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Hollow or Semihollow 6 string basses ?

#41
The Alain Carron bass is extremely expensive, I think north of 10 grand when I checked. Way out of my league, for sure.
The Warwick Rockbass Alien 6 is a very nice instrument. Not the easiest to play, action was a little on the high side and fretwork didn't allow it to get really low. I had one for a couple of years but sold it on as I couldn't really get used to it. A very large bass, though. I couldn't easily fit it in the trunk of my hatchback without flattening the seats. So it's not a "practical" instrument by any means.
The actual Warwick Alien might be better (they are both built in China, fyi).
As far as I know, the Warwick Aliens are the only standard production line fully acoustic 6-string basses.
The strings play a huge part on these basses. The bronze acoustic strings are extremely zingy. I'd consider changing to something different to get a slightly softer sound.

Yamaha has built a semi-hollow bass for John Patittuci, and there's the Thundercat Ibanez, but I doubt they will be anywhere near "affordable" if they will ever become available to the ordinary bass buying public. Not that custom shops will be cheap by any means, either.

Question is, are you looking for unplugged or plugged volume, for example? The thinline offerings might sound great plugged in, but will definitely lack in volume. Even my Warwick Alien would struggle next to a piano or a loud guitar. It all depends what you're looking for, I guess.
 
#42
So it does look like I am going to make this a reality, once I have committed to commission a build I will give some additional details. But what I'm looking at is something similar to John Patitucci's semi-hollow Yamaha, with probably a slightly deeper body not quite as big as Thundercat's Ibanez, with some additional features that suit me.

In the meantime here is some info as to how I ended up here....While I never had owned a short scale or hollowbody bass, a few years ago I became very fond of the Harmony H22 sound and started doing some research, that sound was a must have. What I ended up buying was a Lakland HB30, very cool instrument. I almost immediately knew that I wanted that in an extended range 6 string. Not having much prior experience it was hard to attribute what I liked to the short scale or the hollow body. I decided to have Mike Kinal build me a 30" scale 5 string E-C, for most practical purposes a low B doesn't work on a 30" (I know we could debate this but that's the call I made). The Kinal is a beautiful instrument that is more of a acoustic short scale bass guitar with some classical guitar qualities, quite different than my original mission. There are a bunch of youtube clips out there of the Kinal. In the process I did sell the Lakland HB30.

Somewhere in this process John Patitucci put out the video showing his new bass and subsequently there are a number of tracks cut and live performances out on Youtube. I did make a number of attempts to contact the master builder at Yamaha who built John's bass but he didn't respond to my requests. During this time Anthony Jackson has put out a bunch of material using his Fodera Hybrid, the price tag is out of site but the tone is inspirational.

Having a 33" scale Valenti has given me a level of confidence in getting a decent B at that scale length and is likely the compromise I am going to make. In my mind splitting the difference between a short scale that cannot accommodate the low B, the standard scale Patitucci uses or going with a 36 to get those big fundamental like Jackson. I believe I will be happy with the 33".

The other challenges with this type of bass is upper register access and the extension of the upper horn to the 12th fret. Creating a balance and ergonomics that make the bass as playable as any modern 6. I have also decided to go after that traditional jazz box, L5 type look rather then a more modern single cut style. So there are some compromises to get the aesthetics.

So the wheels have been in motion for sometime and emergence of Patitucci's bass has certainly helped me visualize what I want. With each bass or thought it has moved me slightly in a different direction and the current builder I am in discussions with has a good amount of experience and putting some different ideas in front of me. I look forward to sharing them soon!
 
#43
My specs are almost complete and I will make a deposit next week. Probably a 3 - 4 month build time and hopefully it will be accompanied by a build thread under the luthier section. I will let you all know who's building once my deposit is in.
 
#44
My old Semi Hollow 6:
DSC_0189_zps7473abc0.jpg


My new Semi Hollow 6:
887529_875879919169409_7765858354660751192_o.jpg
 
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#45
Over fifty years ago, there was the Gibson EB6, tuned E-E based on the EB-2. It was also offered with an EB-0 style body, I'm not sure which came first. They came with both one and two humbuckers. Super rare and expensive today.

gibson-EB-6-Prototype-Hank-Garland-Owned-1958-Sunburst-original.jpg


tumblr_mcrtgeAAGz1ry2dqjo2_1280.jpg


g7eb8001.f.jpg


Check out Elvis with a double neck, bass on top guitar on bottom. Wonder how many of these were made!

gal_elvis.jpg
 
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#48
peterpalmieri said:
I recognize the old one I think there is a cool YouTube video of Greg Bagley playing either that bass or one very similar. Love the tone on that thing. What is the the second one?
Click to expand...

Yes thats the one. There was a vid he posted that sounded great. The second one is a Skjold Catacomb.
 
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#50
It did sound great, it was a tough call. The spacing at the nut was a little too wide for me, and there were a couple other things. I had flats on it for most of the time and it was killer. It tracked really well.. Heres a snippet of that bass recorded with flats and Monique. You can hear it in the intro section.
 
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#57
Bob_Ross said:
Holy Grail Bass. Or unicorn; I'm not sure I've ever seen a pic of a 4005/6 before, only heard of them. But still, it's been on my Wish List for 40-something years. Some day...

Were those long scale like the 4005?
Click to expand...
Same standard 33 1/4" long scale as most other Rick basses.

Here is your unicorn (although a quite real one, at that)!

Rick 4005-6 '67 FG Lefty 004a.jpg
 
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#58
brianrost said:
Over fifty years ago, there was the Gibson EB6, tuned E-E based on the EB-2. It was also offered with an EB-0 style body, I'm not sure which came first. They came with both one and two humbuckers. Super rare and expensive today.

gibson-EB-6-Prototype-Hank-Garland-Owned-1958-Sunburst-original.jpg


tumblr_mcrtgeAAGz1ry2dqjo2_1280.jpg


g7eb8001.f.jpg


Check out Elvis with a double neck, bass on top guitar on bottom. Wonder how many of these were made!

gal_elvis.jpg
Click to expand...

I shared a gig years ago with a guy who had a carvin double neck guitar/bass. Seemed to me like the least useful combo you could have, since you pretty much always need somebody playing bass, but not two guys playing bass. It was a nice axe, but heavy
 
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#59
Jeff Scott said:
Same standard 33 1/4" long scale as most other Rick basses.
Click to expand...
I'd heard about them being long- (Rick) scale, which makes them unique among traditional six-stringers. Are we sure about this though? Surely sure? As in, there's a chap over on another forum who has one and confirmed his is 33.25"?

EDIT: I guess a quick look into @PaulBoyer's book would suffice.
 
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