood is involved apart from a veneer which for me was too radical, I prefer a wood body with a graphite neck. Edited July 22, 2022 by Musicman666 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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