Ampeg ASB-1 Electric Bass Guitar (1968)
LOADING IMAGES
Ampeg ASB-1 Model Electric Bass Guitar (1968), made in Linden NJ, serial # 1099, red/black sunburst finish, laminated maple body, maple neck with ebony fingerboard, black tolex hard shell case.
This is a well worn but great playing example of one of the strangest instruments to come out of New Jersey in the 1960s, and that's saying something! The original fretted Ampeg ASB-1 (Ampeg "Special" Bass #1) was the company's rarest production "horizontal" bass. This eye-popping design has unsurprisingly earned the nickname "The Devil Bass" for obvious reasons; our old friend "Big Bob" Guida attributed that name to J.B. Hutto, with whom he played one of these unmistakable creations back in the '70s. Most of these rare basses we have seen are fretless models; fretted examples seem to be the less common version.
Ampeg had prospered with amplifiers since the 1950s, but made only half-hearted attempts to market instruments before 1966. After the fiberglass upright electric "Baby Bass" in 1961 they dabbled with importing re-branded Burns of London guitars. Following that Ampeg decided to create a unique original design just for bassists. The distinctive "scroll' basses were launched at the 1966 NAMM show with some fanfare and have become a '60s classic, although never mounting serious competition to the Fender Precision or Jazz bass.
The design was primarily the work of Dennis Kager, but the body of this model was the brainchild of another Ampeg employee, Mike Roman. The swooping horns allow total access to the entire fretboard and beyond, and of course look extremely wicked in the process. Ampeg bass designs were shaped by company founder Everett Hull's distaste for the Fender bass. Hull was a purist who considered the upright bass to be the legitimate low end instrument, and wanted to cater to traditional jazz and even classical players. To this end the first Ampeg "Horizontal Basses" do not have an understring magnetic pickup but utilize the same vibration-activated "Mystery Pickup" beneath the bridge as the upright Baby Bass, allowing use of gut strings as well as steel. This point Hull insisted on, much to the chagrin of his employees who knew rock'n'roll players were the mass market. The unique scrolled headstock was another nod to bass tradition added on to Kager's design, which has been a defining feature ever since.
Ampeg had these in production by late 1966, offering fretted and fretless models of the more conventional AEB-1 and AUB-1, with these alternate "Devil Bass" models designated ASB-1 and AUSB-1. This bass is a fretted ASB-1, almost certainly the rarest of the lot. They were considered an 'alternate design' to the offset, F-hole body models and only produced in tiny numbers compared, most estimates are a few dozen at best.
The body is built of laminate woods; the most notable feature is of course the huge swooping horns, with further open areas carved out underneath. The pickguards are hard signmaker's plastic, with a cut-through Ampeg logo below the strings. There are large wooden handrests above and below the strings and tone and volume controls in a conventional location. The bridge unit is milled aluminum adjustable for height and intonation. The scroll-headed maple neck has an ebony fingerboard inlaid with large pearl position dots. The strings run to a separate heavy tailpiece which can be adjusted for string tension. This setup requires special extra-long strings, although the scale length is the same as a Fender at 34". The serial number 1099 is stamped under the tailpiece bar.
Unfortunately in the ever higher-volume playing environments of the late 1960s, the microphonic pickup proved somewhat impractical. Pickup oddities aside, the rest of the design is extremely well-engineered and quite functional. This bass has a sound somewhere in between a conventional bass guitar and an upright. The acoustic-y twang of the "mystery" unit can be mellowed using the volume and tone controls, but it takes some experimentation with the amp to understand how to get a variety of usable sounds from the instrument. The sliding mute-equipped tailpiece and special pickup can create a convincing electric upright sound if used carefully, just as Everett Hull envisioned. While admittedly not to every taste, the ASB-1 is one of the most striking and unusual electric basses ever made, a connoisseur's delight with a unique character and history.
Overall length is 47 in. (119.4 cm.), 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 34 1/2 in. (876 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).
This bass shows heavy cosmetic wear, especially to the body finish but remains nicely all original. Ampeg "Scroll" basses have often fallen into disrepair or been heavily modified (especially the pickups) over the last 50+ years; this bass is worn but has never been altered. The original lacquer on the body shows a LOT of wear; Ampeg were new to finishing wood in 1966 and many early examples have been refinished due to the lacquer simply flaking off as has largely happened here. The body has large areas down to the red-stained wood, especially on the face. There are also dings, dents and chips to the back, face and edges. The back of the neck is cleaner, with some dings, dents and scratches but not the heavy wear or flaking. There are dings and chips to the headstock edges as well.
There is a repaired split to the lower body between the two bolts, solidly sealed but visible, and another down from the top of neck pocket along the back. The hard plastic pickguard has minor scuffing overall but no worn-through spots; the neck backplate has no chips or cracks. The ebony fingerboard and frets are surprisingly well-preserved and the bass appears to have likely been played with flatwound strings. It is set up with a brand new set of correct vintage style flatwounds direct from LaBella, the original stringmakers for Ampeg. Thanks guys!
The hardware also remains original and complete including the sliding bridge cover with the mute foam which is most often gone by now. This ASB-1 a very good player, eccentric-sounding for sure, but it performs exactly as intended and looks incredibly wicked doing it. All in all fine "real relic" player's example of this unique New Jersey creation and one of the most interesting and distinctive of all vintage American basses. A modern HSC is included that actually fits fairly well. Overall Very Good Condition.
