I bought this bass off the classifieds last December to give five strings another chance. After getting my Elrick, none of my other basses are getting any play and fives just aren't for me.

Specs

Body: Ash
Top: Birdseye Maple
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Neck: Maple
Pickups: Ken Smith or Kent Armstrong (not sure)
Preamp: Ken Smith 2-band
Bridge: Badass V
Tuners: Gotoh

This bass was built by Charles Cote in the mid to late 90's in the USA. I'm sure anyone who read BP back in the 90's remember his ads in the back. His basses are pretty rare and this is the only one I have seen on Talkbass. The build quality of this bass is impeccable. I would put this bass up against any of the popular makers here in the US today. It has very nice fit and finish. The fretwork is superb. The fretboard has the edges rounded. The dots in the neck are birdseyes. The ash body is very, very resonant. The bass is in excellent condition. The only flaws I can find are, someone cut an extra set of grooves on the bridge saddle and minor surface scratch under the bridge pickup.

Playability is excellent. It has the same string spacing as a four banger for those of you that prefer it. The preamp and pickups are very organic. It sounds exactly like all of the Ken Smiths that I have played. Actually, the neck reminds me of a Smith too. It is strung up with a set of DR Low-Riders Nickels that have barely been used.

Price: $850 plus shipping in a TKL hardcase. Paypal please add 3%.

I'm having trouble uploading picures right now. I'll post some later.


Mike

I think this is the link for the original pics:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v332/Leifk/Charles%20Cote/

(Phishaholik -- If I'm wrong, let me know and I'll delete this post)

That's it. Thanks a lot man, I appreciate it.


Mike

I had the same bass w/ flame maple top a few years back. Excellent 5er ! Charles' work really was superb. I'm 99.99% sure the pu's he used were all Armstrongs. Anyway, great (rare) bass. Someone should grab this, and the asking price is very fair.

Thanks for the input. I guess not a lot of people have heard of Charles Cote. I've owned basses from Zon, Alembic, Modulus, Elrick and Roscoe and the build quality is as good or better than any of these. I just played it for a while and it has nice growly sound to it. I believe this bass sold for close to $2000 when it was new and I'm selling it for less than I paid for it. It truely is a beautiful bass.


Mike

This bass is SOLD.


Mike