New vintage bass day

Stuckfast

I desperately needed to declutter the studio, so gathered up a carful of stuff I never use and took it to Knight Music in Scarborough, which is rapidly becoming my favourite music shop. Traded it all for a beautiful vintage mic stand and this:



As far as I can tell, it's a Hofner 185 Artist from the early 60s. It's in amazing condition all things considered -- no rips in the vinyl, original logo intact and the colour isn't faded at all. I love the fretboard inlays, too.

GoFish

Very, very nice! Can we have a picture of the mic stand too?

HNVBD!

Stuckfast

Ha, glad I'm not the only one who gets excited about mic stands. Just for you:



There's no maker's name or badge that I can see, any ideas?

JezWynd

Fabulous basses, what a great score. The search for my perfect bass ended when I picked up one of these four years ago. The neck size and shape, with the narrow string spacing, makes it so easy to play. Yours is extremely similar to mine, which is a 1962, though your example has a serial number at top of headstock which indicates, I believe, a Selmer import.

Stuckfast

Separated at birth! Wow, yours is in fabulous nick too.

GoFish

No idea on the mic stand, but it's a bit of a looker.

The twin red bases are just great. What an Easter treat.

JezWynd

Stuckfast said:

Separated at birth! Wow, yours is in fabulous nick too.

I notice that yours lacks a string tree on the headstock. So did mine when I got it and I thought that it must have been an oversight at the workshop but seeing yours is the same, I presume it must have been designed that way in '62. I installed one after a few months as I was getting vibration noise from the G string beyond the nut.

Stuckfast

Is it just black paint on the headstock, or is there a fitted piece of plastic? I'd be a bit reluctant to drill into it.

JezWynd

Stuckfast said:

Is it just black paint on the headstock, or is there a fitted piece of plastic? I'd be a bit reluctant to drill into it.

I think it is a lacquer finish. I had to install a tree as the noise created beyond the nut was quite intrusive. I was nervous doing it but used a very small drill bit to make a hole for the screw and it all went fine...