Depressing news!

DubHertz wrote:Krys, I think you should get one of these

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Incredible-Real-Awesome-5-5-5-Electric-Bass-Guitar_W0QQitemZ160417797448QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item2559a55548

What the hell?
How would you play that, there's only 1 fret board.
Thats a joke right?

If i managed to play that i'd feel like people would be looking at me like im a stuck up douche bag.
Plus it looks like complete crap to be showing people.

I'd like to know how it's tuned. I think I could have fun with that.

It's a Harp bass. Along the same lines as a Harp Guitar, they've been around for a good 200 years in one form or another.

I'm guessing that the long unfretted strings are low drone strings but I'm not sure how the smaller ones would be tuned. The normal (gorgeously inlaid fretless might I say) fretboard I would think would be tuned as normal.

Michael Hedges (now deceased) was famous for playing the guitar version - checkout some of his stuff on youtube, OMFG what an awesome acoustic guitarist he was!!!

There's a Wiki entry for HARP GUITAR

Should explain stuff a bit better.

Blackdragon, you have a right to an opinion dude but I think you should do a bit of background looking before you completely disregard something as worthless, just my opinion there too k?

Things are starting to narrow down a bit for me -

Ibanez BTB775 PB - 5 string - beautiful red brown poplar burl top.

Ibanez BTB776 PB - 6 string - same guitar basically but in amber finish which shows off the wood better.

Outside of that selection I need to try the new Rockbass Corvette $$ 5 string out at a local dealer when they come in.

Of course there will be a trip round the local music shops too to see what stands out for me.

I'm not going to be gigging with this guitar or playing in a band, it's purely for pleasure so the looks of the thing come into it as well.

KrysH wrote:Things are starting to narrow down a bit for me -

Ibanez BTB775 PB - 5 string - beautiful red brown poplar burl top.

Ibanez BTB776 PB - 6 string - same guitar basically but in amber finish which shows off the wood better.

Outside of that selection I need to try the new Rockbass Corvette $$ 5 string out at a local dealer when they come in.

Damn...and theres me thinking you were going to join the HK-Instruments fan club

Incidentally, have a look at the other basses that guy is sellling on ebay, theres loads of Ibanez clones - I think hes taking them from the Cort factory

Well they're still an option, maybe I'm just a bit of a wuss about ordering from outside the mainland lol.

I see what you mean about the Ibby clones - there's one there almost indistinguishable from the BTB676 except for the Ibanez logo etc.

I dread to think what state it would be in after a trip from china tho.

As an afterthought - there's a warning on the Ibanez website about counterfeit Ibby guitars - I wonder if it's stuff like this that's being imported into the country and being rebadged as ibanez - given a bit of a spruce up and sold for twice the price by unscrupulous dealers.

yes... my recommendation influenced someones decision

win win

Sorry, i can see that the post was rude, but i have seen a harp guitar before, i never thought of a harp bass tho.
The harp guitar i seen was just a little harp thing that took up the body of the guitar that wasn't being used for anything, it didn't look as abstract as this.
I wasn't making an insult at how it might play, just that i think it'd look really messy when you played it.

I see what you mean about the messyness, harp guitars are very 'baroque' in design usually.
That one is fairly typical tho in it's layout of having the long unstopped strings above the normal fingerboard.
Having looked closer at it there's an adjustable foot at the bottom of the body so it looks like it's designed to be played as an upright bass.
Very Prog Rock!
Iwas going to say it's a bit of a collectors piece but if yves carbonne can make moneyplaying a 12 string fretless sub-bass then surely some interesting noises can come out of a harp bass too lol.

I sent an email today to the ebay seller asking if he could make a particular model that I liked in left handed and he replied that he could make any of them as left handed models at no extra cost

Hmmmmmm..............temptation.

Yup - I would imagine it's only too easy to make one left-handed - the machines that carve out the body shape are computer controlled I would think so reversing the shape should be only a button press away.