The Last Bass Outpost

Spaking of interesting hollowbody basses.....

Here is one from my stash of 8-strings. An Espana branded 8-string from 1967.
Believed to be a Prototype built by Landola in Finland for Hagstrom back when they were developing the original 8-string bass.  The Landola company pre-dated Hagstrom and taught them how to build the hollowbody Viking series and/or build some of them for Hagstrom. So, one of the very first 8-string basses ever built....possibly THE first, if Hagstrom tried the hollowbody idea before going with the final H8 solidbody version.

This is NOT a conversion. It is a factory original 8-string with a SET TWO-PIECE NECK !!
So, not one of the Italian made bolt-on Espanas. The biggest expert on these brands confirmed it to be a "very rare Landola-made prototype."

Hagstrom used the Espana name for its higher quality Swedish and Finnish made classical/electric guitars and the Espana name was used in the U.S. to import electrics made in Italy, which were bolt-ons. They eventually moved production to lower cost Italian made ones.

The original tuners have been replaced with more modern ones. Real nice quality bass.

....sort of an oxymoron of a title but science has proven bassists are the most important member of the band.

Keep on mind this WAS a CANADIAN study.


http://m.music.cbc.ca/blogs/2015/6/Bass-players-actually-the-most-important-member-of-the-band-according-to-science

 

 

Nah!!! You're just 20 years too late for it to be a "original" idea

But it is still a very cool one.

....it would HaVE to either be a German idea or a Southern U.S. one, to have bullet shell casings for dot inlays.

Uwe.....I've also got a bass with similar dot inlays, using real Colt 45 shell casing for all the dot markers. Factory original Hamer B12A made for.....Johnny Colt. (HaHa...get it...Johnny "Colt"....Colt 45 inlays....duh!....Much better that a joke using "Johnny" and making tiny toilet seat inlays, no?

I got it from John around 2000. He told me he also loaned it to Marcy Playground to use on the album with the "Sex and Candy" hit.


http://s1359.photobucket.com/user/mc2NYNO/media/image.jpg1_zpsqelfzt3x.jpg.html

I don't know......still a broken neck TBird.

A broken one is worth maybe $3000-3500, depending on the break and repair.

Custom color but still broken and refinned.....IMO, not much more.

I'd rather have an unbroken, refinned 'Bird, than a broken custom color one any day.

Does it have a black front headstock or a matching Pelham Blue?

... that we all tend to make disparaging jokes about active basses here, but whenever I play a 9-volt-battery-entrailed bass at a rehearsal the guitarists inevitably (and not knowing that it is battery-fed) go: "Oh, that one sounds real good!"

It's like they have a certain active sound downloaded in their rodent brains and when they hear it they just can't resist. 

I would think guitarists gravitate to the active bass sound over passive because, IMO, an active bass sounds more "guitar like," or at least can.  A passive bass is more bass-like.
....and we all know how guitarists love themseleves and their sound. So it seems natural that they would most like other instruments that seem to more emulate them, between their glances in the rehearsal room mirrors