Oh yes, it's definitely overpriced, I guess the Custom Shop background is responsible for that, but as with the Q-80, the Custom Shop was sometimes (mis)used to just produce something off-the-wall, but still in larger numbers, probably to not clog up regular production. My Sklar is overall well made, but not "custom shop-worthy sloppiness-free". And there is really nothing on that bass that warrants the price these things used to have: It's a simple alder/maple bolt-on combination with Hipshot hardware, EMG active pups, simplistic passive controls and a slab body sans any fancy figured top (or any top at all). All good quality stuff (and in line with Lee Sklar's credo of his signature bass being a "working tool"), but hardly boutiquish or elitist. We're not talking awe-inspiring luthiership here.
It will be slowmoving stock for sure. Never mind how Sklar never seemed to play it except in the Gibson promo pics of the time. These days it's not even worth a side comment to him in his interviews, it's like the thing never existed.***
Uwe
*** Well, actually in this a couple of years old Musician's Friend interview he does:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/document?doc_id=101412&s=articlesSome relevant excerpts, some of it new to me, especially the "Valley Arts/favor for a friend" origin:
MF: Have you been playing the same basses for years?
Lee: In the studio, the main bass I’ve used since the mid-‘70s is the one I always refer to as Frankenstein. It was never a real bass. It was pieces of different things that we assembled as a project that ended up being probably the best bass I’ve ever had. John Caruthers actually built this bass. It was a ‘62 Precision Bass neck that I reshaped into a Jazz Bass neck shape. We reshaped the neck because I always liked the Jazz Bass better than the Precision Bass. The body was made by Charvel back when they were doing replacement parts. It’s an old alder body that was a P Bass body but it’s got a set of Rob Turner’s very first pickups from when he started EMG. What we did was take a set of his Precision Bass pickups, put them where the Jazz Bass pickups would normally go, but routed them in a reversed position. I had the luxury of building an instrument, so I kind of looked at it and I thought, just by the nature of the higher-pitched G and D strings, the pickups are going to read them better than the A and E strings. So why on earth when Fender originally put their P pickups together, did they make the pickup under the G and the D string closer to the bridge, rather than the neck? We just reversed the position of the pickups and it evened the bass out unbelievably well. We put a Bad Ass bridge on it and it’s got one of Dave Borisoff’s very first Hip Shot D tuners. I’d say I’ve used that bass on probably 1,800 records.
MF: Are those the active EMGs?
Lee: Yeah. They’re around 18-volts but it’s not like new active pickups that are really hyped. The configuration of the knobs is exactly like an old Fender bass. There’s just a tone and two volume knobs. It’s not like you’re sitting there with notches and midrange crap and all that. So what it really sounds like is a hyped passive instrument. It’s incredibly natural but it’s just got a little more dynamic range to it. I absolutely love that bass. It’s my favorite instrument I’ve ever played.
I did one signature bass for Gibson but it never really saw the light of day the way we intended. The reason I got involved was one of my closest friends Mike McGuire who used to own Valley Arts Guitars moved to Nashville to head the Gibson Custom Shop. Gibson never really had the credibility in their bass department like they’ve had in their guitar department and we thought if we could build a really good bread-and-butter instrument that would be fairly inexpensive, it would be cool. I thought it would be really good for him in terms of his position within the company and stuff.
We designed it and came up with what I thought was a really nice bass. It was real light, so like, female bass players would probably love playing it because it’s not like hanging a big heavy bass around your neck. I thought it turned out great but ultimately the company never got behind it so it never got promoted. They were going, "Well, we haven’t really had any orders." I said, "Well, you haven’t placed an ad! What are they going to do, call Dionne Warwick’s psychic network to see if there’s a bass being made?" [laughter] So I just kind of lost interest. I think there’s some of them floating around.MF: I’ve seen a picture of one but I’ve never seen one in real life. I’ve never seen one in a store.
Lee:
It turned out real nice. It’s nothing I’ve found myself upset about. I thought it turned out real good and that they did a good job. Take Dan Lakin at Lakland Basses. He wanted so long to do a signature bass because he’s done the Joe Osborn and Bob Glaub and all these different guys. I said, "You build a great bass and if I was going to look for a bass, every bass you’ve got, I’d be happy with." I would play the Glaub bass ‘cause I love Bob and I know what he would like out of a bass. I’m such a fan of Joe Osborn’s stuff and I said, "I would just take one of their basses and play it."
I would not bring enough to the table. I’m not a gear head. If, at this point right now, somebody said, "We’re putting a gun to your head, and if you can’t tell us how many frets are on your bass, we’re going to kill you," [laughter] I would be dead, because I honestly don’t know how many frets are on my bass and I honestly don’t care. If somebody says, "How many frets are on there?" I would say "Enough."
I’ve never been one of these guys that’s into collecting instruments and stuff. I don’t really care about it. I’ll play whatever I’m handed. I like having everything from a couple of old Washburns to a Yamaha fretless to a Hofner to my old funky bass to a Dingwall. Every one of them is dramatically different, but at the right moment they serve the purpose. I don’t care about anything other than the fact that they’re serving the purpose.[/i]
