Jump to content
Why become a member? ×
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt

NBD Kramer Ali neck


Bunion
 Share

Recommended Posts

This popped up in a thread on the fleabay a few days ago.

B132DCC4-123B-470E-BA7D-8A5538A47B3F.thumb.jpeg.cf8c8edf6b634304ca1dd62259e0bfc7.jpeg

I put it on watch and deliberated while doing some research. 

It’s a 70’s model 450B fretless.

Going through many old forums it looked to have its original Schaller tuners

ADF26AA4-688C-466D-9C8D-DB45F409DBAF.thumb.jpeg.124951557283fe72fb238d84b2e246aa.jpegoriginal engraved picks ups (mighty mites?)

83EB00A0-8534-4586-B55B-7913BA1D74C7.thumb.jpeg.4c7e31d781d042398bde1f583ebe1ef3.jpeg

and seemed in relatively good nick throughout the finish, knobs, switches and covers.

BF0F318D-37E1-441B-8DB7-553B29F8BD70.thumb.jpeg.3c134bc0be46705cad74513da29bcfb5.jpeg
there’s some marks but it is 40+ years old.

I took a punt when no other bids dropped and lo and behold it arrived a few days later in a decent box 

DA483294-1C51-4BCB-9CE6-8C0C20BD742B.thumb.jpeg.8a9a99859ff24944db4bf871d1e3fbb0.jpeg

I had a quick noodle and it sounds great, the pickup heights were all over the place but are sorted now and the action seemed a little high but I stripped the neck and there it was, the shim from thick tape plus it seems someone used blobs of something that set to lift the neck. 
I’ve removed it and the action is fine and it’s playing lovely. 

I’ll strip it properly the weekend and give it s good clean and service but my punt paid off and apart from having to replace the wooden pickup surrounds (we have a 3d printing shop at work) 

I’m well chuffed

9FA3F178-D81C-4FDB-AB59-B8728BDEF0FA.jpeg

  • Like 20
Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, MOSCOWBASS said:

I got to play the fretted version in 1978, it belonged to a friend. Here it is playing through a Sunn Concert bass amp and Cerwin Vega B36MF.

 

No foh and recorded in a radio cassette at the back of the hall. It was a very nice bass at the time, compared to my P bass. 


Hell of a drummer on that track!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, MOSCOWBASS said:

I got to play the fretted version in 1978, it belonged to a friend. Here it is playing through a Sunn Concert bass amp and Cerwin Vega B36MF.

 

No foh and recorded in a radio cassette at the back of the hall. It was a very nice bass at the time, compared to my P bass. 

They do sound unique 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Bunion said:

Where’s my pickup surrounds! 😂🤣

 

Probably broken off a long time ago.

 

More seriously, I bought one of these about 15 years ago with the pickup surrounds still attached but only just. The problem is that they are made out of very thin pieces of wood and the two holes for the fixing screws removed over half the width of wood! Unsurprisingly over the years they would snap around these holes and then the surround would fall off. They looked great (and IMO the bass looks wrong without them), but they are completely impractical in terms of durability.

 

Out of interest what are you intending to make the replacements out of?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are wrong concerning the fragility of these surroundings @BigRedX. 😉

 

If they are broken (and gone), it's because most of the people were thinking these were the height setting screws for the pickups (which are at the back of the body) and while forcing them, they broke these surroundings...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

You are wrong concerning the fragility of these surroundings @BigRedX. 😉

 

If they are broken (and gone), it's because most of the people were thinking these were the height setting screws for the pickups (which are at the back of the body) and while forcing them, they broke these surroundings...

 

You know, I'd never considered that anyone might mistake these screws for pickup height adjustment, but you could well be right.

 

On my Kramer the wood of the surrounds had split once on each surround. Of course whatever the reason for the split occurring it wasn't helped by the fact that the wood for the surrounds is very thin and at the point where the splits happen there is more hole than wood. Here's a photo of mine where you can quite clearly see the wood has split on the neck pickup surround (its on the other one too but not as obvious):

 

DSC01535.jpg 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a few Kramer basses with these broken surroundings too.

 

I think only one had intact surroundings...

 

You can make an experiment with wasted wood and you'll see that it will break exactly there when forcing the screw. 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 18/04/2023 at 14:32, BigRedX said:

 

You know, I'd never considered that anyone might mistake these screws for pickup height adjustment, but you could well be right.

 

On my Kramer the wood of the surrounds had split once on each surround. Of course whatever the reason for the split occurring it wasn't helped by the fact that the wood for the surrounds is very thin and at the point where the splits happen there is more hole than wood. Here's a photo of mine where you can quite clearly see the wood has split on the neck pickup surround (its on the other one too but not as obvious):

 

DSC01535.jpg 

 

Fabulous grain on that, BigRedX!    They were indeed known for the fragility of the pickup surrounds; my 650B has them intact, but on my 450B fretless they’re bust.

Big shame these weren’t more popular, which as ever largely comes down to what prominent bassists were playing / endorsing at the time.  As I recall Nick Lowe favoured a 450B, who was no slouch on bass.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...