Oddball Basses

[PhillipHolbrook]

There's a unique and quirky looking bass that looks so cool to me and sounds great. I'm referring to the old Ovation Magnum bass that was popular in the 70s and 80s. I remember seeing Anne Murray and Barbara Mandrell's bassists playing them and they sounded phenomenal.

When I was a little kid the bass player at our little church played a Silvertone labeled Dano. It was black with a white plastic wrap around the edges and it sounded great. It was amazing to me to see this middle aged man play that little bass through a huge Silvertone amp. He could make the thing talk!

What oddball bass would you like to have?

 

[Matt O]

I have almost bought an Electra MPC a half dozen times. Every time I find one for a good price, I seem to talk myself out of it. I will eventually cave.

 

[Matt O]

Also on my list is a Roland G77 with the controller. Wanted mostly so that I can wear wraparound shades on stage while I make bleep-blorp noises.

 

[PhillipHolbrook]

I have almost bought an Electra MPC a half dozen times. Every time I find one for a good price, I seem to talk myself out of it. I will eventually cave.

View attachment 5251479

That looks great! I've never seen one.

 

[PhillipHolbrook]

Also on my list is a Roland G77 with the controller. Wanted mostly so that I can wear wraparound shades on stage while I make bleep-blorp noises.
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That is really different!

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

My first bass was a Dano. I had a Magnum II. They are underrated. it was a good bass, but I traded it in on my first G&L.

 

[Krizz]

Yamaha Samurai SB 2A, well, really any of the 3

 

[micguy]

Also on my list is a Roland G77 with the controller. Wanted mostly so that I can wear wraparound shades on stage while I make bleep-blorp noises.
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Perfect for that Devo tribute band you've been thinking about.

If you're going to use it for just synth sounds, one hack is to use guitar strings, and tune it up an octave (or more), then pitch shift down in the software. The higher the pitch of the string, the less time it takes for the electronics to identify a note - it's essentially counting cycles, and the more cycles per second, the faster the pitch recognition works. Guitarists used to sometimes string a guitar synth controller with all high E strings (and then repitch the lower 5 strings), for this very reason - fast pitch detection.

 

[Low End Scum]

Funny you should post this. I'm actually selling one of my 2 Ric's to try and fund (or trade) for an Ovation Magnum (preferably a I or II).

Outside of that:
Roland G77, which I see was already posted
Gibson Ripper
A 3 bolt bullet truss Jazz
Fender Starcaster or Guild Starfire II

 

[devnulljp]

Don't know how oddball it is really, but I've always wanted a 6 string Shergold Marathon. I have a 4 string version, but the 6 is the grail.
hard to come by, and expensive now.

Or the 8 string Hagstrom

 

[mambo4]

 

[GTHintz]

I'd like a steinberger l2-5 or a kubicki 5 string. Headless is cool. I had a hohner that I sold only because it was a 4 string. I'm even thinking about modding something else and making it headless.

 

[_One//Man//Mutiny_]

Looks like the Eastwood is fairly priced compared to the Uber expensive originals.
Eastwood Hooky Bass 6 PRO

 

[N4860]

As a big EBMM fan, I've been wanting to get a Big Al SSS for the last couple of years but they're pretty hard to find.

 

[MrB64]

There's a unique and quirky looking bass that looks so cool to me and sounds great. I'm referring to the old Ovation Magnum bass that was popular in the 70s and 80s. I remember seeing Anne Murray and Barbara Mandrell's bassists playing them and they sounded phenomenal.

When I was a little kid the bass player at our little church played a Silvertone labeled Dano. It was black with a white plastic wrap around the edges and it sounded great. It was amazing to me to see this middle aged man play that little bass through a huge Silvertone amp. He could make the thing talk!

What oddball bass would you like to have?

Ross Valory of Journey played one of those Ovation Magnums, too, I believe. He played a Steinberger, as well, so maybe he's the patron saint of oddball basses.

 

[SteC]

The oddballs are where it's at y'all. I just saw this weird thing on reverb the other day

Circa 1960 Fenton Weill Contra Bass Lefty Left Handed Lefthand Rare Vintage Burns | Reverb

 

[Matt O]

Perfect for that Devo tribute band you've been thinking about.

Speaking of DEVO, another oddball on my list is a La Baye 2x4. Incredibly rare, but Eastwood did a copy a few years back.

 

[J Wilson]

The silver Music Man limited edition from the 80's with the Carbon neck. Or maybe in black.

On the other hand, if I really, really thought up something 'off the menu', I think an Ibanez Affirma 5 somewhere has my name on it . . .

Link Removed

 

[Lance Bunyon]

I have almost bought an Electra MPC a half dozen times. Every time I find one for a good price, I seem to talk myself out of it. I will eventually cave.

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This would be entirely useless without all 11 plugin modules for access to the 11,000 sounds!

 

[BargeOn]

The first time I saw a Pedulla I thought they were wierd and ugly. Sort of a smashed amoeba.
Then I heard one. Now I have 2.