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NBD.....Something Fender should have built.

#45
7bridges said:
Nice bass! I didn’t know he played a precision. I thought he often played an old Hofner, presumably the one owned by Stu Sutcliffe, as he and Stu and Astrid were friends. Here he is with it at a session for Harry Nilsson’s "Son of Schmilsson” album, one of my favorites.
View attachment 4410473
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He surely used Stu's 500/5 Hofner occasionally but without a doubt his main bass was his '62 P-bass.
 
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#49
bobyoung53 said:
I've always loved Klaus's work and your bass came out beautifully, Fender should do those.
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I realize Klaus Voormann isn't what you'd call a household name but he did play fine bass and many good albums and had a very groovy looking bass. It's difficult to believe Fender and/or the Custom Shop just ignored this bass. I mean Fender made 1000 Noel Redding Jazz basses. (I have #302) How many people know him?
 
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#54
ndukane65 said:
View attachment 4410108 Hey there...this is my first thread. (above-Klaus Voormann in the studio 1973)
MY SUMMER PROJECT.......
Back on June 23rd I decided that Klaus Voormann (Who's Klaus Voormann???https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Voormann) played a very nice looking bass back in the 60's into the mid-70's on many great albums by John, George, Ringo and others. Why hasn't Fender paid homage to this wonderful German bassist? So on that day I decided that I would build a Klaus Voorman Tribute Precison Bass. I ordered the ash body from Warmoth 6/30 and waited over a month to get it. I slowly ordered all the parts like pickup, bridge, pickguard etc. When I got it I had to prepare it for painting so that meant sanding and filling the pores and two coats of shellac. Then I shipped it off to Aurora, IL to my artist friend Sara Gauthier who did an amazing job recreating Klaus' bass from the the scarce photos we found on the web. I got it back and then had to spray 3 coats of nitrocellulose satin lacquer on the body and waited 14 days for it to dry. Finally I put all the parts including the expensive Fender neck in the new brown case and brought to luthier Jerry Pietrzak who skillfully assembled and setup everything within a week. All in all it took 12 weeks to create this very cool bass. It plays/sounds awesome! I'm very pleased with how it came out! I took many photos but the best ones were taken today by my photographer friend Frank Little. Also, I decided to include a portfolio in the case just like Fender Custom Shop guitars get and that was made possible by Kim Thornton. This bass is essentially a Fender American Original 60's Precision except for the body. All the other parts the same Fender parts of that bass. View attachment 4410112 View attachment 4410116View attachment 4410118 View attachment 4410119View attachment 4410122 View attachment 4410123
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Holy moly look at that straight grained ash, wow
 
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#55
Ricky Rioli said:
Firstly, that's amazing!

Secondly, is there a hidden meaning behind the shift from blue eyes...

View attachment 4410279

...to brown eyes...

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You know...I was debating with the artist over whether the eyes were blue or brown. I guess they were indeed blue. My bad. But I have brown eyes so I guess that's in my favor. I knew I wasn't gonna get it down exactly. The most difficult part was finding good photos to work with. There are very few. Klaus is a low key guy!
 
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#57
BigJohnAZ said:
Absolutely amazing! I wouldn't let Fender make these, I'd rather you somehow get with Klaus and get a pic with him playing it and that would be a fantastic memory and personal keepsake. Fender makes enough $ on their artist copies. I would prefer yours be a unicorn.
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I kind of agree with you. It's nice owning a unicorn. I especially like the idea of the photo with Klaus playing it!
 
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#59
rockdoc11 said:
A bit off-topic, but I've always wondered why Klaus Voorman didn't take over from Stu Sutcliff on bass when Stu decided to leave the Beatles.

(Which also would might meant we might not have seen McCartney's incredible contributions to bass creativity!)
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Klaus was merely a friend of the Beatles. The Beatles needed a bass player and there was no way Paul was going to let an "outsider" muscle in. Plus I don't think Klaus was interested in being a member. He was just amazed at how good they were...he'd never heard any band like them. I recall an interview with Klaus where he stated that he would actually play Stu's bass a bit while Stu was making eyes at Astrid off in the corner. So his bass playing probably began then in Hamburg. Paul was already just a much better player overall. I do know that Klaus wound up buying Stu's Hofner bass and still has it.
 
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#60
There's not much of his art work left on his original bass, so kudos for your tribute.
(Added a little bit of Klaus's art work, sketches from the Hamburg days and the album cover he's possibly most recognized for.

9d535e034e008d4bcd9669fd6b3a6d1d.jpg
3 John.jpg
3 Paul.jpg
A1ZeriZs9BL._SL1500_.jpg
 
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