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

[GretschWretch]

Y'know, it's kind of a good thing that St George didn't become a big popular brand, which would then have copycats trying to cash in on its name recognition, such as Paint George and Quaint George.

Or Ain't George.

 

[pklima]

1967 Hopf Saturn with some odd details, especially the half-round metal trim, loooong pickguard bracket, and what might be an extra trem thing between the bridge and tailpiece with the bar missing? And the top looks like spruce, too.

 

[ardgedee]

1967 Hopf Saturn with some odd details, especially the half-round metal trim, loooong pickguard bracket, and what might be an extra trem thing between the bridge and tailpiece with the bar missing? And the top looks like spruce, too.

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I think the metal plate between the tailpiece and bridge is a string dampener that clips to the strings.

 

[RobTheRiot]

1967 Hopf Saturn with some odd details, especially the half-round metal trim, loooong pickguard bracket, and what might be an extra trem thing between the bridge and tailpiece with the bar missing? And the top looks like spruce, too.

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That is a beauty!!

....but definitely an odd duck in some ways. Some you mentioned, the one that gets me is why on earth would they put a switch right above & inbetween the pickups, right near where your hand will be?!
Depending on playing style - pick/fingers, aggressive/finesse - I can see this being right in the way.
It’s easily accessible? I guess, maybe too easy to hit it, tho.

Quirks make it that much cooler, but it’s def got class too - love the binding and the f holes. Looks solid too; probably sounds big!

What are those two screws above the neck p/u?

Thanks for sharing; another one I’ve never seen before.

 

[pklima]

There's a German article here, which might provide enlightenment: http://www.bassquarterly.de/index.p...oken=405b0dd47fb7f7c5fd0e0e83a53e84d025476306

 

[Thornton Davis]

I picked this old girl up on the weekend. The original owners daughter that I bought it from told me that her father bought it new in 1964-65 tried to play it but couldn't get the hang of playing bass so he put it in the closet and there it remained for the past 54 years until just recently.

It's condition is literally like new, no dings, nicks, marks, scratches!. I set it up and cleaned the pots now it plays and sounds like new. My detective work tells me that it was made by either Guyatone, Teisco (before Kawai bought them) or Fuji-Gen Gakki. Regardless, it's a super cool short scale instrument. Think I will ultimately flip it.

TD

 

[JIO]

TL;DR - 1961 Ibanez Model 1902

I don’t think I’ve shared this here - I know Ibanez is now a major brand, but in the early 60’s they had just entered the electric bass market with their Model 1901 & 1902 (1 or 2 based on number of pickups).

I found this and being a lover of old Ibanezes I was fascinated, but researching it to find its authenticity was very hard - hardly any info available on these. Still I’ve only found 2 websites that have an image and/or info on these.

Funny, when I first saw it I thought “beautiful bass but what idiot cut the pickguard like that?!?” Nope, that’s stock - just 60’s pseudo futuristic styling! It’s made of a very thick, kind of pearlescent piece of plastic.

It’s got a lot of other neat little features....The pickups have a beautiful, stained-glass looking piece of blue material in the slots in the metal. The grain on the slab of rosewood is much more interesting than most scene today.
I’m thrilled the little metal brand badge is still on after all these years!

I haven’t had the time or means to get her up and playing yet - as can be seen, it needs a few parts to get the tuners operational. (I did strung up a cpl strings to test electronics)
Sourcing vintage replacement parts will be near impossible, and I’d rather not put on all new tuners, so I think I may have to see if I can have someone craft the parts that need replacing. We’ll see.

Other than that, it’s fully functional; all pots, pickups & knobs work great!

Well, I’ve rambled on long enough, I just think this is such a cool piece of Ibanez history!

Here it is, my 1961 Ibanez Model 1902

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That was the cool thing about these dawn-of-experimentation designs - take a curvy body and superimpose an angular pg on top of it! So incongruent - but cool!

