"New?" Ashbory Basses??

fronobulax

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Ashbory basses fill a niche that isn't of interest to me. My understanding is that they were sold under as Guild/by Guild in the 1980s and Fender reissued them under the DeArmond name circa 1999 and it is still in production. However, I can't seem to find it on Fender's site.
 

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Interesting to me, but since I have something else coming soon... not so much.
I don't think they sell. :wink:
 

chazmo

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I guess that's true.

Did they originate in Westerly or were they something just rebadged (or not) with Guild? I just didn't see the connection.
 

fronobulax

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Chazmo said:
I guess that's true.

Did they originate in Westerly or were they something just rebadged (or not) with Guild? I just didn't see the connection.

This says the inventor was working with C. F. Martin and that George Gruhn introduced him to Guild when the Martin talks ended.
 

chazmo

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Interesting... So looks to me like the Ashbory bass has the dubious distinction of being the the first Guild product (albeit re-badged) to go to overseas production. But, if I read that history right, Westerly had discontinued it some time before production started up again overseas.

Rubber strings with piezo pickups, eh? I'll have to have a look at one of these someday. Do any of the bass players here like these (original or not)?
 

fronobulax

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Chazmo said:
Do any of the bass players here like these (original or not)?
Dunno. I have never been interested because fretless seems like too much work. They do have a fanatical following but I've never even seen one being used. Grot?
 

The Guilds of Grot

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I have one of the original Guild Ashbory basses. When our band first got together we had three guitarist and no bassist. I saw my Ashbory in a local music store and bought it for $250. At that point my bass playing career was born!

The story as I know it is that two British gentlemen invented the Ashbory (an amalgamation of their names) and licensed the design to Guild for production. Here's one of the inventer's site in case you didn't get there from Frono's link.

Mine is an early model with the straight slotted tuning keys.

Ashbory.jpg


The next version had curved slots to retain the strings better. The tuners were always an issue. Being faithful to the original design they are friction tuners. When Fender re-issued the Ashbory as a DeArmond, they installed "geared" tuners. They all have a piezo pick-up under the bridge to get the "acoustic" sound.

It's a little funky playing the silicone strings but it helps if you apply a little talcum power to your left hand to prevent sticking. It really does sound like a stand-up bass especially with slides and such. Being such a short scale, (18"!) you can do unbelievable stretches.

Here's a bad video but it will give you a sample of the sound. (Metallica?)

The fretless part does take some concentration to play in tune. Since I was also the singer in the band I had a tough time staying in tune and so I went and bought a full size B-302 bass.

I don't know anything about the new people producing them.
 

chazmo

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Totally cool, Grot! I'm confused though... Fretless? Aren't those frets on there? Or, did they go fretless later on?
 

chazmo

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Neat! Thanks, Grot!

And, very cool that it was this product that essentially brought you into the Guild bass fold! History in the making! :D
 

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I was a Guild dealer (1977-1988 when I got out of retail music). As a bassist I was immediately attracted to the Ashbory and we got one. It was a little weird, but we figured it'd at least get some attention, which it did. It was a great way to introduce people to the Pilot bass, which was a good seller for us, partly because the owner of the store and I were pretty rabid fans of Guild and the Pilot filled a great niche that our Fender, G&L, and Peavey basses didn't.

Anyway, the original Guild Ashbory basses had some problems with the tuning machines and the strings, but Guild shipped them with a spare set of strings. They also shipped it with a little bag of talcum powder (suggested so your fingers slid on the strings easily).

Fast forward to the big Guild/DeArmond push from FMIC in the late '90s. I finally bought an (DeArmond) Ashbory then and compared to the original Guild one, the DeArmond is better, if only for the geared tuning machines which are a huge improvement. The first strings FMIC had for them were very real problems, with them being known for self-desctruction. My own had three D strings come apart just sitting in the bag over about a year. At some point they changed the formulation of the strings. I got a set from Jay Pilzer about six years or more ago, and they've been stable and reliable.

