Beatle Basses Gone Wild

[chromium]

Some nice 500/1 action for you - courtesy of Chris Wood:

   

What a great tone!  Damn.  Now I want a Beatle Bass.

[Dave W]

Hoffies never sound that way when I play 'em. 

[shadowcastaz]

I just sent the link to my 20yr old daughter at school. That is the cheeahzt!

[Max Soren]

That bassist is certainly getting a great tone.  There's no doubt about that.  I tend to have a favorable attitude toward Beatle basses.  However, I can't help but think that Hofner gets more credit than it deserves.  When I look at a lot of the songs that Paul McCartney played on that sound so great, many times it's when he was playing a Rickenbacker. 

[chromium]

However, I can't help but think that Hofner gets more credit than it deserves.  When I look at a lot of the songs that Paul McCartney played on that sound so great, many times it's when he was playing a Rickenbacker. 

My favorite McCartney tone came from the Ric (Hey Bulldog and Dear Prudence, for example).  Nothing against the Hofners, but the pricing premium for the celeb association always kinda put me off, and I guess I had incorrect assumptions or expectations of their sound based on what little I had heard of them in the past.  My bad!   

What really struck me most about this clip was that nice growl that he gets out of the thing, and also the authority that the low notes had in that vamp towards the end of the song.  Pretty cool.

[kylierider]

I've only played one Hofner in my life, an older one. Nice tone to my ears and it did have some growl. He got it at a garage sale for 150.00 dollars. Where was I?

[Chris P.]

I tested the Chinese Contemporary Series violin bass and it's great. In Holland it's about 650 euros. I guess it's almost the same in dollars in the US. Now they also make the Club Bass for the same amount of money.

And for the guys with a lot of money: They also made a new 50s series bass and there's a custom shop series coming up!