Crown Violin Bass Hollow Body Electric Bass Guitar , c. 1966
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Crown Violin Bass Model Hollow Body Electric Bass Guitar, c. 1966, made in Japan, red laquer finish, laminated maple body with spruce top,, black gig bag case.
This deep cherry red violin bass is fairly typical of thousands of Japanese made instruments from the mid-late 1960s, with a few interesting cosmetic touches and better made than some. The scrolled headstock combined with narrow-coil black-topped pickups suggests it originated with the Teisco Gen Gakki/Firstman operation, but most Japanese factories built a violin-bodied hollowbody bass of some sort in this Beatle-obsessed era.
The only logo on the bass is a crown-shaped emblem on the headstock; "Crown" was a trademark of the Steinman Brothers in Pasadena, Ca. who imported a number of different Japanese made instruments including several variants of this bass design. This two pickup bass was made to a price but has two decent sounding pickups and most important a surprisingly functional truss rod in the neck, something increasingly less reliable nearly 60 years along. Everything works as intended and the neck is much straighter than most similar instruments nearly 60 years along making for a fun bass to play, quite decent sounding plugged in and loud enough acoustically to make a good "couch bass" for unplugged noodling.
Overall length is 44 1/4 in. (112.4 cm.), 13 1/2 in. (34.3 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 34 in. (864 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).
This bass shows some wear and minor modification but no major damage or repair. The all-original finish has some checking, dings and dents and a patch of buckle wear where the finish has chipped off on the back. Someone moved the finger rest from the pickguard and screwed it to the body above the pickups, making it now a thumbrest. The tuners have been replaced with more recent Asian-made machines not too different from the originals. All other hardware is original. The neck and frets are in good shape and this is really a decent playing and sounding instrument, not much different feeling from the Italian Eko 995 it greatly resembles. Like that bass it is more suited to lower volume situations, but within those limits a cool and useful instrument. Very Good + Condition.
This deep cherry red violin bass is fairly typical of thousands of Japanese made instruments from the mid-late 1960s, with a few interesting cosmetic touches and better made than some. The scrolled headstock combined with narrow-coil black-topped pickups suggests it originated with the Teisco Gen Gakki/Firstman operation, but most Japanese factories built a violin-bodied hollowbody bass of some sort in this Beatle-obsessed era.
The only logo on the bass is a crown-shaped emblem on the headstock; "Crown" was a trademark of the Steinman Brothers in Pasadena, Ca. who imported a number of different Japanese made instruments including several variants of this bass design. This two pickup bass was made to a price but has two decent sounding pickups and most important a surprisingly functional truss rod in the neck, something increasingly less reliable nearly 60 years along. Everything works as intended and the neck is much straighter than most similar instruments nearly 60 years along making for a fun bass to play, quite decent sounding plugged in and loud enough acoustically to make a good "couch bass" for unplugged noodling.
Overall length is 44 1/4 in. (112.4 cm.), 13 1/2 in. (34.3 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 34 in. (864 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).
This bass shows some wear and minor modification but no major damage or repair. The all-original finish has some checking, dings and dents and a patch of buckle wear where the finish has chipped off on the back. Someone moved the finger rest from the pickguard and screwed it to the body above the pickups, making it now a thumbrest. The tuners have been replaced with more recent Asian-made machines not too different from the originals. All other hardware is original. The neck and frets are in good shape and this is really a decent playing and sounding instrument, not much different feeling from the Italian Eko 995 it greatly resembles. Like that bass it is more suited to lower volume situations, but within those limits a cool and useful instrument. Very Good + Condition.