Aluminum Neck Club

Great idea for a thread! Sadly I will only be able to participate vicariously, as I own no aluminum, but I've lusted for a Travis Bean TB-2000 for ages. Some day...

But seriously: How can you start a thread like this -- and even go into details about what strings you use on your aluminum-necked bass -- without even mentioning what make/model you own, much less posting a picture of said bass?!?!

Show us the bass!

 

OK, I'll play.. here are my"Lumies"; a '78 Kramer 450B, and an '81 Kramer Duke Special (or Deluxe; whichever you prefer). I also have another Duke, but it's a righty, and it's just parts for a custom bass that's under way.. Yes, the 450B in the picture is mine; Jerry's Lefty Guitars just takes better pictures than I do...
As for strings? I'd say just put whatever you want on yours. I'm sure lots of people will disagree, but.. I've got close to 2 dozen basses - of all kinds - and, other than being VERY neck heavy, the only real difference the 450B's aluminum neck makes, IME, is sustain. Obscene amounts of sustain... The Duke came with an old - but still good - set of short scale GHS Bass Boomers on it. The Duke Special's forte' is copping a P-bass/Jazz Bass sound, using a pickup made of 2 back-to-back Dimarzio Jazz pickups and a mare's nest of wiring. IMO, it does it pretty well - well enough to save me having to buy a Jazz Bass, anyway... I like the Boomers, so that's what it wears... The 450B? This thing is LOUD; I can just about knock my old Marshall combo amp on it's ass, playing an open E with it. I haven't made up my mind about strings, yet. It came with a set of rounds with black silk on both ends; not sure what they are; other than that they're pretty dead. I've tried a set of Warwick Black Label Low B's on it; kinda what I was looking for, but; I don't really have any use for BEAD basses, and I didn't want to hack the aluminum, pinned nut up. Not many lefty Kramer nuts floating around... So, the old rounds are back on it for now. It will, like most of my basses, most likely wind up with flats of some kind on it. La Bellas or Roto 77s, probably...

 

I have a Kramer DMZ5000 aloooominum neck submarine.
I offer the attached crappy photo as proof and as a warning to others; sometimes bourbon and ebay don't mix.

 

Yep, something magical in those Aluminum necks!
I have


1981 Kramer Vanguard...





Vaccaro X-Ray (2000-ish?)...





Hartke XK-4 - hot-rodded with EMG pickups (2002-ish?)...





Hartke XL-4 Prototype #46 (2001)

I fell in love with the sound of Aluminum Kramers back in the late 1970s, but could never afford one back then...

PS: (trivia!) I used to own a nice Koa Travis Bean TB-2000 in the late 1980s... the thing WEIGHED A TON though!

 

PS: strings...
Vanguard's 31 inch scale is perfect for GHS Balanced Nickles Medium 44-106 "Short Scale set".

Vaccaro X-ray currently has some old set of generic roundwounds- and sounds MAGICAL! I have never in my life heard a better-balanced sounding bass guitar... Example: G is not too tinny, and tone of E on 12th fret, 7th fret or 2nd frets are all near identical (etc!). I have a set of Thomastik Powerbass EB344 sitting here I bought for it a year ago, but frankly it sounds so good I am afraid to change the strings

Hartke XK-4 has a set of Rotosound SH77 Steve Harris Signature (heavy!) flatwounds, and I keep it tuned down to DGCF. Awesome tones!

Hartke XL-4 has a set of (coated) neon yellow roundwound something-or-others. Sounds great, so I have no desire to change them yet. Might be a splendid candidate for that set of Thomastiks...

 

Both the Harktes have the identical body as the Vaccaro - only the pickguards were changed (and the headstock, of course). Hartkes are essentially just hot-rodded Vaccaros...

 

That one actually reminds me of a certain 80s Washburn more... and maybe something even older than that! There is inspiration lurking EVERYWHERE...

 

I have a matching EGC guitar and bass pair on order. until they arrive, I shall be living vicariously through you guys.

 

Sick. That’s gonna be a great pair!
I’m doing the vicarious thing as well- expecting an Obstructures bass prototype to arrive sometime early next month.

 

As it stands right now: Series two with black anodized body, brushed aluminum neck, dual humbuckers with push/pulls for coil tapping.

Of course I made the mistake of looking at the Instagram page the other day and seeing an Gibson RD shaped guitar and I'm really close to throwing out my 4 months I've been waiting so far to get them done in that shape.

 

I owned a very early (Fall 1976) Kramer 350B for a while back in 2012. Cool bass, but it would NEVER stay in tune. I attribute that "feature" to the aluminum neck. The feel of the neck was superb, unless it was cold (the neck, not the weather, although there certainly was some correlation there). The profile was similar to that of the two 1973 4001 basses I owned for many years (friends of mine own them these days).

 

I love my Kramer 650b! My very first bass was a 450b.

 

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