Jake deVilliers
Commercial User
- May 24, 2006
- 6,349
- 607
- Disclosures
- Owner of The Bass Spa, String Repairman at Long & McQuade Vancouver
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Double Bass New aluminum upright bass!
- Thread starter marcox
- Start date
Agreed. My Alcoa is the original gold finish, which is cool 'cause it's rare, but I kinda wish it had the faux wood finish!
Does Anyone know why they made 'em in gold?
The gold finish is VERY rare! My understanding is that it was intended for black and white motion pictures and early television, and has to do with the way light reflection worked with the cameras. It was originally brass metal filings imbeded into the finish, hence the tendency for it to turn green over time when it oxidizes. I've got a nice stash of original vintage material for restoration work. Kay made a few tv models in a similar finish and Gibson made a good run of it with the gold top Les Pauls and such ( I just played a sweet original '59 Les Paul at the Paul Reed Smith shop last weekend!!! After spending about 48 hours with Paul and the crew, I can comfortably say that his new instruments blew the doors off that guitar, as well as the sweetest '57 stratocaster I've ever played and a VERY nice '52 tele- all completely original and well worn- 100% players guitars).
Back to the AlCoAs:
Much of the company information, documents, and history are still available- you just have to work for it to get copies of them. There are several AlCoA's in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian and the Heinz museum has a huge stack of internal company documents from the original AlCoA production facility. I was able to acquire copies of all of it- at a price for the museum and over several years of patiently waiting to get through all of the beaurocracy...
As helpful as it all was when I wrote the GAL article a few years back- and there are a few inaccuracies that I've since been able to update- much of it is just internal banter- who said what to whom and who still owes money for which account. My biggest fear is that some time in the future, some nerdy publishing type will get me all liquored up one day and convince me to sign the paperwork to write a fancy book about these old basses....
On a side note: Is there anybody in the Seattle area who has one of these? I'll be giving a bass luthier's nerdfest workshop for the GAL at their next convention and would like to have one there. I'll already be traveling with my carved bass and a several other instruments, so it would be nice to find a local one for the workshop.
With that, I'm off to rehearsal; turn off your computer and get back to playing your bass....
j.
Back to the AlCoAs:
Much of the company information, documents, and history are still available- you just have to work for it to get copies of them. There are several AlCoA's in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian and the Heinz museum has a huge stack of internal company documents from the original AlCoA production facility. I was able to acquire copies of all of it- at a price for the museum and over several years of patiently waiting to get through all of the beaurocracy...
As helpful as it all was when I wrote the GAL article a few years back- and there are a few inaccuracies that I've since been able to update- much of it is just internal banter- who said what to whom and who still owes money for which account. My biggest fear is that some time in the future, some nerdy publishing type will get me all liquored up one day and convince me to sign the paperwork to write a fancy book about these old basses....
On a side note: Is there anybody in the Seattle area who has one of these? I'll be giving a bass luthier's nerdfest workshop for the GAL at their next convention and would like to have one there. I'll already be traveling with my carved bass and a several other instruments, so it would be nice to find a local one for the workshop.
With that, I'm off to rehearsal; turn off your computer and get back to playing your bass....
j.
