My favourite Alembickerer, Shawn aka Kungfusheriff, made me aware of this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Gibson-Primavera-Bass-Guitar-Prototype_W0QQitemZ150231091638QQihZ005QQcategoryZ64402QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(Hope the link works, I'm doing this via Blackberry as I'm standing in the hall of a Good Charlotte/The Hives/Velvet Revolver concert my 13 year old has dragged me to.)
Looks like a typical piece from the early nineties Phil Jones era, the tell-tale Barts give it away, he loved those and danged them on any bass he could. I saw a similar prototype to this a couple of years ago on ebay, the upper horn was more Junior style, but it had the same characteristic lower cutaway bevelling. Primavera? Sounds like a pizza ...
Uwe
Very nice.
Man I should have gone to law school !
Cool. It has the roundness on the rear part of a Grabber/Ripper and the upper horn...well it looks like a banana. Interesting to see he made one solely out of Maple. Maybe that's why it was rejected.
Velvets are darn loud tonight. And Slash endearingly sloppy. Duff is iconic, imagine a tall David Bowie playing bass, but he actually sounds best whenever he gets out that warm-sounding Duesenberg Les Paul shape rip-off and stops clanking and clicking all over. Still, a compelling overall performance. Weiland is a much better singer live than I expected!
Your faithful scribe live from Velvet Revolver!
"Endearingly Sloppy" is one of the best guitarist compliments I've ever heard.
Primavera is noted for its al dente tone. :D
It has one bid on it. Yours?
No, haven't bid yet, will tomorrow, just got home and it's 4.30 am, good night!
WOW,Uwe thats like a modern version of your Ripper prototype.you need it.you must get it. :D
Cool looking bass, also reminds me of the final Money bass product in some ways too.
Nice one!
Duff's great! And he plays Duesenberg? Nice! Duesenberg has a new bass with cool retro elements and also some modern things. And of course very Duesenberg.
Quote from: Chris P on March 30, 2008, 06:20:29 AM
Nice one!
Duff's great! And he plays Duesenberg? Nice! Dusenberg has a new bass with cool retro elements and also some modern things. And of course very Duesenberg.
I love the look of th Duesenberg LP-style bass. Tell me more about them! (Sorry for this hijacking Uwe!). Never mind, I'm gonna start a new thread in the OTHER BASSES forum. Come on over and tell me about 'em.
Quote from: n!k on March 29, 2008, 06:23:42 PM
"Endearingly Sloppy" is one of the best guitarist compliments I've ever heard.
It is no secret that our dear German business lawyer is a dedicated Ritchie Blackmore fan. I once sort of mentioned me enjoying his I-can-play-sloppy-whenever-I-want-to attitude and Uwe's reaction was kind of ummm..defensive. ;D
I've played a Duesenberg once, but I can't remember how it sounded or felt! With VR, Duff plays mostly Fenders, a black Aerdodyne one, his signature one in white and I think another signature one in black. They all sound similar, deep lows and snarling highs, hardly any mides so as to not get into the way of the guitars, he picks right over the splitcoil and must have the pups close to the strings, so its clacke-dee-clacke-dee-oooomph-oooomph all of the time. He probably switches basses because they have different tunings (they're all four strings). When he played the Duesnberg, he suddenly had rich mids and a more subtle, less focused low end plus the snarling highs were gone. He used it for the more ballady stuff only.
I read in an interview how he is - when he's not rehabbing or doing martial arts - currently taking bass lessons because he wants to play finger style rather than pick style. He attempted that a few times during the gig, chucking away his pick and playing - a little awkwardly - with his fingers. It hugely influenced his sound. Since he's not a seasoned finger player, his signal became very uneven, lost focus and volume and all that clacke-dee-clack attack was immediately gone, all you could here attackwise was the strings hitting the pups now and then. He soon reverted to pick playing, but tried finger style again later. He'll get better over time I'm sure :D (as a non finger player all my sympathies are with him, my finger playing is ghastly too).
Uwe
Hi Uwe,
You could copy/paste this to the Duesenberg thread at the other basses forum?
And isn't it time you learn to play finger style too? I could visit you to teach you for a rate which is like a quarter of your lawyers rate?;)And you can get rid of all those 300 ugly plectrums... No worries if they don;t produce them anymore;)
And if you visit the other brands forum, check the Harmony thread too. As a Britpop-lover you have to like the Muff/Plonk Harmony reissue!
Quote from: doombass on March 30, 2008, 01:37:39 PM
It is no secret that our dear German business lawyer is a dedicated Ritchie Blackmore fan. I once sort of mentioned me enjoying his I-can-play-sloppy-whenever-I-want-to attitude and Uwe's reaction was kind of ummm..defensive. ;D
Good memory, Daniel, though Blackmore can be sloppy (or drunk) too. I know it's uncool to still like Blackmore the way he has made himself laughing stock with his travelling minstrel show in the last ten years, but his guitar playing, which is as "Yuropean" as a vampire movie, speaks with me.
