Höfner is again making a large bodied fully hollow bass - 500/18

[Dave W]

The Höfner 500/1 didn't suffer the image problem here as it did in Germany. By contrast, when I was in high school, no one I knew wanted to be seen with a Silvertone/Danelectro.

A close friend in high school bought a well-used Austin Healey 3000 and dropped a Chevy 283 in it.

[westen44]

If you played a Silvertone, that was as low as you could go.  It was considered a beginner's instrument that people got because they couldn't afford anything better.  You might even have been better off with an off brand no one had heard of.  But if you had one and kept it, you would be able to make some money on a Silvertone today. 

[ilan]

And Swedes can't understand why anyone would want to play Hagstroms, they are considered kindling there.

[Chris P.]

While we Dutch some more weed and ask ourselves why nobody playes Egmond.

[Dave W]

If you played a Silvertone, that was as low as you could go.  It was considered a beginner's instrument that people got because they couldn't afford anything better.  You might even have been better off with an off brand no one had heard of.  But if you had one and kept it, you would be able to make some money on a Silvertone today.

If I had had to play a Silvertone back then, I'd have had to put a bag over my head, and another one over the headstock.

They bring ridiculous money today, relative to their original cost.

While we Dutch some more weed and ask ourselves why nobody playes Egmond.

Doesn't Ed Friedland still have his Egmond? I remember a thread here from about 4 years ago where someone was asking $2500 for one on eBay.

[westen44]

If I had had to play a Silvertone back then, I'd have had to put a bag over my head, and another one over the headstock.

They bring ridiculous money today, relative to their original cost.

Doesn't Ed Friedland still have his Egmond? I remember a thread here from about 4 years ago where someone was asking $2500 for one on eBay.

On the other hand, I had a friend who played some kind of no name violin bass for a while.  No one knew what it was, but at least it wasn't a lowly Silvertone.  People thought it was cool and you couldn't help but associate it with a Beatles vibe.  It had a turquoise finish.  I've never seen one like that since.  Most likely some kind of Japanese brand, but not Teisco.  My friend was older.  I hadn't even started playing bass when he had that.  But the memory of that turquoise bass always stuck with me. 

[Pilgrim]

For a while in the 70's my brother had an obscure 60's violin-body bass around the house. I looked for it a while back but couldn't find it.  I remember that the pickups were incredibly microphonic, but I now know enough that I could replace them easily. The body and neck were actually good.

No luck, long gone after the parents moved from the big country home to the smaller home in town. No big loss, either.

I had a Rogue VB-100 for a while, and it was actually a pretty nice bass. I had no problems with it, just lost enthusiasm for it and sold it. Maybe should have kept it, but I'd still be ignoring it if I had.

[Dave W]

I've seen quite a few Japanese violin bass copies, some of them very good; Conrad and Greco come to mind.