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Late 80's headless creation, a copy of ???

T

T-Bird

Apr 29, 2007
8,850
268
Finland (Northern Europe)
#1
Hi.

After quite a bit of searching I found a photo of one of my early basses. The photo I was looking for seems to have vanished and the negative is missing too :mad:, so this crappy pic of 1/5 th of an old photograph has to do.

-87headless.jpg


The question is:

Where did I copy the design from?

I do recall that there was a bass (or a guitar) similar to that shape, but I haven't found anything. BcRich ?

The shape slightly resembles the outline of the spaceship on the Q5 Steel The Light album cover (Damn You Floyd Rose ;)), but other than that, I haven't got a clue.

Also there was, IIRC again, a headless instrument with "normal" machine heads behind the bridge in production around that time.

This bass was among the handful of creations of mine I ever sold (-89), didn't make any profit, but broke even IIRC.

It has popped up a few times in a finnish on-line auction site and I have been more than tempted to buy it back. I might even have the oak fretboard extension to 30th fret around somewhere.

Regards
Sam
 
#5
T-Bird said:
Hi, Siegy.

Yep, You got it right.

I doubt that I came up with an original idea as the bass was really comfortable to play and tune.

Regards
Sam
Click to expand...
Ah, c'mon, give yourself a little more credit than that. :bassist:


The Kramer Voyager isn't a bad idea. If you flip the body around, extend what would become the top horn, and cut off the bottom horn. And add that bit for the tuners.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I'm not really familiar with, nor do I like, "headless" instruments (Steinberger... ew). But this one really intrigues me. Well done.
 
#6
Hi, Siegy.

Thanks for the kind words, appreciated.

Well the 80's was a bit "innovative" period of time when it comes down to weird shaped instruments :D.

The Kramer might be one of the answers, thanks lowrez. I did one of those V-Explorer shapes too, it was after all one of the most common shapes at that time.

I do remember somewhat clearly though that the tuners were in a "headstock" rather than on the edge of the body. On the other hand that WAS 20 years ago. Damn I feel old :p.

Regards
Sam
 
#7
Hi.

Finding the photo and posting this thread made me search again and the result was a success. A bit embarassing one but succes anyway.

Listening good music as I searched inspired me further as I accidentally put some Lita Ford through the speakers.

The inspiration behind that bass of mine is most probably the (12 string?) Bich that Lita Ford is holding in an old poster (Kerrang, Heavy Metal poster or something like that). Can't find the pic, but the image is cear in my mind, after all that poster used to hang in my guitarists wall.

Take the Bich and slice and curve the bottom and the result is pretty much what You see in my crappy pic.

Now the question is: How in the earth I missed that? Am I really that old? I even guessed in the original post that it might've been a BC Rich and still didn't find it :eyebrow:.

Damn, I might have to recreate that bass now?

Regards
Sam
 
#8
T-Bird said:
Hi.

Finding the photo and posting this thread made me search again and the result was a success. A bit embarassing one but succes anyway.

Listening good music as I searched inspired me further as I accidentally put some Lita Ford through the speakers.

The inspiration behind that bass of mine is most probably the (12 string?) Bich that Lita Ford is holding in an old poster (Kerrang, Heavy Metal poster or something like that). Can't find the pic, but the image is cear in my mind, after all that poster used to hang in my guitarists wall.

Take the Bich and slice and curve the bottom and the result is pretty much what You see in my crappy pic.

Now the question is: How in the earth I missed that? Am I really that old? I even guessed in the original post that it might've been a BC Rich and still didn't find it :eyebrow:.
Click to expand...

Was her guitar something like this?

390560.jpg
 
#12
T-Bird said:
-87headless.jpg


The question is:

Where did I copy the design from?

Regards
Sam
Click to expand...

Yes, the 80's - I found a few like-designs from Guild ('84) x-79, Hondo ('83) H2, Ibanez ('85) Axstar AX45, Aria ('82) U Series, and as you mentioned B.C. Rich. Lots of pointy-ness.

Kudo's to your design as it does address a number of functional touchstones.
 

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