This is a well worn but great playing example of one of the strangest instruments to come out of New Jersey in the 1960s, and that's saying something! The original fretted Ampeg ASB-1 (Ampeg "Special" Bass #1) was the company's rarest production "horizontal" bass. This eye-popping design has unsurprisingly earned the nickname "The Devil Bass" for obvious reasons; our old friend "Big Bob" Guida attributed that name to J.B. Hutto, with whom he played one of these unmistakable creations back in the '70s. Most of these rare basses we have seen are fretless models; fretted examples seem to be the less common version.
Ampeg had prospered with amplifiers since the 1950s, but made only half-hearted attempts to market instruments before 1966. After the fiberglass upright electric "Baby Bass" in 1961 they dabbled with importing re-branded Burns of London guitars. Following that Ampeg decided to create a unique original design just for bassists. The distinctive "scroll' basses were launched at the 1966 NAMM show with some fanfare and have become a '60s classic, although never mounting serious competition to the Fender Precision or Jazz bass.
The design was primarily the work of Dennis Kager, but the body of this model was the brainchild of another Ampeg employee, Mike Roman. The swooping horns allow total access to the entire fretboard and beyond, and of course look extremely wicked in the process. Ampeg bass designs were shaped by company founder Everett Hull's distaste for the Fender bass. Hull was a purist who considered the upright bass to be the legitimate low end instrument, and wanted to cater to traditional jazz and even classical players. To this end the first Ampeg "Horizontal Basses" do not have an understring magnetic pickup but utilize the same vibration-activated "Mystery Pickup" beneath the bridge as the upright Baby Bass, allowing use of gut strings as well as steel. This point Hull insisted on, much to the chagrin of his employees who knew rock'n'roll players were the mass market. The unique scrolled headstock was another nod to bass tradition added on to Kager's design, which has been a defining feature ever since.
Ampeg had these in production by late 1966, offering fretted and fretless models of the more conventional AEB-1 and AUB-1, with these alternate "Devil Bass" models designated ASB-1 and AUSB-1. This bass is a fretted ASB-1, almost certainly the rarest of the lot. They were considered an 'alternate design' to the offset, F-hole body models and only produced in tiny numbers compared, most estimates are a few dozen at best.
The body is built of laminate woods; the most notable feature is of course the huge swooping horns, with further open areas carved out underneath. The pickguards are hard signmaker's plastic, with a cut-through Ampeg logo below the strings. There are large wooden handrests above and below the strings and tone and volume controls in a conventional location. The bridge unit is milled aluminum adjustable for height and intonation. The scroll-headed maple neck has an ebony fingerboard inlaid with large pearl position dots. The strings run to a separate heavy tailpiece which can be adjusted for string tension. This setup requires special extra-long strings, although the scale length is the same as a Fender at 34". The serial number 1099 is stamped under the tailpiece bar.
Unfortunately in the ever higher-volume playing environments of the late 1960s, the microphonic pickup proved somewhat impractical. Pickup oddities aside, the rest of the design is extremely well-engineered and quite functional. This bass has a sound somewhere in between a conventional bass guitar and an upright. The acoustic-y twang of the "mystery" unit can be mellowed using the volume and tone controls, but it takes some experimentation with the amp to understand how to get a variety of usable sounds from the instrument. The sliding mute-equipped tailpiece and special pickup can create a convincing electric upright sound if used carefully, just as Everett Hull envisioned. While admittedly not to every taste, the ASB-1 is one of the most striking and unusual electric basses ever made, a connoisseur's delight with a unique character and history.
Overall length is 47 in. (119.4 cm.), 14 1/2 in. (36.8 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 34 1/2 in. (876 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).
This bass shows heavy cosmetic wear, especially to the body finish but remains nicely all original. Ampeg "Scroll" basses have often fallen into disrepair or been heavily modified (especially the pickups) over the last 50+ years; this bass is worn but has never been altered. The original lacquer on the body shows a LOT of wear; Ampeg were new to finishing wood in 1966 and many early examples have been refinished due to the lacquer simply flaking off as has largely happened here. The body has large areas down to the red-stained wood, especially on the face. There are also dings, dents and chips to the back, face and edges. The back of the neck is cleaner, with some dings, dents and scratches but not the heavy wear or flaking. There are dings and chips to the headstock edges as well.
There is a repaired split to the lower body between the two bolts, solidly sealed but visible, and another down from the top of neck pocket along the back. The hard plastic pickguard has minor scuffing overall but no worn-through spots; the neck backplate has no chips or cracks. The ebony fingerboard and frets are surprisingly well-preserved and the bass appears to have likely been played with flatwound strings. It is set up with a brand new set of correct vintage style flatwounds direct from LaBella, the original stringmakers for Ampeg. Thanks guys!
The hardware also remains original and complete including the sliding bridge cover with the mute foam which is most often gone by now. This ASB-1 a very good player, eccentric-sounding for sure, but it performs exactly as intended and looks incredibly wicked doing it. All in all fine "real relic" player's example of this unique New Jersey creation and one of the most interesting and distinctive of all vintage American basses. A modern HSC is included that actually fits fairly well. Overall Very Good Condition.