The Last Bass Outpost

No need for detoxification unless you have had a close encounter with dr. Lecter.



Your liver and kidneys do all the detoxification that you need.

I love the look of the Explorer and the shape is surprisingly ergonomic so that design gets my vote.

I thought Glock is Austrian, not German? It has been a while since I stopped my shooting hobby but I am quite sure my Glock 30 was made in Austria. I love the .45 ACP cartridge, not as snappy as the 9 mm, that is why I got a Glock 30 when I wanted a compact .45. My full size .45 was a Norinco 1911 with a Wilson trigger, hammer and sear. I used that gun and a Smith & Wesson 627 revolver for steel plate matches. The S&W was a Performance Center 8 shooter. Had to shoot it in the pistol class most of the time because in the revolver class you were only allowed to have 6 rounds in the chambers in most matches. A lovely revolver that used clips because there were no 8 shot speedloaders. So much easier to find your brass back too, pistols are messy things.

Joanna Lumley talked about a similar device in the Graham Norton show. She used to have a travel show and across this Sudanese tradition. Fast forward 30 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ok9nPEsD0w?t=30

Music starts around 1m35

"We didn't find any explosives in your bass and your luggage. Please bend over for a full cavity search. " 

Peter Boer built this bass for himself last year and got many positive comments about it. The top is made from a 70 year old crate and the body is one piece of African mahogany. The neck is a fat Allparts Tele neck and the pickup is a custom wound 66 Thunderbucker, overwound to deliver a higher output. It growls and barks, a lovely fat vintage sound with a bit of a sharp edge. It reminds me of Entwistles sound on Live At Leeds.

Peter decided to thin out his collection and put it up for sale; I love the look of this bass so I went to try it out and fell in love with the sound and feel too. When I picked it up I had that feeling "this is The One". It felt like a pair of comfy slippers but these slippers have steel capped toes to kick serious butt.

Enough blabbering, now some pictures:









Very nice touch: etched neckplate with slot head screws.


Large ferrules.


Two saddle bridge where the saddles can be tilted and fixed with a set screw, so no problems with the intonation.


I am sorry that I can't post any sound clips because I only have a phone to record and that doesn't do the sound any justice. 

Quote from: copacetic on November 08, 2014, 01:13:32 PM
Hmm starting to wonder whether they only produced 50......or they are not moving too fast.  Not sure how many GC's there are in the US, but am sure there must be at least 35. I run up and down California a lot and the 5 different GC's I've been to (including the one Harry was at) all have them in stock. The one here in San Francisco has sold 2 or more them since June and currrently has one 1 in stock.

When I looked at the pictures on the GC site many of them had misaligned neck pickups and  skewed and off-center bridges. People who have seen them in the flesh have confirmed those issues. You would expect a better finished bass at that price point, that could explain why they are not moving fast.

Quote from: dadagoboi on September 13, 2014, 12:37:01 PM
Congrats!  Nice that they made it long scale, that's the only thing I'd change about my '84. Great price, MIK?  Are they offering a case or gig bag?  Pretty slim pickings for Explorer types these days.

It is made in Indonesia. It comes without a gig bag, Ibanez has the BGBDTB bag for it.

I have had time now to try out different settings and amps. Put through my Ampeg Micro VR it has a great rock sound with a "bark" at the start of each note. It really comes to life with my Ashdown Drophead tube combo, it sounds HUGE when played through that.
The bass is very comfortable to play, resting my arm on the slope positions my hand in a perfect playing position over the P pickup. Fit and finish is very good, this bass is definitely worth the $500 street price.

Ibanez recently released this bass in the US and when I asked Hoshino Benelux they told me that it would not be available in Europe. I have been lusting for an Explorer type bass for a while and this one looked just right, so I ordered one from Sweetwater.







The "top" strap button is located on the neck plate and the bass balances perfectly. The neck is slimmer than the Precision necks that I normally prefer but it is not too narrow (40 mm at the nut) so I will probably get used to it. Sounds good, looks great, I am happy. 

Quote from: Pilgrim on September 01, 2014, 04:01:23 PM
Alibaba is HUGE in China - makes Ebay look like a junior brother.  It's a primary means of commerce there.  You can just imagine that every fake and knock-off created in China is available there. 

I haven't reviewed it to see if there are any safeguards for buyers, but I wouldn't believe it even if I read that there were.

Quote from: Basvarken on September 01, 2014, 04:37:29 PM
Our fellow Outposter John Schoen ordered a Rickenfaker a while ago and he posted his ideas on the bass in the Rickenbacker corner.

http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=8898.0

I bought my Rickenfaker on DHgate, Alibabas smaller cousin, because they have a system where you pay DHgate for the goods and DHgate releases the payment to the seller when you indicate that you have received the goods and there is nothing wrong with them. Didn't have to try to get a refund because I am very happy with my Lemmy faker.

Yes it does. The pickup is custom made for Maruszczyk by Bass Culture. The bass that Chris showed in the first post also has a matching pickguard and pickup, I think it is a nice touch.

FedEx delivered the bass yesterday. It looks even better than in that picture, the color is a beautiful emerald green. The neck has a satin finish and slightly rolled edges, it feels great. I had asked Adrian to put his flatwound strings on it because I loved the sound of them in the video and when I plugged it in I was not disappointed. This is a great bass, perfectly finished with a great sound. I had expected some humming from the Single coil pickup but it is very quiet. The only minor niggle is a little bit of neckdive but you can expect that with a chunky neck and no top horn to speak of. No real problem because I rest my arm on the body and Adrian threw in a nice wide padded soft leather strap.

I like green basses but the Mr Tee on the site was sold so I asked Adrian Maruszczyk if I could order another one. No problem he said, ten weeks build time. Today he sent me this picture, my bass is ready. Mine is the one on the right. He let me choose between these two but I ordered a plain maple neck and I don't really like the yellow one.