Ok- at the risk of adding additional fuel to the "Carmine has one of everything" theory
:
In the early 2000's there was a guy, building and selling basses and selling them on eBay. As I recall, his eBay ID was "Behold The Lion". I exchanged a few emails with him, and if I remember correctly he was a lefty himself, as he seemed to be building mostly lefties, and the Ibanez "Bean Bass" appeared to be a primary inspiration for his original designs. His first couple basses were conceptually interesting, but admittedly the execution was um...pretty rough (I believe the "subject of this thread" bass was the very first one he built/listed for sale).
I watched as a couple basses a year would pop up on eBay. He kept at it- and over the course of a few years, his stuff got better and better- until eventually, he listed a bass that I thought was pretty darned impressive (see below). This bass is a full 34in scale, 22 fret neck, spalted top over mahogany body with active EMG pickups/ preamp. I think he finally accomplished what he originally set out to do- the compact size (exactly the same length as a Danelectro Longhorn) and weight make it very easy to take anywhere, but it plays beautifully and sounds huge!
I saw him do a few more basses after this, but then AFAIK he just kinda disappeared... no idea who he was or where he went beyond this... anybody else remember this guy?
!