Dexterward Posted Friday at 20:05 Posted Friday at 20:05 Hello there from Germany! Can someone please tell me something about this bass? It was built by Chris May, who owned a music store on Denmark Street in London. It was built in the early 80s. Solid woods, Schaller hardware, overwater pickup, 24 frets, Thunderbird headstock. What series is it? thank you 3 Quote
bassbiscuits Posted Friday at 20:14 Posted Friday at 20:14 It’s an overwater bass I believe. I’m sure someone on here knows the model. 1 Quote
Misdee Posted Friday at 20:36 Posted Friday at 20:36 (edited) It looks like the most basic version of the bass Overwater made in the late 1970's/ early 1980's. I think it was called the Artisan, if I remember correctly. It might well have been a slightly different shape to the full-spec Thunderbird-style basses they made, a bit more compact, but I'm going back a long way in the recesses of my memory. A local guitar shop was an Overwater stockist and I remember they had one in stock. That will have been about 40 years ago. Anyhow, they were excellent quality instruments and would look the part nowadays in any indie/alternative rock band. I know that in those days a feature of top of the range Overwater basses was conical fretting, where the frets got progressively thinner going up the neck. It's worth checking if this bass has that. Anyhow, it's a really interesting bass and a very good find. Edited Saturday at 14:22 by Misdee 2 Quote
geoffbyrne Posted Saturday at 13:17 Posted Saturday at 13:17 Chris May often checks in here, so he may see this & comment - if you're lucky! Quote
HeadlessBassist Posted Saturday at 16:53 Posted Saturday at 16:53 @Misdee is absolutely correct. It's a late 80's Overwater Artisan, a slightly downsized, single pickup version of the Overwater Original. Here're the specs from a 1987 review... OVERWATER ARTISAN BASS PRICE£599 BODYmahogany NECKmahogany FINGERBOARDrosewood PICKUPone humbucker CONTROLSvolume and tone; coil tap switch COLOURSblack/red/blue/sunburst 6 Quote
snorkie635 Posted Saturday at 17:41 Posted Saturday at 17:41 21 hours ago, Dexterward said: Hello there from Germany! Can someone please tell me something about this bass? It was built by Chris May, who owned a music store on Denmark Street in London. It was built in the early 80s. Solid woods, Schaller hardware, overwater pickup, 24 frets, Thunderbird headstock. What series is it? thank you Drop an e-mail off to Overwater and Chris should reply. Good luck - a fine instrument. Quote
Misdee Posted Saturday at 17:58 Posted Saturday at 17:58 59 minutes ago, HeadlessBassist said: @Misdee is absolutely correct. It's a late 80's Overwater Artisan, a slightly downsized, single pickup version of the Overwater Original. Here're the specs from a 1987 review... OVERWATER ARTISAN BASS PRICE£599 BODYmahogany NECKmahogany FINGERBOARDrosewood PICKUPone humbucker CONTROLSvolume and tone; coil tap switch COLOURSblack/red/blue/sunburst £599 is about £1750 in today's money allowing for inflation. I'd buy a new one of these for £1750 from Overwater nowadays, but somehow I don't think that would be the asking price. High-end basses have got proportionately more expensive over the years especially lately.🙁 3 1 Quote
NickA Posted Saturday at 19:43 Posted Saturday at 19:43 Made on Denmark St? I used to hang around there endlessly in the mid 80s and the only place making anything was Andy's Guitar workshop. I guess the "Andy" was Andy Preston, business partner of Mr May ( says google) They put a very nice ebony board on my self- fretlessed fake fender jazz. Unfortunately, they glued it on with araldite and when the truss rod failed no bugger could get the board off. New neck time. I had no idea my fake fender once had an overwater fingerboard. Quote
Misdee Posted Saturday at 20:26 Posted Saturday at 20:26 By the time this bass was made Overwater were based up north and not Denmark Street. Quote
Sean Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago On 11/10/2025 at 17:53, HeadlessBassist said: @Misdee is absolutely correct. It's a late 80's Overwater Artisan, a slightly downsized, single pickup version of the Overwater Original. Here're the specs from a 1987 review... OVERWATER ARTISAN BASS PRICE£599 BODYmahogany NECKmahogany FINGERBOARDrosewood PICKUPone humbucker CONTROLSvolume and tone; coil tap switch COLOURSblack/red/blue/sunburst Interesting strap button location. 1 Quote
BigRedX Posted 7 hours ago Posted 7 hours ago (edited) 14 minutes ago, Sean said: Interesting strap button location. Standard for this shape of Overwater bass. Both of my Overwater Originals had the strap button in the same place under the upper horn. It never caused me any problems so it must have worked well. One of those Overwaters was my main bass for the whole of the 90s and beyond. Edited 7 hours ago by BigRedX 4 Quote
Misdee Posted 2 hours ago Posted 2 hours ago (edited) Overwater were( and I am sure still are) top quality craftsmen-built instruments. Even a more modest model like this will be exceptionally well-made. Given the way trends have gone in basses, I'm slightly surprised this model of bass hasn't been revived by Overwater. It's got a style and sound that would be very attractive to a variety of modern musicians. Definitely a rock/ indie bass, but with a lot of interesting stuff going on behind the scenes. I'd love to have one of these basses nowadays, if only to pretend I'm John Entwistle in the privacy of my own home. Edited 2 hours ago by Misdee Quote
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