 

[winterburn69]

I picked this old girl up on the weekend. The original owners daughter that I bought it from told me that her father bought it new in 1964-65 tried to play it but couldn't get the hang of playing bass so he put it in the closet and there it remained for the past 54 years until just recently.

It's condition is literally like new, no dings, nicks, marks, scratches!. I set it up and cleaned the pots now it plays and sounds like new. My detective work tells me that it was made by either Guyatone, Teisco (before Kawai bought them) or Fuji-Gen Gakki. Regardless, it's a super cool short scale instrument. Think I will ultimately flip it.

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TD

My first bass is shaped like that and has a pickguard in the same shape!

I'll post some pics when I pick it up from repair/set-up in a few weeks.

 

[RobTheRiot]

I picked this old girl up on the weekend. The original owners daughter that I bought it from told me that her father bought it new in 1964-65 tried to play it but couldn't get the hang of playing bass so he put it in the closet and there it remained for the past 54 years until just recently.

It's condition is literally like new, no dings, nicks, marks, scratches!. I set it up and cleaned the pots now it plays and sounds like new. My detective work tells me that it was made by either Guyatone, Teisco (before Kawai bought them) or Fuji-Gen Gakki. Regardless, it's a super cool short scale instrument. Think I will ultimately flip it.

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TD

Wow, that’s an incredible find!

I’ve never seen one in such pristine shape; and to know it literally sat in a closet for over half a century is pretty cool.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[JIO]

I picked this old girl up on the weekend. The original owners daughter that I bought it from told me that her father bought it new in 1964-65 tried to play it but couldn't get the hang of playing bass so he put it in the closet and there it remained for the past 54 years until just recently.

It's condition is literally like new, no dings, nicks, marks, scratches!. I set it up and cleaned the pots now it plays and sounds like new. My detective work tells me that it was made by either Guyatone, Teisco (before Kawai bought them) or Fuji-Gen Gakki. Regardless, it's a super cool short scale instrument. Think I will ultimately flip it.

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TD

score! - wow - that looks like it was never played and stored in a vacuum sealed tomb/vault.

I searched through my "History of Japanese Electric Guitars" book and on page 163, it shows that very pu - designed by Toshizumi Tezuka (a local Matsumoto electrician) / Fujigen Gakki electric guitars - it (that pu design) was one of the first 3 they used, and the first use of gold foil dating to the early 60's.

 

[Fender1980]

In Poland, we didn't make a lot of bass guitars in the 60s. The Defil factory did make three models introduced prior to 1970, though. The first was the Lotos, a sort of Hagstrom Kent copy. That headstock says it was made in the accordion factory in the town of Bydgoszcz.
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Then came the Mambo. I might soon be in the market for one - I'm making a virtual version of its 12-string electric guitar equivalent, and if there's interest in that I'll make a virtual version of the matching bass as well. Maybe the weirdest little feature are the green felt spacers under the pickups. This one's from the 1970s but the model was introduced in 1968.

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Finally, the Rytm was introduced in 1969. Gibson ES-ish, with an odd headstock.

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I wonder what the source for the tuners.

Those are the same tuners in my mid 60s Hoyer London Bass!

 

[Fender1980]

Hoyer (German) mid 60's Model 43 also known as "The London Bass". Pretty cool little bass that was also available with a single p/u.

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It's a fun bass! The switch on the single pickup version is a 3 way kill-half-full volume switch.

Here's mine in action. Deadish roundwounds.

 

[JIO]

It's a fun bass! The switch on the single pickup version is a 3 way kill-half-full volume switch.

Here's mine in action. Deadish roundwounds.

very cool!

 

[JIO]

1967 Hopf Saturn with some odd details, especially the half-round metal trim, loooong pickguard bracket, and what might be an extra trem thing between the bridge and tailpiece with the bar missing? And the top looks like spruce, too.

