violin bass, anyone?

[classic rocker]

an hour ago i came across a hofner "violin" bass copy, model eko, made by greco (japan), circa late 60's. it's a semi-acoustical electric bass with arched spruce top, all maple body and arched back, ebony fingerboard, double polarity twin pickups, 3 position tone selector. the neck is straight as an arrow, plays nice, sounds awesome, very fine tone up and down the neck, came with a hard shell case for $150 at a pawn shop...

anybody have any experience with this bass?

classic rocker

 

[iamthebassman]

Is that the one with the big square piece projecting from the headstock? Like this:
http://www.springersmusic.co.uk/Library/Instruments/Guitars/G%20ekobass.JPG

Those are supposed to be pretty good.

 

[GlennW]

I think the one in the link is Italian. They also made some stuff labeled Vox.

 

[classic rocker]

i think glennw is right, that's an italian model i've heard about. this one is indistinguishable from the original hofner, except maybe for a few small details and of course the name on the head stock...

 

[teej]

Greco supposedly made some really good "clones" of the 500/1 (and more notebly, the Ric 4001). If it were me, I'd snag it!

 

[MAJOR METAL]

A professional set up can go a long way on these basses although the pick ups dont allways measure up on these type basses.

 

[classic rocker]

thanks for the input, guys, i bought the hofner copy...that italian job pictured, i remember years ago seeing felix pappalardi of 'mountain' perform with one of those...he got a pretty heavy sound out of it, i seem to recall...wonder whatever happened to felix...

classic rocker