Saturday, April 9, 2011

Ampeg's Vintage Scroll Bass

In 1966, Ampeg launched their unique collection of long-scale "Horizontal Basses" (commonly called the "scroll" and also "f-hole" basses). They were produced in both fretted and fretless versions (known for being the very first production fretless electric bass guitar).


Most of these were crafted using a headstock very similar to those seen on a vertical bass or cello, for this reason these types of instruments are generally referred to as "Scroll Basses."


The one with the most eye-catching design goes by the nickname of "Devil Bass" featuring unique slender horns, however the circuitry was the same. Initially employing a "mystery" pickup underneath the bridge, they ended up being re-designed somewhere around 1968 to go with a traditional magnetic pickup.


In addition, a short-scale fretted and fretless bass using magnetic pickups was also manufactured, known simply as the SSB (short scale bass).


For more information check out Vintage Bass.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Top Ten Bass Players of All Time

Rolling Stone ran one of their weekly polls recently asking their readers to pick the top 10 bassists of all time.

The results are in but it's really hard to narrow the range down to only ten. Obviously some great players are going to be left out but this lists looks really solid.

Check it out for yourself along with video clips of the top ten in action at: Top 10 Bassists

Thanks for reading: Vintage Bass Guitar