Slash I like for his tone on the Les Paul as well as for his idiosyncratic riffs and nice little melodies in the "Sweet Child of Mine" vein. Technically, he's probably worse than most heavy metal shredders (his guitar solo piece did not really evidence him as someone who knows more than one scale in various keys, certainly not Blackmore's "all-over-the fretboard-in-any-key" dexterity) but he has style and soul which you can't learn from an instruction DVD.
Anyway, my son was in awe!
Duff, otoh, (at least when he's playing with a pick!) is technically very precise. He has this weird habit of always having all four fingers on the fretboard (don't think he mutes with them, his bass sound is very unmuted) when fretting so it looks like he's always playing with his pinky and sliding up and down. Moves around on the fretboard quite a bit, the type of bassplayer who slides to higher notes on the same string more often than staying where he is and hitting the note on a higher string. Immaculate timing.
Uwe
Quote from: uwe on March 29, 2008, 05:35:35 PM
Velvets are darn loud tonight. And Slash endearingly sloppy. Duff is iconic, imagine a tall David Bowie playing bass, but he actually sounds best whenever he gets out that warm-sounding Duesenberg Les Paul shape rip-off and stops clanking and clicking all over. Still, a compelling overall performance. Weiland is a much better singer live than I expected!
Your faithful scribe live from Velvet Revolver!
According to what I'm just now reading, Velvet Revolver has just kicked out Scott Weiland. As far as I know, this isn't an April Fool's joke even though the statement was released April 1.
That would be breaking news!!
With the drug history of Scott an april's fools joke would be really inappropriate, but it could be just a bad rumour?
Stone Temple Pilots just announced a summer tour, so maybe it's true?
Quote from: Nokturnal on April 02, 2008, 06:59:36 AM
Stone Temple Pilots just announced a summer tour, so maybe it's true?
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1584615/20080402/velvet_revolver.jhtml
Sounds like it wasn't an April Fools joke, and that he will be touring with STP.
Both items are on Dutch sites tooo now.
The Stone Temple Pilots reunion is old news and not supposed to interfere with VR's touring commitments. Weiland was in fine voice and in alert mode at the gig I saw, he also looked healthy. It was Duff who fell down during one song, he might have dripped though. With the collective drug abuse track record of all the guys of VR, kicking anyone of them out for that is a joke. They hired Weiland knowing he was an active junkie. And Duff just had a relapse into addiction too.
Uwe
Uwe's right. In interviews they always talk about Weilands past and drugs habits. But maybe there's more going on we don't see.
On the radio yesterday there was a story about Weiland being kicked out of VR and his statement to them for kicking him out. The DJ's were speculating that it was all just to draw attention to STP's reunion. They also said that Duff mentioned getting Sebastian Bach as a new singer.
Quote from: uwe on March 30, 2008, 01:45:27 PM
I've played a Duesenberg once, but I can't remember how it sounded or felt! With VR, Duff plays mostly Fenders, a black Aerdodyne one, his signature one in white and I think another signature one in black. They all sound similar, deep lows and snarling highs, hardly any mides so as to not get into the way of the guitars, he picks right over the splitcoil and must have the pups close to the strings, so its clacke-dee-clacke-dee-oooomph-oooomph all of the time. He probably switches basses because they have different tunings (they're all four strings). When he played the Duesnberg, he suddenly had rich mids and a more subtle, less focused low end plus the snarling highs were gone. He used it for the more ballady stuff only.
I read in an interview how he is - when he's not rehabbing or doing martial arts - currently taking bass lessons because he wants to play finger style rather than pick style. He attempted that a few times during the gig, chucking away his pick and playing - a little awkwardly - with his fingers. It hugely influenced his sound. Since he's not a seasoned finger player, his signal became very uneven, lost focus and volume and all that clacke-dee-clack attack was immediately gone, all you could here attackwise was the strings hitting the pups now and then. He soon reverted to pick playing, but tried finger style again later. He'll get better over time I'm sure :D (as a non finger player all my sympathies are with him, my finger playing is ghastly too).
Uwe
Hey Uwe, check this out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcXzsf1N7Gs
The Stray Cats Performing "Double talking baby"
Listen how Lee Rocker's sound changes after the first guitar solo when he stops playing slap style and plays fingerstyle.
Getting pricey, still in the running?
Over $2K and more than a day left. ??? :o
IIRC that's a lot more than Uwe paid for the early 90s Phil Jones prototypes that Gruhn had for sale.
Quote from: Barklessdog on April 04, 2008, 09:48:05 AM
Getting pricey, still in the running?
Hell, with the exchange rate it's still at pocket change level. ::)
You're not that far off, George. I think the Euro is at least 50% stronger than when he bought the Phil Jones prototypes. And it's probably going to stay that way for a while.
