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Any love out there for "Duesey"?

Old Ozzie Guy

Old Ozzie Guy

Supporting Member
Mar 5, 2023
943
1,699
Surfers Paradise Qld Australia
#1
Hi all, being a bass nubie, I know 0 about Duesenberg Bass's. IV played a few Duesey 6string electric guitars, absolutely loved each one, but haven't had opportunity to get my hands on a bass. The brand is fairly scarce in Australia. The few IV seen advertised have mainly been short scale.., my preference anyway.
I'm keen to hear from anyone who owns, or played a Duesenberg bass, and get there thoughts, experience.
 
#2
Howdy I'm in Sydney and know of two other Duesenberg owners and have played both their basses (both of them Starplayer models). I owned a Duesenberg Starplayer bass in the Mike Campbell edition.

As you say they are a short scale. The build quality is super high for a mass produced bass. Likewise the price.

They sound pretty much as you'd expect a short scale to sound, pretty chunky and round tones overall. They are really light, comfortable and play really nicely IMO. I tried some Chromes on mine but went back to the standard factory strings. The best strings I tried on one were on a friend's Duesenberg where he built a hybrid string set out of two sets of TIJF strings (mixing up gauges from the 5 string set and the 4 string set). A very expensive exercise indeed. Having said, the results were fantastic and for fingerstyle old school tones I think that was about the best sounding bass I've ever played.

On the minus side - It can be a pest finding strings that fit them and you often have to trim silks to make them fit. If you play a lot of dive bars and clubs (which I was doing at the time) then IMO it's only a matter of time before the angled headstock or semi hollow body cops it. And that was the main reason I got rid of mine - I really only had one or two venues where I felt comfortable taking it. I physically saved it with my body one night when part of a lighting rig came loose and toppled (we were both fine thanks for asking :) )

If you have any other questions, just reply here and I'll answer if I can. Below I've included two photos of me playing mine, as well as some real rough mobile phone footage of it live. Please forgive the video quality, audio quality, and playing quality :D

23157276_10214151055000723_687582282340608829_O.jpeg

IMG_2539.jpeg


 
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#4
Thanks Bigswifty1 for your experiences. Really good point regarding giging, I only play small crappy venues..
. The bass looks stunning. It sounded great in context with the material your band played.
I maybe looking at a Starplayer from a shop in Japan .. just a bit worried with freight (damage). Also buying an instrument "unseen".
I thinking I want one.. will just have to see.
 
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#6
Old Ozzie Guy said:
Thanks Bigswifty1 for your experiences. Really good point regarding giging, I only play small crappy venues..
. The bass looks stunning. It sounded great in context with the material your band played.
I maybe looking at a Starplayer from a shop in Japan .. just a bit worried with freight (damage). Also buying an instrument "unseen".
I thinking I want one.. will just have to see.
Click to expand...

If it's one of the big Japanese shops like Ishibashi, they ship basses all over the place all the time and I think you'd have to be unlucky for it to be damaged in transit, although there are no guarantees of course. But if you think about it, any bass you buy in Australia has already been shipped from overseas and arrived happy and healthy. Having said that, obviously bad stuff can happen.

In terms of "unseen", I have two comments. Firstly the overall quality of the Duesenbergs is really right up there and I would be confident on that score. Obviously a second hand instrument will have wear and tear (might be trivial might be substantial) and you'd have to satisfy yourself about the risk there.

One final point, all the three Duesenberg owners I know of in Australia are active on the Australian Bass Forum (ozbassforum.com). There is a classifieds section and if you posted a "wanted" post there, who knows, someone might be looking to offload. Personally I would try that first before ordering overseas.

Mike
 
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#7
Very pretty! I think they share the wonky ergonomics of most other violin basses but that's just me, and obvs there are plenty of people who love them. I would certainly want to try on first just to see if you enjoy that "neck facing the floor" sensation. There, I said it - come and get me:)

Mike

Naviiin said:
I desperately want one of their Violin basses, but they've been discontinued and on the used market they're priced sky high.

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#8
Bruce Pete said:
You guys sound good!
Click to expand...

Cheers, Thank you!

Bruce Pete said:
Sure is a PRETTY bass! Not sure I could have sold that one!
Click to expand...

*Very* pretty, but in the end they are all just tools to me, and it ended up just sitting on its stand taunting me for months without getting played much, and not getting played live at all.

I ended up doing a direct swap with a guy for his Stingray Classic. We were both happy. He was going to use the Deusenberg in a country band. I never got to hear it but I'm confident it would have worked great.

Mike
 
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#9
Naviiin said:
I desperately want one of their Violin basses, but they've been discontinued and on the used market they're priced sky high.

View attachment 5282718

View attachment 5282719
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Wow.. never seen Duesenberg Violin. Again, it looks stunning...
I had a hof contemporary violin early this year, just wasn't up to different genres.. had to sell to grab my current bass (gib LPj), which I love.
Every Duesenberg guitar (6str), IV played was" top shelf ", I'm already sold on the brand.
 
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