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Cool 60's basses (OTHER than main-stream brands)

#265
Nerve said:
Awesome! Hope it's great! Certainly looks promising.
Click to expand...

Instead of starting a dedicated NBD thread for it - I've tagged-on to zombie thread to cover its progress. You can check it out here - GrassRoots Bass-IV

So far I'm very pleased with it - it just needs some refinement/fine tuning. :bassist:
 
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#266
me playing my first bass in 1967 (a 1964 st. george):
45102758_2503833776308590_2533619659089903616_n.jpg


here's a pic of it now:
SGbass-1.JPG


a cool old Harmony bass that i wish that i never sold:
h22-9.jpg


Vox Cougar:
13-DSC06817-2.jpg


my groovy 1968 Ovation Typhoon (Hofner made the complete body and sent to the USA where Ovation made and installed the neck):
Typhoon-01-1000.jpg
 
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#267
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#268
johnk_10 said:
me playing my first bass in 1967 (a 1964 st. george):
View attachment 4586851

here's a pic of it now:
View attachment 4586852

a cool old Harmony bass that i wish that i never sold:
View attachment 4586853

Vox Cougar:
View attachment 4586854

my groovy 1968 Ovation Typhoon (Hofner made the complete body and sent to the USA where Ovation made and installed the neck):
View attachment 4586855
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting John - I'm pretty sure my 1st bass was the same as yours, but if remember correctly it was badged "Stadium". Is your St George a long-scale? And oddly enough, my 2nd bass was a used Vox Cougar! And that Ovation/Hofner is super cool. Is it a long-scale or did Ovation make a ss neck special for it? I bet it sounds awesome! If I may ask, what's the back story on it?
 
#269
JIO said:
Thanks for posting John - I'm pretty sure my 1st bass was the same as yours, but if remember correctly it was badged "Stadium". Is your St George a long-scale? And oddly enough, my 2nd bass was a used Vox Cougar! And that Ovation/Hofner is super cool. Is it a long-scale or did Ovation make a ss neck special for it? I bet it sounds awesome! If I may ask, what's the back story on it?
Click to expand...
as far as the St. George, i also later had "Stadium" and "Andre" labeled ones that were the same exact bass so they obviously were sold with other brand names on them. It's funny because it has a neck plate but the neck is also glued into the body. I was kinda surprised that its tone is so good, especially for it being my first bass.

The Cougar was bitchen and i wish that i never sold it.

The Ovation/Hofner Typhoon is a short scale (30") and it definitely has the Hofner thump tone to it. it also plays great with low action. I bought it about 5 years ago online from a guy in Florida. I personally like its body shape much more than their later version of it.
 
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#270
JIO said:
Instead of starting a dedicated NBD thread for it - I've tagged-on to zombie thread to cover its progress. You can check it out here - GrassRoots Bass-IV

So far I'm very pleased with it - it just needs some refinement/fine tuning. :bassist:
Click to expand...

Those clips you posted with samples of the Bass IV were great. You've got me on the hunt for another 3 single coil bass. And it needs to be a black Burns Bison.

Anyone know how the RI compares with the original? I should probably get the original, but...
 
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#272
johnk_10 said:
as far as the St. George, i also later had "Stadium" and "Andre" labeled ones that were the same exact bass so they obviously were sold with other brand names on them. It's funny because it has a neck plate but the neck is also glued into the body. I was kinda surprised that its tone is so good, especially for it being my first bass.

The Cougar was bitchen and i wish that i never sold it.

The Ovation/Hofner Typhoon is a short scale (30") and it definitely has the Hofner thump tone to it. it also plays great with low action. I bought it about 5 years ago online from a guy in Florida. I personally like its body shape much more than their later version of it.
Click to expand...

I don't have one picture of my 1st bass - but I'm pretty sure it was that one badged Stadium. Is it long or short scale?
 
#273
Nerve said:
Those clips you posted with samples of the Bass IV were great. You've got me on the hunt for another 3 single coil bass. And it needs to be a black Burns Bison.