Aaaand, the winning bidder is Uwe at $2148. Congratulations. 8)
That means I have to visit him again;)
Congratulations Uwe!
The American Peso at it's best!
Congratulations Herr Köllecktör!
BTW~ I'm gettin' my 53 EB pickup rewound & modernized this week.
It was buzzin' like a mofo. Should finally be playin' on her in about a week!
I think the Phil Jones Prototype from Gruhn was 2.000 or mabe 1.800 at the time, but the Euro was weak back then. Never regretted the purchase, nothing like it ever came up again. This Primavera will complement it nicely, it's the fretted maple bruddah. I thought the way the bidding went up quickly a bit fishy actually - we very quickly reached 2.OOO which is high for early nineties stuff, but then any competition stopped so I guess I'm still the only real modern day Gibson rarity collector. I'm weird that way, I find it more gratifying to have a strange nineties prototype than another vintage sixties instrument.Wonder how this one will sound. An all maple construction with the Bart TCT electronics should sound pretty merciless, a Super-Rickenbacker?
Uwe
What makes you think primavera will sound like all maple?
congrats again Uwe.now we need to see photos of your whole collection,how many is that now?......................
Congratulations Uwe! IIRC the Phil Jones prototypes at Gruhns were between 2000 and 3000$. They had a LPB-1 proto for 2000$. The DC fretless LP you bought I believe was 3000$ and they also had an LPB-3 at 3000$.
You Phil Jones wing is growing, congrats!
Quote from: Dave W on April 06, 2008, 05:34:04 PM
What makes you think primavera will sound like all maple?
I thought it was all maple, it's not? Certainly looked that way to me on the - not very good - ebay pics. Anyway, we will all soon know more after John the Barkless Hound has had it in his paws as it will first be shipped to him.
Uwe
This thread over on talkbass has a few shots of primavera that have a similar look the the Gibson:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=422789&highlight=prima+vera
Before I saw that yesterday, I thought primavera was just a silly name for the prototype but it looks like they were just naming it based on the wood.
I had no idea that Primavera is a wood?
Quote
Primavera (click here for color image)
Trade or Common Name: Primavera, white mahogany, prima vera
Local Name: Primavera
Botanical Name: Cybistax donnellsmithii
Family: Bignoniaceae
The Tree: Primavera is a large rainforest canopy tree, sometimes reaching to 100 feet in the natural rainforest, with a straight clear bole up to 3 or 4 feet in diameter. It has relatively smooth whitish bark and showy yellow flowers in large panicles.
Status: Primavera is among the very fine cabinet woods of the world, and is becoming increasingly rare within all of its range.
The Wood: Primavera is a very beautiful wood, sometimes called white mahogany because of its beauty and similarity in appearance to mahogany, except primavera is lighter in color. It is creamy white to yellowish rose, sometimes tinted with pale brown or pinkish stripes. Primavera is very strong, medium texture, with straight to interlocking and wavy grain, sometimes with a ribbon or fiddle-back figure. It has a fairly high luster, is easily dried with little or no degrade, and has excellent polishing and finishing characteristics. Primavera works easily and well with hand or machine tools, and holds nails and screws well.
Looks like quite a score!
Your own rare rainforest wood bass!
Yes, primavera is a wood from Central America, although I've never heard it called "white mahogany." It's definitely not maple, but IIRC it's no lightweight either.
I stand corrected. I didn't know it was a wood. The ebay description said maple, but of course that is hardly compelling. Primavera wood? Never heard of it, but now I'm curious several times over!!!
Uwe
Wonder if this is one of those "smartwood" experiments were Gibson tried to go ecological, but the public wouldn't have it?
Uwe
Is this one of those gibson "smartwood" experiments in ecological wood?
I don't see maple anywhere in the eBay description. Maybe he amended it.
AFAIK primavera wouldn't qualify as a smartwood unless they've started growing it on plantations.
Stew-Mac sells it.......... http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_necks,_wood/Bass_guitar:_Bodies/1/Body_Blanks/Pictures.html#details
...and for slightly less than swamp ash.
I've never heard of Primavera as a wood before either. That makes it an even better score. More exotic than an all maple construction.
Uhum ... this is just a placeholder for Herr Fertig's
Utterly imminent, I believe!!!
report on the Primavera bass which is now in his good hands ...
The person that shipped it put it in an oversized double box, so for me to open it, is going to take a bit. I don't have the time right at this moment to have the dogs help me open the box!~
I think you could ship Uwe, himself in the box!
I would just ship it on to you, but I better open it, to be sure the bass is OK before putting on the back of a Komet to Germany. The box looks in good shape from first look.
Will try to get to it this weekend.
I hope you plan on opening the box and taking some pictures before this weekend. The primavera sauce could go rancid if you don't. :D
No way sending this to me unopened (and unreported here!). You open and play her. Das ist ein Befehl, jawohl!!!
Yes, father........
:-*
Finally, I get some recognition ...
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/DVader.jpeg)