Wandre Sweden Bass

[scojack]

Just come across this on ebay.
Looks Wicked, love the chrome/aluminium.
Anybody heard of these?
]

[bassteban]

Neat-O. I've wondered if brass or aluminum would work as a bridge material, particularly on an EUB. Tha one looks like it might be old(70s or so). Any idea of it's age?

[Thankful birds]

Wandre is a very sought after bass and guitar manufacturer. The idea was to make basses and guitars that were more art deco than necessarily functional, although from what I hear they are pretty decent players as well. I think Wandre was an amateur car manufacturer, which led to his incorporating materials like plastic and metal into his basses and guitars. There aren't many so they go for really high dollars (normally on the $4500-$6000 rage) although you can occasionally pick them up for a song by people who assume they are the same as other nasty 60's european guitar manufacturers. The aluminum necks on some of the guitars are said to be the inspiration for Travis Bean, Gary Kramer and Henry Vaccaro for their aluminum neck experiments in the 70's.

This bass looks extremely rare. Strangely enough, though, it appears to be based on a fairly popular 50's electric upright, the Framus Triumph. Ironically, Triumphs were all metal (aluminum I believe) except for the fretboard much like Wandre's typical guitars. Here, it looks like Wandre went the opposite direction and developed an all wood bass out of an aluminum model.

Warwick has a similar bass out now that is named the Triumph, but due to its all wood construction is actually more similar to this Wandre. Super interesting find.

[Francois Blais]

Cool!

[draftsmann]

I remember an article in a guitar magazine years ago about a collector of wierd and wonderful instruments from obscure makers. He had a Wandre, which was described in the article as looking as if made from scooter parts. Very apt.

Adrian

[mikjans]

These are not extremely rare, you come across them now and then. Some were sold in the US under the Noble brand name (Wandré´s US distributor). The Wandré history can be found here:
http://www.fetishguitars.com

All in all, a typical 60s EUB, perhaps not made with the discriminating serious jazz double bassist in mind, but more the bread-and-butter bassist who gigged in dance and show bands.

(The name Swedenbass comes from the fact that the maker imported some of the timber used from Sweden, I´ve been told by a Davoli spokesman).

[ricca]

Wandrè lived in Cavriago, Reggio Emilia, ITALY, about 15km from my hometown.
He was an artist, painter and motocycle fanatic.
He built guitars,basses and EUB using mainly alluminium and formica (masonite). His instruments were real pieces of art, very collectable today, but not good sounding.
The sweden bass vas made in collaboration with Davoli amplification. Ihad one 15 years ago but it has poor electronic, too electric sound and it has nothing to do with an upright, Wandrè died some years ago, he was a crazy wonderful person. I have an acoustic upright hand painted and built from Wandrè, it sounds awful but it's a piece of art.

[Feral Feline]

Originally Posted by Thankful birds

... Ironically, Triumphs were all metal (aluminum I believe) except for the fretboard ...

http://www.bassplayer.com/article/19...h/jan-06/16464

"... made of solid maple ..." -- David Pomeroy


http://jazzgitarren.k-server.org/framus.html

"Made with solid maple."

I've been shopping for a Framus Triumph for years, waiting for the right one to come along. Perhaps they exist, but I've never seen one/heard of one that was aluminium. Just tryin' to help keep the misinformation on vintage EUBs to (alu)minimum.

[LouisF]

http://www.fetishguitars.com/html/wa...ass/index.html

LF