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Favorite bass designs. Strictly visual aesthetics.
- Thread starter Bar Band Bassman
- Start date
Designs that stick in my mind . . . .
Spector NS. Ned Steinberger's collaboration with Stuart Spector resulted in a classic, and a completely different take on the form of a bass guitar. I tried a neckthrough NS4 in this satin/peanut butter finish and was utterly stunned at the way it felt: Of course, I expected the rounded backside, but there's no hard edges anywhere on the body save for the hardware. It felt totally organic, and if it had felt warm to the touch, I'd have thought it was a living thing. And a great example of a dedicated designer improving a dated planform.
No neck heavy, done. Double P active pickups, done. Fine tuning, done. Tired of fighting to maintain a wooden instrument, say hello to carbon fibre. Tune this sucker up, it won't go out of tune if you stand on it ( . . . and I once saw Hap do just that). Plug in the neck strap in that button in the back, you can spin it like a propeller, but ya might want to lean back a little . . . NS distilled everything into something that no one had ever seen before , , , and it worked.
Ibanez Affirma, another designer bass, here by the German Ralf Spuler. A design brief of a deeply set neck, neutral Bartolini magnetic pickup combined with a gain-tuneable piezo bridge system. Slim and business-like elegant in that German way, a remarkable instrument.
TUNE Bass Maniac. In the 80's, these were a revelation in terms of how compact a full 34.5" scale bass could be. Used their own pickups and hardware, save for the keys, and came in fretted 4's, 5's, and 6's, fretless versions, a piezo only version, even 8's and 10's, at a time then when these things were not nearly as common as they are now. These became the godfathers of the Ibanez Soundgears, whose very first versions were very, very similar to this layout. They also made the fretless f-hole Woodbasses, with the piezo done by Alembic.
Alembic Series 2/5 in the Balance K shape. Alembic were the first 'artist' guitar company, co-founded by Susan Wickersham, an artist, and her husband Ron Wickersham, a former Ampex design engineer and an electronic genius who's added as much to this business (active electronics, PZM microphones, Time Align loudspeaker design, and the ELF subwoofer system, and a big hand in the Dead's Wall of Sound) as Les Paul or Leo Fender. Here are the Alembic single coil pickups with the middle, smaller pickup silent but that's the hum-rejection coil, and the rejection is user tuneable. 3-way filters on each pickup, and a Master Volume so once your balance is set, you just turn everything up or down. And virtually silent in all but the worst RF environments. Notice the bridge sitting on an embedded brass block. and take a minute and count all the different layers of wood you can see in the body. BTW, the black ply in the middle of the neckthrough? Ebony. These Series basses with the coco top and back and ebony in the neck through can sound like the deep end of a big Yamaha grand, if that's what you're after.
They are understandably hugely expensive new, and they are not for everybody, but IF you 'get it', there is nothing, and I mean nothing like an Alembic.
Spector NS. Ned Steinberger's collaboration with Stuart Spector resulted in a classic, and a completely different take on the form of a bass guitar. I tried a neckthrough NS4 in this satin/peanut butter finish and was utterly stunned at the way it felt: Of course, I expected the rounded backside, but there's no hard edges anywhere on the body save for the hardware. It felt totally organic, and if it had felt warm to the touch, I'd have thought it was a living thing. And a great example of a dedicated designer improving a dated planform.
No neck heavy, done. Double P active pickups, done. Fine tuning, done. Tired of fighting to maintain a wooden instrument, say hello to carbon fibre. Tune this sucker up, it won't go out of tune if you stand on it ( . . . and I once saw Hap do just that). Plug in the neck strap in that button in the back, you can spin it like a propeller, but ya might want to lean back a little . . . NS distilled everything into something that no one had ever seen before , , , and it worked.
Ibanez Affirma, another designer bass, here by the German Ralf Spuler. A design brief of a deeply set neck, neutral Bartolini magnetic pickup combined with a gain-tuneable piezo bridge system. Slim and business-like elegant in that German way, a remarkable instrument.
TUNE Bass Maniac. In the 80's, these were a revelation in terms of how compact a full 34.5" scale bass could be. Used their own pickups and hardware, save for the keys, and came in fretted 4's, 5's, and 6's, fretless versions, a piezo only version, even 8's and 10's, at a time then when these things were not nearly as common as they are now. These became the godfathers of the Ibanez Soundgears, whose very first versions were very, very similar to this layout. They also made the fretless f-hole Woodbasses, with the piezo done by Alembic.
Alembic Series 2/5 in the Balance K shape. Alembic were the first 'artist' guitar company, co-founded by Susan Wickersham, an artist, and her husband Ron Wickersham, a former Ampex design engineer and an electronic genius who's added as much to this business (active electronics, PZM microphones, Time Align loudspeaker design, and the ELF subwoofer system, and a big hand in the Dead's Wall of Sound) as Les Paul or Leo Fender. Here are the Alembic single coil pickups with the middle, smaller pickup silent but that's the hum-rejection coil, and the rejection is user tuneable. 3-way filters on each pickup, and a Master Volume so once your balance is set, you just turn everything up or down. And virtually silent in all but the worst RF environments. Notice the bridge sitting on an embedded brass block. and take a minute and count all the different layers of wood you can see in the body. BTW, the black ply in the middle of the neckthrough? Ebony. These Series basses with the coco top and back and ebony in the neck through can sound like the deep end of a big Yamaha grand, if that's what you're after.
They are understandably hugely expensive new, and they are not for everybody, but IF you 'get it', there is nothing, and I mean nothing like an Alembic.
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Rickenbackers do it for me
Also the Japanese Fender Jaguar Deluxe, hot rod red matching headstock. Doesn’t get much cooler than a Jag bass with the switches and knobs where the Jag guitar has them.
Also the Japanese Fender Jaguar Deluxe, hot rod red matching headstock. Doesn’t get much cooler than a Jag bass with the switches and knobs where the Jag guitar has them.
I posted this Nordstrand in a similar thread back in the day. Still hoping is pops up for sale....
My own Status Graphite is the most beautiful bass I've ever seen
I don’t own one, never have and likely never will, but the Kay Value Leader is rad IMO.
An ergonomic disaster that also often sounds crap, but I love the look of it.
I second this! Spectors are stunning basses, but I haven't found one that I liked yet in terms of sound.
The Rickenbacker 4000 series is my all time favorite bass design, but OP said to not mention the classics.
I've always liked the look of the LeCompte VB. Particularly the 5 string. The proportions just seem very correct to me.
I also really like the Jolana Diamant bass. I think it's the best looking LP bass I've seen.
I also really like the Jolana Diamant bass. I think it's the best looking LP bass I've seen.
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