Guild Ashbory Bass - Freakish little bass

[dtripoli]

Anyone ever own or play one of these?
Is this a good price?
It's fretless?
Strings are nylon? they hard to find?

Guild Ashbory Bass all Original Ex cond - $375

Available.
Original Guild brand with original case and strap.
In excellent condition.
Pearl White.
No scratches, dings or issues what so ever.
Extra strings are included.
Local pickup.
Reply with Phone Number

[spufman]

That's a good-looking original Guild with the bridge cover and bag, so the price is okay I think, maybe a little high. You could spend less and get the DeArmond re-issue which has much more user-friendly tuners. Make sure that the volume is good on all strings. I ended up replacing the piezo on my Guild and that was about $110 shipped from England where Ashworth is located. You can still buy the Ashbory silicone strings, though these days there are nylon options as well. The 18" fretless scale is pretty wild.

[TolerancEJ]

Cool to see a Guild Ashbory. If a TB'er picks up this, I hope to see a NBD with a review.

[cnltb]

I'd buy this in a rush If I had the money.

My Ashbory is Red and from a later generation.
A second one would be quite welcome in this house, as I really like these!

[Got2SadowskyNYC]

Cool little bass. Really easy way to get a convincing upright sound.

Fender owns it now. You can these new for about $200 and strings are easy to get on line.

There are a couple of other companies doing this also. Kala U bass comes to mind.

[JTE]

Here's a link to the TB Ashbory club- lots of good information in there.

Ashbory (Guild/DeArmond/Fender) Club

They were built and distributed by Guild in the '80s. The original Guild ones do have tuning machines that aren't very good. The DeArmond ones FMIC made later have much better gears, and overall are nicely made instruments. The Ashbory is kind of weird, but I like mine. 18" scale, silcone strings to get a big fat string that carries the low end. But they're tricky to play because they don't balance all that well and the strings can be sticky. But, it's a cool emulation of a double bass if you play around with it.

There have also been several different string formulations over the decades. The first DeArmond strings had a nasty habit of spontaneously breaking. I just looked at mine and the G string came apart at the tuning machine again (and I don't know how old that string is).

The only recording I know of is Jack Bruce's "Kwela" from his 1989 album "A Question Of Time".

John

[spufman]

Hah, I took mine out last week and was pleasantly surprised to see the G string still whole! I've been disappointed before. Also check out largesound.com for great info. I'm glad I have mine (black), it's always fun to surprise people with the huge sound and silly visual. P.S., I think Tony Levin has been known to play one.

[dadglasser]

I owned one of the Fender ones after I had a wrist injury and was going crazy with not being able to play either guitar or bass. It was great for that. I have to say that it was the only instrument I've ever had that I thought of as "fun to play". With that said, I've sold it. I found the problems with intonation, strings getting out of tune rapidly, unexplainable variations in sound quality for day to day just too annoying. It developed into a love/hate relationship rapidly. As my wrist healed up and no longer hurt, I used it less and less until it just sat in its case. One of the worst things about the Fender/Dearmond ones is that the tuners are facing the wrong way. You have to twist your wrist/hand upside-down and backward to tune the little beast. I found it easier to just take the thing off and tune it lying in my lap. Also, it has practically no balance. The strap attachments cause it to flop over easily and I had to constantly keep hold of it to prevent its getting away from me. I tried several variations of strap mountings including adding an extra piece of material to tie the body up against the strap, etc., etc. If I found another at a yard sale cheap I might get it for travel purposes, but I have no desire to own another.

[groooooove]

IIRC i paid much less for the one i had.

they're worth trying if your interested. like many others i sold it because my strings would melt and break.

i wish i still had one sometimes.

[mongo2]

I have several Guild Ashborys in my collection including a white one or I'd definitely pick this one up.