Anyone know how the RI compares with the original? I should probably get the original, but...
Click to expand...

I've never played either vintage or more current versions of the Bison but I imagine they'd be decent. A vintage one like my '63 Vista Sonic is pretty archaic. Unique, but more low-fi.

upload_2022-2-16_15-36-35.jpeg
 
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#276
johnk_10 said:
long scale
Click to expand...

I knew it! I was tall for my age and my best memory was that the bass was long/big. But being that most of the basses then from Japan were short scale, I wondered if my memory was correct. You've just confirmed that! :thumbsup: The Vox Cougar was ss - I do remember that! My third bass (also ss) was a new EB-3 (cause' of Jack Bruce doncha' know) and after that a '63 T-bird II. (one of the only two made in its first year)
 
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#277
JIO said:
I knew it! I was tall for my age and my best memory was that the bass was long/big. But being that most of the basses then from Japan were short scale, I wondered if my memory was correct. You've just confirmed that! :thumbsup: The Vox Cougar was ss - I do remember that! My third bass was a ne EB-3 (cause' of Jack Bruce doncha' know) and after that a '63 T-bird II. (one of the only two made in its first year)
Click to expand...

my dad took me to a pawn shop in downtown L.A. called Main Street Music and he bought it for me. It was $50 (used) and i couldn't be happier. at 13 years old in the 7th grade i was average in height (and still am) and that bass had super high action (it had a large front bow in the neck) but since it was my first bass and i didn't know any better, i just thought that that's the way that basses were, and it sounded good, even thru my tiny amp, so it didn't deter from to sticking with it. a year later at my jr high school (Monroe in Inglewood), a friend of mine had a St. George exactly like mine and when i played his, the neck on his was straight with low action and was much easier to play. i asked him if he wanted trade and he said "no way" so i started looking for another bass.

My second bass That was a short scale Electra violin bass,(bought it in 1968 at Hogan's House of Music in Hawthorne for $105) in transparent red exactly like this one:

pcm-violin-bass-1.jpg


in december of 1969 i bought my third (and first professional bass), a brand new Fender Precision (sunburst with a rosewood board/tort guard with a hardshell case at Westchester Music for $300 including tax and i was in heaven.
 
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#279
johnk_10 said:
my dad took me to a pawn shop in downtown L.A. called Main Street Music and he bought it for me. It was $50 (used) and i couldn't be happier. at 13 years old in the 7th grade i was average in height (and still am) and that bass had super high action (it had a large front bow in the neck) but since it was my first bass and i didn't know any better, i just thought that that's the way that basses were, and it sounded good, even thru my tiny amp, so it didn't deter from to sticking with it. a year later at my jr high school (Monroe in Inglewood), a friend of mine had a St. George exactly like mine and when i played his, the neck on his was straight with low action and was much easier to play. i asked him if he wanted trade and he said "no way" so i started looking for another bass.

My second bass That was a short scale Electra violin bass,(bought it in 1968 at Hogan's House of Music in Hawthorne for $105) in transparent red exactly like this one:

View attachment 4588211

in december of 1969 i bought my third (and first professional bass), a brand new Fender Precision (sunburst with a rosewood board/tort guard with a hardshell case at Westchester Music for $300 including tax and i was in heaven.
Click to expand...

I bought mine in a Woolworths dept store in Omaha Nebraska in '66 (new) for $40. I paid for it with paper-route money. No case or gig-bag. My dad made me a HSC for it of thick plywood - it weighed a TON! I recall mine also having strings way high and like you I just thought that was the way it was supposed to be. How we ever stuck with it playing such! I was pretty clueless then and basically chose the bass over the Teisco guitars hanging on the wall around it because it was bigger and had only four strings! :D I guess I was destined to play bass!

That red violin bass is cool! :thumbsup:
 
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#280
GretschWretch said:
Oh, if only we'd known about truss rods back then. I thought that however the instrument was adjusted coming from the factory was how it was supposed to be.
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Yep - I think it's part of why those basses from Japan got such a bad rep. (and still do) Some weren't so good, but many just needed a proper set-up.
 
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