1950s Kay Thin Twin Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I find myself quite drawn to this 1950s-era Kay Pro Thin Twin Bass. I realise that it's not going to perform nor sound like a modern-day bass, but it is quite beautiful in this blond finish with the gorgeous flame of the timber revealed for all to see but without looking gratuitous like so many flame and quilted finishes we see on modern guitars. This is, of course, the bass version of the guitar made famous by Howlin' Wolf, and comes from the days when most manufacturers building basses simply adapted one of their guitar models despite the lead taken by Fender with the Precision Bass in making it a long-scale instrument.

As well as the volume and tone controls that you would expect, there is an additional switch - but of course on a single pickup instrument this can't be a pickup selector. According to the listing on ebay, the switch "flips the tone from the tone setting you have dialed in to the opposite setting". I'm not sure how useful that would be in practice, but it's an interesting feature.

As gorgeous as it is, I do not fancy the $3,495 Buy It Now price on eBay. Sadly, it's one for the collectors.

G L Wilson

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