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Weird & Wonderful Basses


BigRedX
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i noticed these basses on the Schroeder site. very interesting.

the first thing that came into my head was about the cut between the bridge and p'up, surely if that has [i]any[/i] effect on the bass it would be negative?? i mean, there's a gap that will surely create tension (and to some degree movement?) just below the bridge, which would suck any tonal properties of the wood out of the sound?

i have no actual knowladge to back any of this up BTW, i'm just thinking out loud...
and if Mr S likes them enough to stock them they're obviously not [i]bad[/i]

EDIT:oh, and i think they look very nice. rememinds somewhat of the Spalt basses.

Edited by wotnwhy
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Time for another new bass. These are from [url="http://www.mikecurryguitars.com/"]Mike Curry[/url]





Not much information on the rather poorly designed website unfortunately...

However, I really the like sculpted 3-D shapes and finishes of these basses. The styling takes it's cues from several well-known makes but the overall effect is sufficiently new to be worth showing here I think. I also like the ramp/thumb rest on the fretted bass.

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Here's another bass builder I discovered through the Schroeder site; [url="http://www.alfonsoiturra.com"]Alfonso Iturra[/url]





A 6-string with triple Bartolini pickups and Aguilar pre-amp. I really like the way the top wood has been shaped to resemble a pick-guard.





A 6-string fretless with a single magnetic pickup and piezo. And an interesting take on through-body stringing with simple bridge.



And finally the Mini Bass - 17" scale 'single cut'

Lots of interesting ideas and plenty of well-thought out details - take a look at the knobs on the fretted 6-string.

The site's had a major redesign in the last 12 months and now doesn't take quite so long to display the images. It's still not all that bandwidth-friendly for those with slower connections though.

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The Mini Bass has come up on these forums before. However at the time his site was full of really slow flash animations for each picture. I would have been considerably older than I am now if I'd wanted to look at every bass there! The new site is still slow, but that's down mainly to the size multitude of images (which can be fixed with bandwidth...) rather than the actual working of the site.

The single-cut bass, was like this one:



Also if you look at the neck profile of the first two basses I posted, on the bass side above the 12th fret it almost squares off so even the double cut basses would feel more like a single-cut to play.

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ahh yes, i've drooled over the Alfonso stuff for years, after finding a pic of a singlecut with a top in the shap of a double cut (like the one that was for sale on here), if you imagine the first bass you posted, but as a single cut. took me a long time to find out who actually made it. it's a shame the picture has since dissapeared as it's still one of the most beautiful basses i've ever laid eyes on!

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thats the one that was for sale here (or one very much like it).

but no, the one i used to lust over and a much lighter top, on of the non adjustable wooden bridges, 2 or 3 control knobs that were like those big scroler knobs on rack gear (sorry, bad explenation).

IIRC i saw it once on Talkbass, might have a search over there

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Today's basses come from [url="http://www.watsonguitars.net/index_1.htm"]Watson Guitars[/url]

I found these through the Luthiers Access Group and this immediately caught my eye:



The 7-string Alien Queen. As LAG says this ain't a run-of-the-mill bass. There's a slightly more manageable 4-string version on the Watson Guitars web site as well.

Most of his other basses are more conventional single cuts like this:





But still full of beautiful design and constructional details. Check out the control cavity covers. There's a mini-build dairy on the web site for each bass as well. Full of fascinating stuff.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Prompted by the 101 pages of Japanese bass porn I now have serious GAS for a [url="http://www.fernandes.co.jp/home.html"]Fernandes[/url]

In particular one of their Nomad Basses (called PIE-ZO in Japan)







Any of these would do nicely. The first two are rather cheeky 'homages' to classic album cover art - I wonder if any royalties are being paid here?

However would it be very wrong of me to say that my favourite is the rather gothic Hello Kitty model? I think if you're going to have a take it anywhere instrument it should be a 'fun' one. And after seeing these the standard ones are just a little bit boring.

I think that these models are limited editions as I've seen a Doraemon guitar that's no longer listed on the site, on my last visit to Japan which I would have bought if I hadn't specifically been looking for a [url="http://www2.wbs.ne.jp/~tokai/mysite1/photo5.jpg"]Tokai Talbo Jr[/url]

There's some interesting things happening with the guitar versions with built-in Digitech effects. Maybe that will filter down to the bass versions soon?

Edited by BigRedX
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[quote name='BigRedX' post='146225' date='Feb 24 2008, 09:56 PM']Prompted by the 101 pages of Japanese bass porn I now have serious GAS for a [url="http://www.fernandes.co.jp/home.html"]Fernandes[/url]

In particular one of their Nomad Basses (called PIE-ZO in Japan)[/quote]

I wonder who did their website...

The PIE-ZOs are [url="http://www.fernandes.co.jp/products/zo.html"]here[/url]. I was just reflecting on how with a 25.5" scale (as they have), they're pretty much Ashborys, so if they did a fretless one then that might be an Ashbory alternative, strung up with [s]rubber bands[/s] Ashbory strings. So I had a look down the PIE-ZOs and found:

PIE-ZO FL (FLET LESS)

:)

However, at $500, I don't think I'll be after one any time soon...

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There's a fretless one for sale on the [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=408855"]TB Forums[/url]

I plan on getting one on my next trip to Japan, which now looks as though it will have to be put back to next year. I'll have to see which graphical finishes are available then.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Time for another bass. Inspired by the images that majo57 posted of his bass, I did some searching and found [url="http://www.littee.free.fr/"]Alexandre Littee, Luthier - Facteur de guitares[/url]. Warning big, slow-loading images on this site.

However I've extracted a few and hopefully made them a bit faster loading for your appreciation.

This is the Slim Lady Fretless Model





He uses an interesting custom-built bridge design of brass and wood inlays which you can see in more detail on this model:



I also like the detachable? body waist extension which raises the bass up when played seated and makes the extreme shape more practical.

And finally, The Pachyderme:





I'm not sure whether I like this or not, but there's no denying the quality of the work (over 600 hours) in the amazing carved body and inlays.

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*sigh*

thats another one of my ideas that turns out to have been done already.. :) at least they haven't done [i]all[/i] of the idea... :huh:

very nice looking basses, that elephant one is certainly an absolute work of art! i wonder though if it was actually made to be [i]played[/i] or just admired though?
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[quote name='wotnwhy' post='154092' date='Mar 9 2008, 06:56 PM']... that elephant one is certainly an absolute work of art! i wonder though if it was actually made to be [i]played[/i] or just admired though?[/quote]



Marcus Miller seems to be enjoying playing it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Time again for some more basses.

From Holland [url="http://www.codb-basses.com/"]Cobelens & de Bruyne[/url].

Only one of the designs has completed basses, but they're very nice!

These are Primo basses in Purple Heart, Cherry Birdseye and Figured Merbau...









I'm not normally a fan of stripy basses but the Purple Heart one particularly stunning

However I'm more looking forward to seeing completed photos of the single-cut Carmelo and the extremely radical Henzelli models.

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