Bass Guitars

The model 184 bass was produced by Hofner in Germany from 1974 to 1980, and appointments here indicate that this unit was probably built quite early in the production run, most likely during 1974 or early ’75. Clearly basing the looks on Fender’s world-conquering Jazz and Precision basses, the 184 falls stylistically somewhere between the two, while also retaining and updating certain aspects of Hofner’s own 182 and 185 models, both of which had been in production since the early sixties, but were now beginning to look somewhat dated. Although very Fender-like in appearance, ton...

Suddenly everyone is playing a baritone! With heavier strings, and tuned as much as a full octave lower than a standard 6-string, the baritone is like a bass for guitarists, or a guitar for bass players. (Standard baritone tuning is BEADF#B) A classic piece of baritone guitar can be heard on the Beach Boys ‘Caroline No’, plus the Beatles used a Fender VI baritone extensively on the White Album, (‘Back In The USSR’, ‘Rocky Racoon’, ‘Helter Skelter’ and others), Pat Metheny plays an acoustic baritone, John Petrucci has his own signature model MusicMan baritone, Ani Difranco plays sev...

Mike Lipe is a guitar builder from Sun Valley, California – he’s known as the original LA “Guitar Doctor” to the stars. As well as caring for famous name players’ instruments, Lipe also hand crafts some of the finest guitars and basses on the planet. Famous names who use Mike Lipe instruments include Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, blues great Coco Montoya, Sting, Jimmy Vivino, (guitarist in Jay Leno’s house band), Bob Weir, (Grateful Dead), and many more. Over the years Mike Lipe has worked for Yamaha, Hofner, Fender and other big names. He currently does all US repairs and custom mod...

The last one of these that we had lasted about a week – and it was the standard model. And just like that last one, this is one of the cleanest 18 year old basses we’ve seen. It’s been played, but this lovely Sunburst Jazz Plus Premium is in very, very nice condition – there’s a scattering of tiny fingernail indents on top, just light playwear on the back, plus a small spot in the middle of the back that looks like there was perhaps a bubble in the finish. (A very small split below the E-tuner happened right back when the instrument was new – probably the result of being built in w...

The boom in shortscale basses continues, and here’s an amazing US model from the ZZ Ryder company. This awesome looking 30” scale bass has one foot in the Hofner days of the Beatles and the Cavern Club, and one resting on the foot-peg of a hot Harley, as ZZ Top come roaring out of wherever ZZ Top come roaring out of – in other words, a brilliant contemporary twist on a legendary classic. (Another great design example of this thinking is the new Gretsch “Billy-Bo” Jupiter Thunderbird – wow!)Apart from mega-cool looks, the Lo Ryder bass features one of the industry’s great new innova...