Solid brown basses - not translucent

[aldaa]

Why is it almost impossible to find an actual brown bass? I don't mean these "mocha" or "walnut" finishes that show the wood grain. I mean rich chocolate brown solid finishes or other brown shades. Even brown guitars seem hard to find... I once had a metallic brown (probably called root beer) Peavey T-15 over a decade ago. Something like the color pictured below. (taken from reverb, couldn't find another example)

Is this just not popular or is there another reason I'm not aware of?

 

[B-line]

Offhand, I would guess that Brown isn't in the "Top 10" finishes if there is such a thing!

I had a chnace to buy this one-off a while ago; I'm sorry I didn't Brown or not!

 

[aldaa]

Interesting bass! What is that?

 

[Aberdumbie]

Those are both sexy basses.... I would bet its the old car sales approach. Take your customer to the shiny red car first to get them hooked. A brown bass won't scream at you from the sales rack like that shiny red one will... However after looking at those two examples I would say otherwise.

 

[mongo2]

Maybe brown doesn't sell.

I wouldn't want one.

 

[BadB]

There is an Ibanez SR305E in Root Beer Metallic and a Yamaha TRBX504/505 in what they call Translucent Brown.

 

[Showdown]

I got this on Reverb from Ishibashi Music.

 

[aldaa]

Yeah, I feel like the majority of brown basses are either translucent or metallic and I'm just not digging either of those. I will admit that G&L is pretty cool. My plans are to build a custom P bass and make it look as chocolatey and smooth as possible. Audible chocolate.

 

[B-line]

Interesting bass! What is that?

Made by Hand, Just for You - Harden Engineering

I had contact with Bill about some other matters, & he bounced back offering me this prototype.
I'm REALLY sorry I didn't grab it up, his stuff is cool as cukes!

BTW, besides the finish on that bass, G&L offers "Whiskey":

which I'd gladly drink to!

I'm DOWN w/ BROWN!

 

[Iridescentone]

Why is it almost impossible to find an actual brown bass? I don't mean these "mocha" or "walnut" finishes that show the wood grain. I mean rich chocolate brown solid finishes or other brown shades. Even brown guitars seem hard to find... I once had a metallic brown (probably called root beer) Peavey T-15 over a decade ago. Something like the color pictured below. (taken from reverb, couldn't find another example)

Is this just not popular or is there another reason I'm not aware of?

I'm going with "not desirable" enough to bother offering.

But if you do get one, at least the matching shoes won't be hard to find. Badump.

 

[Russell L]

Friend of mine had a brown Jazz Bass back in the '70s, factory color. I forget the color name. It was slightly metallic looking, if I remember correctly, and had a dark pickguard (maybe black?). The brown wasn't as dark as root beer. Kind light brown, but not tan. I loved the look. Somehow it seemed like the color made it sound chunkier, LOL.

 

[Jeff K]

I remember the first year the Fender Highway 1's came out. I had read about them, and the colors they would be offered in before I actually saw any of them. One of the colors that first year (2001????) was Cocoa Brown or something similar to that. I'm pretty sure that "Cocoa" was part of the name. I was excited about it and had every intention of getting one if they looked as good as I hoped they would. Sadly, in my opinion, they did not.

I was imagining that it would look like a newer version of Bonnie Raitt's "Brownie" Strat. The only one I actually saw in real life looked nothing like Cocoa Brown. It was so dark, it looked black. I ended up with Honey Blonde instead.

But I agree with the OP (aldaa) in that if the shade of brown was a good one, it would look great...

 

[roller]

Fender's mocha finishes from the 70s are the browniest-lookimg brown basses you could ask for when viewing them onstage. They scream brown.

A lot of the glossy browns, root beers, etc. don't look very brown in my opinion... many times they're too dark or too red.

 

[Ant Illington]

Yummy.

Music Man Stingray Walnut Mocha 1979

 

[ThuzzleFump]

Brown goes in and out of fashion. It's making a comeback on cars, so maybe basses will be soon.

 

[allenhumble]

Back of my bass is brown.....trans brown but I like it.

 

[BassWaffle]

Those old mocha brown Fender basses look awesome in my opinion. That color with an aged white guard, white pickup cover and a maple neck is my dream Fender

 

[Spectrum]

I seem to recall reading somewhere on TB that Rickenbacker used to have a color called "Walnut", not to be confused with the current natural walnut finishes. The photo showed a solid color in a dark brown.

Check this link out, look at the photo down: Invalid Link Removed

 

[ThePresident777]

Ibanez has Brown Mahagony on SR 500 series basses. Fender has Classic Copper on a strat at Sweetwater. Yamaha has Steel Rust on a Revstar at Sweetwater.

 

[HazeGray]

My AtelierZ M245 Brown Bomber.