Gretsch Committee bass

[Basvarken]

for sale on Ebay:




Never heard of it but sure looks nice!
Any of you guys ever played one of these?

[JimmyBond8]

I think I've seen one or two of these on Ebay before , but not many; and neither of them were in the great condition that this one looks to be.

I found this, here{ http://bassplaying.com/?q=user/67 }: " I have a 1980 Gretsch model 7629 "Committee" bass. It's beautifully made from walnut and maple with MOP inlays and ivory binding around the neck and head stock.
It has a single passive SuperTron pickup in the 'sweet' spot. The tone runs from extremely dark to extremely bright and twangy. The wide tonal range means I can dial in nearly any tone I want. Pretty amazing for a single Pickup. "

I don't have a clue how it sounds personally though, but I agree it looks awesome. =) I could speculate that it might sound like the Guild B-301, or maybe like the Rickenbacker Short-scale bass (model escapes me). But thats just my speculation.

[Chris P.]

Hmmm, I like the semisolids better.

The shortscale Rickies are the 3000, 2040 and 2060.

[Chris P.]

It looks better if you see alll the pics. I kinda like the see through pickguard surrounding the pick up.


BTW: shortscale Ricks are bolt-on. This one's neck-through.

Are you gonna bid on her, Robbie?

[godofthunder]

 When these came out they sat at the stores, we had them at the H.O.G. I don't have any real memory of playing them but I know they didn't knock me out. Rare for sure, they came and went pronto.

[Dave W]

I've played one but it's been years and I can't remember what it sounded like.

IIRC it's long scale, so if it's comparable in any way to a Rick (not saying it is), it would be to the 4000 series models.

Chris, FWIW, the 2000 series Rick basses are bolt-on but they're regular Rick 33 1/4" scale.

[Chris P.]

I already thought it looked longscale.

And you're right. I made a mistake. 2000s are longscale indeed, which makes the 3000 the onlye Ric shortscale.

[HornetAMX]

I had the guitar version a few years ago.  I saw a bass about a year ago when I went to look at a bass cabinet for sale but the guy had routed where the original pickup was and put a Music Man type pickup and preamp in the bass.  The other strange thing about these guitars/basses is that you have to adjust the truss rod with a key accessed by the plug in back of the body.  Fortunately I never had to adjust mine!

[Dave W]

The other strange thing about these guitars/basses is that you have to adjust the truss rod with a key accessed by the plug in back of the body.  Fortunately I never had to adjust mine!

That's right, I can see the plug on the back of the one in the auction. Never saw one adjusted, but I remember reading that the key turns a geared wheel that engages the rod. Or something like that.

[Basvarken]

Those weird kind of inventions makes it even more desirable!
But no I'm not going to bid... I think...

[Chris P.]

That's the Burns type truss rod adjustment. Gretsch used that and also the Burns vibrato unit.