LeftyBassist.com

Think you've seen it all? Guess again. This is intriguing to say the least. I think it's kind of slick. I wonder how a 360 degree neck plays. Starting price $3000:

http://leftyfretz.com/stash-left-handed-bass-guitars/

website:

http://stashstainlessbass.com/about/

I was skeptical until I saw it being played...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAVxqwiyoQo

I'm pretty impressed by this thing.

I heard it can be used as a light saber as well.

Or an axe.

Pun intended.


pete

That's probably not the best video demo the manufacturer of this bass could have made. There's a lot of noise going on that I think the camera mic is picking up that distracts from the sound of the bass. I'd like to hear the thing jamming for real.

It looks and sounds like a cool concept, though. I hate being the guy that says "that's too much," but $3,000 seems like too much. From a design and innovation attempt standpoint, I respect what they're doing.

I'm inclined to agree with you, Brett. It sounds just "okay" in that video, with odd clicky bell-like after touch tones. Nothing special. Given the materials used, I'd expect it to have something resembling those old Kramer aluminum basses - very piano-like with endless sustain. Apparently this is a passive instrument, but it seems a nice active onboard 3 band preamp would serve it well.

Darth Wishnevsky

Is it just me, or does it sound a tad bit "metallic"?

I've seen pics of these in various places, and I'm still sceptical. Looks very uncomfortable to me with a round neck. You have to keep moving your hand around the neck all the time to access all the strings. The E-string is really far away, while playing the G-string requires moving your fretting hand way backwards to reach the string. Your plucking hand will have a lot of extra work too, moving around a lot more, with the E-string more or less laying on top of the tube rather than in front of it, and the G-string laying below it. An oval neck shape would be a great improvement, I recon. I also don't like the fact it has frets on the back of the neck too... Seems very uncomfortable if you move your hands around a lot. And the tube doesn't appear to get narrower towards the nut (although the string spacing clearly is). The concept is awesome though!

By the way: is it just me or are the pole pieces of the two pickups touching the tube? Doesn't that technically make the entire tube a pickup? Or is steel such a bad conductor it won't really matter?