What are the small basses with latex strings?

[Huffer777]

Or something of the sort.

 

[Funkdrawer4]

Guild Ashbury

 

[PSPookie]

Are you referring to the Ashbory bass?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashbory_bass

 

[Lesfunk]

http://www.largesound.com/

 

[Obese Chess]

apparently it was designed by a Nigel Thornbory.

Sound familiar?

 

[iamlowsound]

Latex strings? So the bass has a use during the gig and after as well?

lowsound

 

[Bongolation]

Latex strings?

No, silicone rubber.

Anyhow, a search for "Ashbory" will indeed turn up a wealth of info.

Though aware of all their unique oddities and limitations, I find them useful and interesting basses.

I'm not 100% clear on whether they are still manufactured, however. I couldn't find them on the Fender site. After FMIC shut down DeArmond, the Ashbory (built by Cor-Tek) bore the "by Fender" logo, but I haven't seen any in a while.

 

[Obese Chess]

They're still being built, from what I understand.

 

[Bongolation]

They're still being built, from what I understand.

I see two references that they are, but on pages that haven't been updated in a long time.

Searching fender.com's website gets me this:

No products matching "ashbory" were found.

 

[kevin_lindsay]

I have had 2 Ashborys - a red one which I sold to one of my bass playing buddies, and a black one which I still have.

I got mine from these guys - GREAT customer service from them - highly recommended!!
http://stores.ebay.com/AshboryBass-at-MusicPawn

As for how the instrument sounds? Well, here's the Peter Gabriel track - "Lovetown" with Tony Levin playing his Ashbory


Here's mine - just took this picture 5 mins ago. Took the pics alonside some other basses so you can get some idea of the instrument's size.

 

[wave rider]

Too much fun!


=wr=

 

[bassrique]

Fender purchased the rights?

 

[Duplo42]

I want 6string ashbury, the B string would sound awesome :O