Tribe Basses?

Welcome to TalkBass! I know nothing about these basses. Wish I could help. The finish on that P bass sure looks nice, though.

 

I too am curious about these bases. The SF model looks sweet!

 

Consider me interested, too! I saw one of their Aerodyne lookalikes on Reverb and it intrigued me, sort of. Apart from a website, https://www.tribeguitars.store/, I haven't found much information...

 

I feel like I should get one of these just so I can definitively answer the question: https://www.tribeguitars.store/sf5

 

I ran across a video on YouTube and a girl was playing one of what looked like the Avalanche basses which is listed as “coming soon” on their website. Very nice looking basses.

 

Just an aside without reading the Tribe site...

In this day and age, it's very difficult to manufacture an unplayable bass. I mean, come on! Perfectly giggable NIB basses are to be had almost everywhere for under €200?!?! This was unheard of back in the day.

I see no reason to doubt that a reasonably priced new bass would be anything but a playable/giggable instrument.

 

So are these made in Switzerland or Korea? Some ads say Korea?

 

@LowEndLobster has a review on one of these.

 

Indeed, even with a bass in hand I still have 0 idea where it was produced. No markings of any kind specifying country of origin. Cool concept for the P3 bass, but not all the way there.

 

Tribe headstock, rear view:



From what I hear, Tribe is a newer sub-brand of Frudua, which is Italian and also produces Tuscany and Exlusive (sic) in the Far East. A Tribe Custom Shop exists in Chiasso, Switzerland.

 

Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries in the world. It would be incredibly hard to make mass-produced instruments there for any kind of reasonable price.

 

The Shob looks like a really cool bass, 50s style with a roasted maple neck, Aguilar pre, thru body string up ! A lot of great features on the cheap!!

 

That's very interesting, the P3 I had only had the SN: (3 digit) listed, no country of origin.

Pic:

 

I take back my “on the cheap”, these things are pricey, I thought they were off shore affordable basses...

 

They look nice. There are so many OEM mills making necks and bodies that it would be relatively easy for a startup brand to invest in some CNC models and maybe find a paint shop and have a very small workforce assembling the products. Especially since everything is standardized. I’ve seen online but never ever in person. But I’d be interested.

 

Full credit and good luck to them, but these kinds of multiple optioned mass produced instruments occupy a space in the market I have zero interest in.

 

Hi guys,
I got one of those. A Spike 4. It's a very nice bass. I use it with LaBella flats to get the Duck Dunn/James Jamerson sound (which the bass would get close to if I were any good... ;-).
Tribe is a small Swiss company founded by an Italian Luthier who worked for some of the more famous Italian artists like Gianna Nannini, etc. His plan was to offer well-built basses for reasonable prices while also offering custom options. The Spike imitates a 58 or 59 Fender P-Bass, I believe. My bass came in a box and it was labeled 'Made in Korea'. So that's one mystery solved there. Tribe does not make a secret of this but they don't label the basses either. It is absolutely true that it would never be possible to build basses at this price in Switzerland even with cheap parts (check this luthier from my neighborhood who builds fine basses using local woods: Home DE ⋆ Starmanbass He sells his instruments for about 3'000$ BTW: the travel bass is his signature bass but he makes fine 'normal' P-, and J-Basses as well. Anyway...) As far as I know the Tribe basses get their finish at the custom shop in Chiasso (kind of like Dingwall does with his China-built basses, only on a lower level, obviously). The quality is very good if you ask me. Well crafted, nicely finished. The basses did get good reviews in two of the larger Bass journals from Germany (I'm Swiss but our market is too small to produce such special interest journals). I hope this helps. See ya.

 

I forgot: the Spike came with the full vintage kit, i.e. bridge and pickup covers. I just don't use them.