This looks fun: "Vintage GIBSON Les Paul bass 1969 possible prototype" on ebay

[Dave W]

Congratulations, Rob. I hope it's the real deal.

[drbassman]

I still think it's neat, even if it's heritage is a bit questionable.  I saved all of the pictures for a possible future copy!   I have no shame!

[Basvarken]

Wow!!! I can't believe it.
I just can't get used to that worthless dollar 


Thank you thank you thank you Uwe!

[doombass]

Congratulations Rob! Interesting piece and good price.

[Chris P.]

We definately need to see eachpther soon:) Gefeliciteerd!!

[drbassman]

Wow!!! I can't believe it.
I just can't get used to that worthless dollar 

Me neither!

[Bart!]

Congrats Rob!
Cool to see this one goes to Hobbitland.

[uwe]

That settles the bicycle issue forever, meine Herren!

[drbassman]

Maybe I could produce a line of these in my retirement!  Congrats Rob!

[Basvarken]

Today I picked up the Les Paul Bass "prototype / employee model" at the local post office.

The first thing you notice when you hold it, is the weight. It is substantially lighter than the Les Paul Bass (aka Recording)

The prototype weighs 3.9 kilograms.
The Les Paul Bass weighs 5.1 kilograms.
The Triumph weighs, 4.8 kilograms.

Of course it is no surprise that it should weigh less. There's a huge swimming pool routing underneath that black controlplate. Plus the body is less thick. It measures 38 mm at the edges. (The Les Paul bass is 50mm thick at the edges. (In the middle even thicker because of the curved top)

The neck is exactly the same as the Les Paul Bass.
Except for the neck joint at the body.

The prototype meets the body at the E string at the 19th fret. The Les Paul bass at the 15th. And the the G string even at the  21st fret  (the Les Paul at the 15th)
How is that for upper fret access?!

The neck joint does seem to have been broken. Although the seller stated that the scratches were only superficial, there's remnants of glue at one of the cracks.




Due to the lighter body it is slightly neck heavy.
(Both the Les Paul Bass and Triumph balance perfectly)


The pots are a bit scratchy. Especially the volume pot even drops out if you pull the shaft.

The pickups are not sealed in epoxy! Finally a chance to see what's under the hood.
They are definitely handcrafted. The green(!) wire is not wound very neatly. And there are folded pieces of cardboard on the sides keeping the pickup in place inside the big plastic pickup cover.






There's a huge grey "thing" in the wiring harness that I can't quite explain. When I saw it in the Ebay pictures I thought it might be an impedance transformer, but the output of this bass is even a bit lower than the Les Paul Bass which doesn't have a transformer at all. Maybe Jake can tell from the picture? Jake?





I like the large machine heads. They work more precise (IMHO) Plus they are better for long scale strings on a short scale bass because the radius of the string post is wider on these large tuners.
They are not the original ones. I can clearly see the footprint of the former ones  because the new ones have no upper part of the back plate. Are these special light weight tuners perhaps?





The bass sounds similar to the Les Paul Bass. Although it doesn't sound as fat as the Les Paul Bass or Triumph. It has less output and does not sound as tight. Maybe that is because the body just has less wood? I hear difference in fatness between the Les Paul and Triumph too so that might very well be it.


I'll take it to the gig next saturday. Let's see if it's ready to rock.


Thanx again Uwe for your unselfishness!!

[Chris P.]

Nice, Rob!

[uwe]

Sounds great. As long as the action is good, I regard a neck reset as a venial sin, especially as this is a one-off bass that has seen its share of later alterations.

You know where to put it if you get bored with it, ja?!!!

[OldManC]

[uwe]

I will now personally proceed to stick hot needles in your 86 TB II, Herr Carlston, chrome parts will be pierced first! Ze pain vill travel acröss ze Ätläntic ... 

Hyeanas are good for the eco system - where would all the poor little Q-80ies go otherwise?

[Basvarken]

Here's a short soundclip of the mysterious Hobbit.

neck pickup
bridge pikcup
both pickup

tone selector on 3
in phase
vol 10
treble 10
bass 10

Straight in to Garageband through my Minidisk recorder as interface (eq flat)