guitarz.blogspot.com:
This original 1960s
Hagstrom 8-string bass in cherry red finish is currently being offered for sale via
Vintage & Rare by New Kings Road Guitars in the UK who comment that as this model was the world's first 8-string bass, it's "probably Sweden's greatest contribution to popular music ... (YES, including A**A)."
The Hagstrom 8-string bass was probably most famously played by both Jimi Hendrix and his Experience bandmate Noel Redding (
check here for further info).
This particular example is listed at £1995 / €2,500.
G L Wilson
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!
Okay, I've been slammed for famous-name dropping before on the yellow shergold post, but bugger it! People need toknow!
ReplyDeleteJohn Paul Johnes Used one on led Zeppelin Presence. Flame Away.
But I guess presence isn't their most famous album, so It's a little bit og an obscure reference. But this is the bass that made John Paul Jones start using alembic 8 and 12 string basses, all with the harmonic octave string design.
I like this bass for one reason IT'S NOT A 5 OR 6 STRING METAL 'LOOK AT MY TALENTLESSNESS' BASS.
Metal and me have issues.
I have played a reissue version, and do want to buy one, as I had access thru some jamming I did with a bassist while learning better technique. it was really intersting to play as you coul eail fret the strings by placing one finger on the heavy sting and oanother, higher up the neck, on the octave sting. So you could radically alter your sounds (could only fret 2 strings tho, so you hadtoo play across the neck really fast).
still, for all those really bad 5 and 6 stringers, I wish there were more of these, at least on the non-custom leval.
To famous brand name-drop, rickenbacker also had a production model 4005 (mani's bass) 8 string bass. Very rare and with ludicrous headstock.
Addednum, despite reading it in A book, I cannot utilise the powers of the interwebnets to confirm Joh paul Jones's use of the Hagstrom H8 on Led zeppelin presence. So, label that one 'mildly unconfirmed'.
DeleteI had one of these in the 70s and 80s and, although it looks very cool, it sounded like crap and wasn't particularly fun to play.
ReplyDelete