Author Topic: Beatle bass copy (Read 488 times)

hydrargyrum · « **Reply #15 on:** August 09, 2005, 06:15:00 AM »

D'Oh . . . I mean oh yeah. That was just a test . . .

gare · « **Reply #16 on:** August 09, 2005, 06:34:43 AM »

Way back when, '68 to '71, I played both the Hofner violin and Cavern basses. Thought they were great..for the time. They worked well for the basic rock tunes of the day. But they were fragile. My 1st one delveloped a crack along the binding on the body, but the dealer replaced the bass for me. They had very nice tone for its size. Think I paid something like $300 each for them...now they're like 2300..owww.
But once I heard Yes, ELP, etc, and couldnt get that sound out of them I ended up swicthing to a Ric and a jazz bass.
The Eko bass..can remember lots of people using those during that era too.

jlpicard · « **Reply #17 on:** August 09, 2005, 10:25:42 PM »

Rich, Everything I've ever read and the McCartney tour video entitled Back in the US insists that the one you see Sir Paul playing is THE ONE. Mike

gare · « **Reply #18 on:** August 10, 2005, 05:29:32 AM »

Opps..whatever happened to proof reading..I meant to say Club bass..not Cavern.

I'll go along with Mike, most references to Paul's bass say its the one he used Beatles in their heyday. I remember an article about it years ago that had a picture of it with one of their orginal set lists taped on the side of the body.
Gary

richbass939 · « **Reply #19 on:** August 10, 2005, 09:29:23 AM »

Maybe I'm just hallucinating. I seem to remember a Will Lee interview in Bass Player in the last year or so.
What I remember is:
He said it had a set list taped to the side, too. He has played it on Letterman. It was really cool to play Paul's bass on the Ed Sullivan Theater stage.
There was a club member who said he knows Will and has seen it.
Maybe it said it was another Beatle Hofner that Paul owned. Does anyone know if Paul owned another one later?
I've dreamed some pretty cool stories before. I should have all my recent BPs somewhere. I'll see if I can find it (or find out that I'm totally wrong).
Rich

gare · « **Reply #20 on:** August 10, 2005, 11:44:01 AM »

Maybe I'm just hallucinating.

jetbass79 · « **Reply #21 on:** August 10, 2005, 01:17:39 PM »

Paul owned a couple of Hofner 500/1 (that is the CORRECT model name for the instrument) basses. The first one he bought in Hamburg and it had two pickups close together at the neck, and the second one he got is the one with the set list from 1966 taped to the side. It is said though that he played a number of 500/1 instruments through the years. My guess is that the one that's got the set list taped to the side is his primary Hofner 500/1. Not to offend anyone, but I hate when people refer to it as a Beatle Bass particularly since it came out in 1956.

Dale M Williams · « **Reply #22 on:** August 10, 2005, 09:38:45 PM »

I agree with the above. He was given a few Hofners after his purchase of the 1962 model and 1963 model. The '63 model was always his favorite and the one he played on his Back in the U.S. tour. I also owned a left-handed Hofner bass back in '67. I could never understand his appeal for this bass. After root/5s and pentatonic scales, I could find no further use for this bass.

I have read that the only reason he bought it is because he couldn't afford a Fender. The Hofner was 30 pounds and the Fender was 100. He also liked the symmetrical shape of the body after years of flipping over right-handed guitars and basses. I suppose he continues to play it for the physical and mental comfort it provides him. Even though it lacks the quality and playability of great basses, I love the look and the sound he gets out of this bass. Paul and his Hofner have created some of my favorite music.

Dale

jlpicard · « **Reply #23 on:** August 16, 2005, 01:59:30 PM »

Well, I have heard that Jaco once said that, the sound is in my hands Perhaps that's the explaination.

bassman10096 · « **Reply #24 on:** August 17, 2005, 10:37:30 AM »

How's this for a different take on the venerable Beatle bass copy?

Long scale Two piece solid maple body Bloodwood top w/ flush canarywood inlayed faux pickguard Three piece ash and maple neck Dual action truss rod Rosewood fingerboard Bloodwood dot markers Kind of cool.

57basstra · « **Reply #25 on:** August 17, 2005, 10:43:02 AM »

Neat bass. What is it? (aside, I am a Complete Beatles freak and Sir Paul is tops in my book as player/singer/songwriter/performer

bassman10096 · « **Reply #26 on:** August 17, 2005, 11:01:45 AM »

Lecompte. Made in Texas. http://www.lecomptebass.com/.

He's also planning a chambered solid body in what looks like the shape of a Guild Starfire (except in long scale).

blazer · « **Reply #27 on:** August 19, 2005, 07:30:14 PM »

Preceeding the Hofner in only a couple of Years. The Gibson EB1 was the very first electric bassguitar to feature a Violin body shape.

Felix Pappalardi of mountain, and currently Jack Bruce are long time users of that bass.

jetbass79 · « **Reply #28 on:** August 20, 2005, 01:56:56 AM »

The Gibson Electric Bass appeared in 1953 and was superceded in 1958 with the EB1 which was identical except for the name. It went with the EBO, EB2, and EB3 basses at the same time. The EBO and EB3 were both restyled in 1961 with the SG shape. The EB2 was the 335 based bass guitar that was produced between 1958 and 1970. There was the Epiphone Rivoli that was identical and a two pickup version was released in 1970 and all USA Epiphone production ceased at the end of 1970. The Animals' Chas Chandler is the most famous user of the Epiphone Rivoli and it sold very well in Britain during the mid and late 1960s. The EB1 was discontinued in 1959 and brought back briefly in 1969 to compete with the popularity of the Hofner 500/1 at the time.

There is little evidence to suggest Gibson's Electric Bass was copied by Hofner since 1) the Hofner was hollow and the Electric Bass was not and 2) very few of the Gibson Electric Bass were produced and fewer of them were exported throughout the world. The EB1 also had a protruding spike so it could be played upright which the Hofner 500/1 did not.

Jack Bruce started life on a Fender Bass VI that was painted by The Fool similarly to Eric Clapton's Les Paul/SG. He then switched to the Gibson EB3 and is its most famous user. It's funny that Gibson basses are far more usable today with current bass amplifier technology than when they were new though I could never justify owning an EB except maybe the EB2 or Epiphone Rivoli but I would only want to spend the money on a used Korean Rivoli just because vintage EB2's are worth a good chunk of change.