Zenta vintage semi-hollowbody bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This late '60s Zenta semi-hollowbody shortscale bass is quite an interesting one. The angled neck pickup (and the end of the fingerboard) looks to be distinctly Mosrite-influenced, whilst the symmetrical shape and the S-holes combine to present an attractive instrument. Although the seller refers to it as a Zenta, the headstock clearly proclaims "Felt" (although looks suspiciously as if it were done by hand) but no mention is made of this in the eBay listing.
This post originates at http://guitarz.blogspot.com - beware of those damned scraper blogs!
Currently listed on eBay with a starting bid of £225.

Edit: As Greg Cadman points out on our Facebook page, it's probably a copy of a Martin guitar (this one for instance, complete with the S-holes!).

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Prat 12-string bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've heard of 12-string basses before, but ordinarily (if such an instrument could ever be said to be ordinairy) they consist of four courses of tripled strings. This Prat 12-string bass is an ERB - Extended Range Bass - and has 12 individual courses.

Yes, such instruments can sound very nice, although I'm yet to be convinced as I've never heard a truly incredible (or even particularly memorable) piece of music made with one. Touchstyle instruments have been around for a long time (I can't imagine this Prat 12-er can be played any other way than touchstyle), but they've not really set the music world alight innovation-wise have they? They just remain an intrtiguing curio; the audience is more interested in the number of strings and unusual playing technique than the actual music produced. (Oh - prove me wrong, someone!)
This post originates at http://guitarz.blogspot.com - beware of those damned scraper blogs!
I've said it before and will very likely say it again: if you want that many strings, get a harp already!

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Fleishman headless bass with 3-octave neck

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's a rare Fleishman bass from the mid/late 1970s. It is very minimalistic and appears to be all neck. It has a 3-octave fretboard - that's 36 frets! This bass was one of Fleishman's own brand instruments, and pre-dates the similar basses he designed for Hondo which differed in having 28 frets.

We looked at such a Hondo "Flash" bass on Guitarz in March 2010, when I rather unfairly commented on Hondo and Fleishman "jumping on the headless bass bandwagon". I've since edited that comment, but think it's only fair to let Harry Fleishman put the record straight:

A quick note to the "bandwagon" comment. International Musician Magazine and other bass magazines have credited me as the pioneer of headless basses. In fact, I suspect they were around long before me, but in the modern era mine were the first, dating to 1975. Again, I've since then seen "headless" instruments from the 19th century. I moved the tuners to take the weight off the neck; that simple. It does help backaches.

My personal favorite "headless" basses are Claudio and Claudia Pagelli's beautiful gold-leaf bass, and my own RED ROCKET EUB. Someone wrote that a headless bass is like a headless woman. That's why I named my headless with a body "Jayne."

www.fleishmaninstruments.com

Thanks for getting in touch, Harry. I think maybe I'd rather naively assumed that Steinberger started that whole headless bass craze that took off in the 1980s (the first Steinberger L-series bass was produced in New York in 1979). There were certainly enough copies around that were obviously directly imitating the Steinberger, not just in headlessness but also in body shape. But yeah, I know, "Never assume..."

(Thanks also to Vince Gotera who posted the Fleishman bass auction on our Facebook page).

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Yemaha archtop acoustic bass guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This is a Yemaha archtop acoustic bass guitar, and no that isn't a typo! All I can find out about "Yemaha" guitars is that they were made in India and do not have a very good reputation. I wonder if they are a relative of "Givson" guitars? (Coincidentally, Guitarz is currently being plundered by a scraper blog based in India that has changed one letter of the blogspot URL. Is this common piracy practice in India, I wonder?)
This post originates at http://guitarz.blogspot.com - beware of those damned scraper blogs!
Anyway, this bass is a bit of a mystery. Correct me if you will, bass-heads, but it was my belief that the acoustic bass guitar was quite a modern innovation. My understanding was that the Ernie Ball Earthwood acoustic bass introduced in 1975 was the first such production-made acoustic bass, and that Guild and Eko were also early players in this field. (I don't claim to be an expert - I'm just someone who is interested in guitars and somehow manages to soak up all this information, so please do say if you know differently!)

With the onset of MTV in the 1980s and their Unplugged series the acoustic bass soared in popularity and is now quite an ordinairy sight - walk into any music shop and you'll find at least one on display.

However, the seller of this Yemaha believes it originates from the 1960s, although without offering any evidence to support this claim. I think it's far more likely to be from the 1980s or 1990s and is just well-used and battle-scarred making it look older. I did wonder if perhaps it originally had a pickup and would have been a semi-acoustic bass, but there aren't the holes in the body for volume and tone controls - unless all electrics were mounted on a pickguard, which would mean the pickguard we see in the picture would be a replacement. However, I feel this is unlikely, although not impossible.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Aria acoustic bass with "slight" damage

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This is an ARIA AMB SERIES ACOUSTIC BASS RRP £239, so the eBay listing shouts at us in capital letters.

It goes on to say:

The only issue with this Bass is that the neck has broken off!!!!!

Ah, that's alright then. I'm glad it's nothing too serious.
This post originates at http://guitarz.blogspot.com - beware of those damned scraper blogs!
I know this listing is by Aria Factory Seconds, but it still made me laugh.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1950s Kay Thin Twin Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I find myself quite drawn to this 1950s-era Kay Pro Thin Twin Bass. I realise that it's not going to perform nor sound like a modern-day bass, but it is quite beautiful in this blond finish with the gorgeous flame of the timber revealed for all to see but without looking gratuitous like so many flame and quilted finishes we see on modern guitars. This is, of course, the bass version of the guitar made famous by Howlin' Wolf, and comes from the days when most manufacturers building basses simply adapted one of their guitar models despite the lead taken by Fender with the Precision Bass in making it a long-scale instrument.

As well as the volume and tone controls that you would expect, there is an additional switch - but of course on a single pickup instrument this can't be a pickup selector. According to the listing on ebay, the switch "flips the tone from the tone setting you have dialed in to the opposite setting". I'm not sure how useful that would be in practice, but it's an interesting feature.

As gorgeous as it is, I do not fancy the $3,495 Buy It Now price on eBay. Sadly, it's one for the collectors.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!