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I love that bass - first saw the guitar version in "Electric Guitars - The Illustrated Encyclopedia" 2000 (page 200) and always wanted to see the bass version.

 

[pklima]

I wonder what the source for the tuners.

Those are the same tuners in my mid 60s Hoyer London Bass!

Dunno, but I got a Defil Rytm from 1972 with similar-looking tuners. When I got it, I could spin the keys and only one or two of the posts would turn. Had to take them apart and use pliers to tighten the bent brass plates holding the shafts in place. Now they work. Probably copied a German design, at least externally, or maybe both copied the Hagstrom Kent stuff that pretty much all the rest of the early Defils was copied from?

 

[JW56789]

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. . . . . and the bottomless, alphabetically-arranged list of everything musical:

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[rickwrench]

1968 Silvertone 1443, Dano via Sears. Same body as the Coral in post #1.
Yes, it is finished in 1442 brown burst. One of the very last ones built.
This one's been in the family since new. Still one of my favorite gig basses.
50 years, half a million miles, 100,000 songs. The aluminum nut on this one has slightly narrower string spacing than a stock 1443, cut to jazz bass specs, iirc. 2 V, 2 T, 3 way. Series wiring, huge Mullard cap (0.22 uf), 100k vol pots, 1M tone pots. PUs are around 3.7k. Typical Dano bridge. Only thing I've done is relocate the front strap button up to the tip of the horn and add strap locks. The extra inch does help with neck dive. "Thumb rest" is mounted to the underside of the pick guard, out of the way.
Flats, but I can't remember what kind (dark blue silk wraps, though).

Rick

 

[Dynacord]

1968 Silvertone 1443, Dano via Sears. Same body as the Coral in post #1.
Yes, it is finished in 1442 brown burst. One of the very last ones built.
This one's been in the family since new. Still one of my favorite gig basses.
50 years, half a million miles, 100,000 songs. The aluminum nut on this one has slightly narrower string spacing than a stock 1443, cut to jazz bass specs, iirc. 2 V, 2 T, 3 way. Series wiring, huge Mullard cap (0.22 uf), 100k vol pots, 1M tone pots. PUs are around 3.7k. Typical Dano bridge. Only thing I've done is relocate the front strap button up to the tip of the horn and add strap locks. The extra inch does help with neck dive. "Thumb rest" is mounted to the underside of the pick guard, out of the way.
Flats, but I can't remember what kind (dark blue silk wraps, though).

Rick

TERRIFIC basses. Had one just like it (though red/black burst). Another of those "never should have sold it" basses... Like the snarliest, nastiest Jazz Bass ever and, rare for odd ball 60's basses, long scale!

 

[JIO]

1968 Silvertone 1443, Dano via Sears. Same body as the Coral in post #1.
Yes, it is finished in 1442 brown burst. One of the very last ones built.
This one's been in the family since new. Still one of my favorite gig basses.
50 years, half a million miles, 100,000 songs. The aluminum nut on this one has slightly narrower string spacing than a stock 1443, cut to jazz bass specs, iirc. 2 V, 2 T, 3 way. Series wiring, huge Mullard cap (0.22 uf), 100k vol pots, 1M tone pots. PUs are around 3.7k. Typical Dano bridge. Only thing I've done is relocate the front strap button up to the tip of the horn and add strap locks. The extra inch does help with neck dive. "Thumb rest" is mounted to the underside of the pick guard, out of the way.
Flats, but I can't remember what kind (dark blue silk wraps, though).

Rick

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Really cool - thanks for posting! I've seen a couple local bass players playing one including this 90's band -

 

[JIO]

TERRIFIC basses. Had one just like it (though red/black burst). Another of those "never should have sold it" basses... Like the snarliest, nastiest Jazz Bass ever and, rare for odd ball 60's basses, long scale!

Yep, long scale basses in the lower tier variety were uncommon. Another was the '68 Custom Kraft Bone Buzzer - long as a gen1 T-bird!