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Somnium basses? Anyone seen these modular guitars ?

#23
Back in the mid-1960s, Gretsch built and sold about 75 Bikini guitars, a short-lived experimental instrument with interchangeable necks and bodies (bass and guitar necks and pickups assembled on a tiny, two-by-four body designed to slide into kitchen-drawer-like channels in single-neck or double-neck slab bodies, with the bodies hinged down the middle so that both bodies and both necks could fit in a case with standard dimensions).

A Gretsch Bikini in action:

 
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#27
Yes within 60 days we going to have a P bass style and the Mirage style (tele type).
FYI...The P bass will have the Jazz in the bridge which you can put any J pickup in you may like, a P pu in the neck under pickguard with option to put J pu there also.
OR if no pickguard wanted then we have the individual cartridges for any type of pu you would like. (MM, P, J)
over the last 6 months we have made some great modifications.
Also if anyone cares...it has a dual circuit and has a 9v for either active or passive pickups as an option.
 
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#28
39-Bassist said:
Yes within 60 days we going to have a P bass style and the Mirage style (tele type).
FYI...The P bass will have the Jazz in the bridge which you can put any J pickup in you may like, a P pu in the neck under pickguard with option to put J pu there also.
OR if no pickguard wanted then we have the individual cartridges for any type of pu you would like. (MM, P, J)
over the last 6 months we have made some great modifications.
Also if anyone cares...it has a dual circuit and has a 9v for either active or passive pickups as an option.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response,while the pickup interchangeability would be probably the biggest selling option in my books, have to ask -could a fretted/fretless fretboard be a possibility?
 
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#29
Well at the moment we aren't doing the swappable fretboard, ( lots of logistics to work out yet), just offering real wood necks. right now we have a jazz maple neck and a pau ferro jazz necks in stock. actually very nice profiles. We are mainly going with the PU interchanging only for the basses, BUT we do have plans for the alumnium body with interchangeable sides.
 
#31
JPaulGeddy said:
Not for me, personally, but this *would* be awesome to have in every music store. Then a person considering pickup changeouts, maple v rosewood etc. would be able to get some ideas of how they sound, relatively. As far as a gigging instrument - nah.
Click to expand...

Funny you say that...we have a few customers that have bought a guitar and a couple dozen empty cartridges to test their pickups...they LOVE it too.
 
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#33
I had a bass with interchangeable finger boards back in the late 70s, where you could go from fretted to fretless in the matter of a few seconds, it was interesting. They were called Switchboards, made by a company in Iowa that attached to a thin metal coating added to the neck, because they were made refrigerator magnets.
Back then you sent them your bass neck, they cut off the old fingerboard, added the metal and sent it back with 4 different fingerboards. I sent them a warping old P bass neck, and it worked well for a couple more years. Cost to have it done back the, was probably around $100, if I remember right.
Bruce Calin - Novatone Switchable Fretboard Review - YouTube
 
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#34
If interested in more info you can go to Somniumguitars.com then the tech info area...(also doing a guitar giveaway)
 
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#36
Duanestuermer said:
I had a bass with interchangeable finger boards back in the late 70s, where you could go from fretted to fretless in the matter of a few seconds, it was interesting. They were called Switchboards, made by a company in Iowa that attached to a thin metal coating added to the neck, because they were made refrigerator magnets.
Back then you sent them your bass neck, they cut off the old fingerboard, added the metal and sent it back with 4 different fingerboards. I sent them a warping old P bass neck, and it worked well for a couple more years. Cost to have it done back the, was probably around $100, if I remember right.
Bruce Calin - Novatone Switchable Fretboard Review - YouTube
Click to expand...
It's been driving me nuts what those things were called. TB saves me the mental anguish again. I always thought they were called slapsticks. Tanks :)
 
#40
MEKer said:
Well, probably you'll be referring to RIP shortly. But... I could be wrong as there are always some fad or "look-at-me" folks out there.
Click to expand...
Or folks like me who have built a reputation for their versatility as a musician, and are well known as someone who knows enough about gear to make choices that enable such versatility.

In the youtube video he says something about playing in a country band Friday and a heavy metal band on Saturday. That's me to a tee. In fact there was one very successful cover band I played in for a long time where such variations in genre would happen within the same gig. My best solution at the time was to modify a Stingray 5 so it also has a Split P pickup. That worked very well. The Somnium takes this to a whole new level.
 
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