• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Ohio Express Bass?

The Ohio Express hit "Yummy Yummy" popped up on my YouTube feed this weekend. The music video shows their touring bassist (Dean Kastran) playing an eight-string bass.

Does anyone have any idea who made the aforementioned bass?
A link to the video would be helpful but in that point in time probably the only commercially available 8 string was a Hagstrom.
 
The Ohio Express hit "Yummy Yummy" popped up on my YouTube feed this weekend. The music video shows their touring bassist (Dean Kastran) playing an eight-string bass.

Does anyone have any idea who made the aforementioned bass?

Strangely enough, I know a few original members of this band. I will likely being seeing at least one of them this upcoming Friday and will ask your question then. :thumbsup:
 
A link to the video would be helpful but in that point in time probably the only commercially available 8 string was a Hagstrom.
Aye. The original Hagström H8:


Some came with a black headstock, like the one in the "Yummy Yummy" video
Hagstrom H8 / 8 String Bass 1967 3-tone Sunburst Bass For Sale GuitarPoint
Hagstrom 8-String Bass H-8 Solid Body Electric Bass Guitar (1968) | RetroFret
some with a natural one
Hagstrom H8 Eight String Bass >> Vintage Guitar and Bass
some cherry-red finished with matching hs
Hagstrom H-8 8-String Bass Cherry 1960s
https://www.12fret.com/no-longer-available/1967-hagstrom-h8-8-string-bass/
1960s Hagstrom H8 8-string electric bass guitar

Original run 1967-1969:
Hagström H8 - Wikipedia
Hagstrom H8 Eight String Bass >> Vintage Guitar and Bass
Hagstrom Fans - Who Used Original Swedish Hagstrom Guitars
Wayback Machine
Some folks on the 'net suggest Jimi Hendrix and Noel Redding may have used two distinct specimens.
Others who were seen with one were Danny McCulloch of the New Animals, Billy 'Bass' Nelson of Funkadelic, Andy Kulberg of the Blues Project and Seatrain. Later into the 70's, also Mike Rutherford and Lemmy Kilminster.
 
I used to work with a guy who had a Hagstrom 8-string that he played into 2 x 100 watt Ampegs with 4 x 15s. It sounded absolutely HUGE and really improved his band. It wouldn’t work for every player and every style of music, but for the rock stuff he was playing it was perfection.

Those Hagstroms of the 60s and early 70s had nice necks and sounded good. Their only bad choice were the funky slide switches they used
 
Aye. The original Hagström H8:


So, not the Ohio Players? In fact the polar opposite? Another I'm a dolt moment. I've always intermixed the two bands, all whilst thinking that there was no way they could have possibly written each others music. I always loved that song, mostly because my mother hated it so much. I remember it mostly from some Hannah Barbera teen mystery cartoon where they were doing the door chase scene set up or something like that.
 
Did anyone else notice that the bass in the video is not the bass on the soundtrack? In fact nothing in the video, including the musicians, is on the recording. The Ohio Express, was a brand name, not a band.

They followed the old principle that recordings were too important to leave to the actual band.

The guys behind Ohio Express, Super K Productions, were such cheapskates that the Ohio Express version of "Simon Says" was just the 1910 Fruitgum Company hit single with a slightly different stereo mix and Joey Levine's vocals replacing the original vocals by Mick Mansueto. Jeffry Katz and Jerry Kasenetz, the Ks of Super K, were also 1910 Fruitgum Company's producers.

Another money saving trick they sometimes used, also intended to ensure DJs didn't play the flip side of singles, was for the B side to be another Super K song played backwards.
 
So, not the Ohio Players? In fact the polar opposite? Another I'm a dolt moment. I've always intermixed the two bands, all whilst thinking that there was no way they could have possibly written each others music. I always loved that song, mostly because my mother hated it so much. I remember it mostly from some Hannah Barbera teen mystery cartoon where they were doing the door chase scene set up or something like that.
I would be interested in hearing The Ohio Players covering "Yummy Yummy"
That might work.