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Anyone else like “coffee table” Basses?
- Thread starter JPMcGuire
- Start date
In the same way I find women of many skin and hair colours to be attractive, I like both coffee table and more traditional basses. Of my current 6, 4 are coffee tables and 2 are trans coloured over mildly grained swamp ash.
Really like the Fender sandblasted...have search alerts for them on Reverb and fleaBay, which sound like crickets, mostly.
I've never had any patience for objects made of wood that don't have the appearance of wood. Basses or otherwise.
They are very good sounding and light. I think that is a factor in this. Plus they supposedly only made a couple hundred of each.
A decent amount of flame maple has found its way into my herd, but this Warwick Streamer Stage I takes the prize:
It's not just a top veneer, either; this axe is SOLID figured maple front to back, head to heel (with a few accent stripes thrown in for good measure).
I've seen some insanely gorgeous examples of this model with better figuring in the wood and brighter finishes that show it all off more. But this relative "sleeper" is still fun to look at sometimes and all that maple sounds quite different than my ash or alder bodied bolt-ons. (Best 34" low B I've ever tried.)
Unfortunately not the best approach for weight.
It's not just a top veneer, either; this axe is SOLID figured maple front to back, head to heel (with a few accent stripes thrown in for good measure).
I've seen some insanely gorgeous examples of this model with better figuring in the wood and brighter finishes that show it all off more. But this relative "sleeper" is still fun to look at sometimes and all that maple sounds quite different than my ash or alder bodied bolt-ons. (Best 34" low B I've ever tried.)
Unfortunately not the best approach for weight.
I’ve always been fascinated by them. My desire to own one kind of fizzled out over the years, though.
I do have an older Warwick Corvette fretless, and my Fender Precision has a flame maple top on the body, but the closest I’ve ever came to owning one was a walnut/wenge/ebony Warmoth build I did years ago. The body wood wasn’t figured, but after I did the the tung oil finish, it had some brilliant luminescence at different angles. And I still remember the almost tropical smell when I opened up the package with the wenge/ebony neck. Only problem was that it was a serious spine-compressor. Weighed 14 lbs.
I do have an older Warwick Corvette fretless, and my Fender Precision has a flame maple top on the body, but the closest I’ve ever came to owning one was a walnut/wenge/ebony Warmoth build I did years ago. The body wood wasn’t figured, but after I did the the tung oil finish, it had some brilliant luminescence at different angles. And I still remember the almost tropical smell when I opened up the package with the wenge/ebony neck. Only problem was that it was a serious spine-compressor. Weighed 14 lbs.
I don't have any coffee table basses but I have one that sorta looks like a dresser. The middle drawer is stuck open half an inch at a weird angle and one of the legs is cracked. The next closest things are a brown Tele and Strat. A natural P bass doesn't qualify as a coffee table.
We used to call them Furniture Basses.
Not to be confused with Hippie Sandwiches
Not to be confused with Hippie Sandwiches
I never heard the term "coffee table" bass. I always considered them as "better than painted" basses. Here is mine. I never thought it looked like a coffee table.
welcome to my life : I like every choice that nature offers. My wife doesn’t agree (she’s ok for the Basses, not for... you know...)
I've got enough patience for them to have thrown car paint at a few of my retro builds and buys (see my sig), but I do think natural finishes look better, and of course they line up properly with the tradition of proper lutherie. Much as I respect how Leo Fender made basses available at a price range, I really wish he'd hooked up with a real luthier first.
What I really don't get is why some people paint their double basses.
