Amusing Bass Guitars, a Treasure Trove of Bass Miscellany & Bunnies

April 12, 2003 6:28 AM

Amusing Bass Guitars - a fun 62 page collection of unusual bass guitars from Bunny Bass where "basses are bunnier." Also, don't miss the gallery of bass & guitar girls and the lusciouslyy-crafted instruments from custom design builders. Seen any good basses you would add to this collection?
posted by madamjujujive (16 comments total)

The bunniest bass of all. Now that's a bunny bass.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 6:38 AM on April 12, 2003

Amazing.
posted by Quartermass at 7:15 AM on April 12, 2003

good find, yo !
posted by mcsweetie at 7:28 AM on April 12, 2003

Wow. Reminds me of my high school days. I was in a jazz big band the bass player made a bass with a stop sign (no, the neck was not the pole for the sign). He would play it at each concert but for only one song, our encore: a rowdy version of "Ease on Down the Road". It sounds awful, now that I write that, but it was actually a great arrangement. The bass had a certain "metallic" quality. It was hard as hell to play -- a stop sign may look small on top of a pole but is not when it has a neck, strings and pick-ups attached.
posted by Dick Paris at 7:34 AM on April 12, 2003

Damn. I need to get a good quality image of my girlfriend's hand-painted John Deere bass.
posted by cortex at 7:42 AM on April 12, 2003

I came across these luscious hybrid art guitars by Ken Butler recently- the torso one is my favorite.
posted by iconomy at 7:45 AM on April 12, 2003

Other amusing guitars include a few from the Electric Sound Products (ESP) Japan range: The Potbelly, The Reindeer and The Halibut. Beyond Engrish.

While you're there, be sure to check out the Far Eastern relatives of The Fun Loving Criminals, Marylin Manson, Korn, Slipknot, Radiohead, Oasis, Linkin Park, Andrew WK, Muse, even The Clash and Jimi Hendrix. Oh, and a bunch of crazy lookin' types. Enjoy.
posted by armoured-ant at 8:38 AM on April 12, 2003

Thanks, MJJ! Cool post. I've always had a thing for guitar- and bass-playing girls for some reason...
posted by Vidiot at 11:07 AM on April 12, 2003

The Whamola, middle one here, is pretty interesting. Here's an mp3 clip of it in action, and if you go to Oysterhead's site and check the "A/V" section, there's a video clip titled "Whamola Jam", featuring Les Claypool on Whamola, Trey Anastasio on some kind of weird guitar/antler hybrid instrument, and Stewart Copeland on drums.


Charlie Hunter has some pretty neat toys too.
posted by duckstab at 11:08 AM on April 12, 2003

[thanks madamjujujive] and welcome back. :)
posted by plep at 11:43 AM on April 12, 2003

Odd Basses? I immediately think of Oleg's modified Balalaika. Which has become the centerpiece of his band, the Red Elvises.

They put on a great show (self link). I highly recommend catching one if you can.
posted by KnitWit at 2:22 PM on April 12, 2003

The Red Elvises are at that site, KnitWit, proudly wearing the magic Balalaika. (And not much else; scroll down.) I found the guitars on the bass pages much more interesting, the one made of swiss cheese (scroll down) and especially (and somewhat amazingly) the one in . . . of . . . whatever, the toilet.

Lots to look at, but they didn't have what I was trying to find on the Internet a few weeks ago, a photo of the electric bass that Dan Hartman got inside, and wore as an outfit.
posted by LeLiLo at 8:00 PM on April 12, 2003

just the DIY doodle bass
(see construction details link for a decent photo)
posted by pekar wood at 6:37 AM on April 13, 2003

Thanks for all the great links people - iconomy, those hybrid guitars are wicked cool! And armoured-ant, that Japanese music site is just the kind of thing I love to unearth when surfing - great finds! Here's a few more strange ones.

duckstab, that one-string instrument Les Claypool is playing makes some amazing sounds - thanks for those great links. That's in the fine tradition of a diddley-bo, a one stringed musical instrument that blues musicians used to make by nailing a string to the porch...reportedly, Robert Johnson cut his teeth on a diddley-bo. I couldn't find much on the instrument by googling because it is difficult to sort out the kajillion Bo Diddley citations...but here are two references...Lonnie Pritchford is known to keep the tradition alive, he is filmed playing one in Deep Blues, discussed near the end of this review. The instructions pekar wood provides are somewhat more sophisticated but along the same idea.

The Red Elvises sound great - I will have to watch for a tour, KnitWit - thanks! And lelilo, if you admire that toilet guitar you may want to redecorate your bathroom.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:18 AM on April 13, 2003

I'm not sure about the word 'admire,' madam j. I was more astounded, bemused, stupefied by the thing. But your comment reminded me of one of my favorite things The humble Farmer ever said about rural Maine. He got plush new wall-to-wall carpeting in his bathroom, hunble said, and he liked it so much he started thinking about running it clear up to the house.
posted by LeLiLo at 4:34 PM on April 13, 2003

Madamjujujive, one more link: Ennui Malaise has a ton of neat-o garage-built instruments, one of which is the "Industrial Strength Diddley Bow w/ Resonator".
posted by duckstab at 6:43 PM on April 13, 2003