The bass ain't for everyone, but it does a decent emulation of a string bass. The big strings have that slow attack that I can't get from an electric bass. Combined with the relatively quick decay it does get to the essential elements of a double bass' envelope. If you want to hear one, get a copy of Jack Bruce's "A Question of Time" and listen to the bass on the song "Kwela"- it's an Ashbory. I don't know of any other widely available commercial recordings of the Ashbory.

One idea I floated to Guild via our sales rep back when the Ashbory first came out was to make a double neck Pilot, with the Ashbory being the upper horn. That way one could use a regular strap and solve the issue of the Ashbory being so unbalanced. Plus it would look great and make the Ashbory a lot more practical. The usual issue with double necks is the weight, but the Pilot and the Ashbory combined would weigh less than a lot of '70s Fender basses .

John
 

chazmo

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jte said:
I was a Guild dealer (1977-1988 when I got out of retail music). As a bassist I was immediately attracted to the Ashbory and we got one. It was a little weird, but we figured it'd at least get some attention, which it did. It was a great way to introduce people to the Pilot bass, which was a good seller for us, partly because the owner of the store and I were pretty rabid fans of Guild and the Pilot filled a great niche that our Fender, G&L, and Peavey basses didn't.

Anyway, the original Guild Ashbory basses had some problems with the tuning machines and the strings, but Guild shipped them with a spare set of strings. They also shipped it with a little bag of talcum powder (suggested so your fingers slid on the strings easily).

Fast forward to the big Guild/DeArmond push from FMIC in the late '90s. I finally bought an (DeArmond) Ashbory then and compared to the original Guild one, the DeArmond is better, if only for the geared tuning machines which are a huge improvement. The first strings FMIC had for them were very real problems, with them being known for self-desctruction. My own had three D strings come apart just sitting in the bag over about a year. At some point they changed the formulation of the strings. I got a set from Jay Pilzer about six years or more ago, and they've been stable and reliable.

The bass ain't for everyone, but it does a decent emulation of a string bass. The big strings have that slow attack that I can't get from an electric bass. Combined with the relatively quick decay it does get to the essential elements of a double bass' envelope. If you want to hear one, get a copy of Jack Bruce's "A Question of Time" and listen to the bass on the song "Kwela"- it's an Ashbory. I don't know of any other widely available commercial recordings of the Ashbory.

One idea I floated to Guild via our sales rep back when the Ashbory first came out was to make a double neck Pilot, with the Ashbory being the upper horn. That way one could use a regular strap and solve the issue of the Ashbory being so unbalanced. Plus it would look great and make the Ashbory a lot more practical. The usual issue with double necks is the weight, but the Pilot and the Ashbory combined would weigh less than a lot of '70s Fender basses .

John

What an awesome product idea, John! Gives new meaning to the term "double bass." :)
 

mavuser

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hi im not very active on this board, as of right now the only guild i own is a 1971 Maverick guitar amplifier. i have been thinking of picking up a bass and there is a 1987 Guild Ashbory for sale near me. i am wondering if anyone knows the range of value for this instrument? i see someone here bought one for $250, but i do not know how long ago that was, and if it was new or used.

i realize its fretless and all...im thinking of toying around with it for a bit until i find someone that really is after one. i read somewhere only 1275 were made from 86-88 and that was all she wrote for the original run.

thx for any info. i am really just wondering how much the original ones are valued at
 

AlohaJoe

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mellowgerman said:
Sort of similar and sort of off topic; check out these little guys. New product on the market that's getting great reviews... sort of like an acoustic ashbory. Check out some of the reviews and demo videos. Really intriguing, whereas the ashbory is not IMO.
http://www.kalaukulele.com/search_resul ... fromSearch
I always liked the idea of the Ashborys but the execution wasn't anywhere near as good as the idea. Floppy, sticky strings made it almost unplayable to me and I thought the sound was just barely OK.

My wife and I went with some friends to see a bluegrass band we know about a week ago and the upright bass player (who's been having shoulder issues) had a Kala Bass and it sounded great through her GK! My wife and one of the friends we went with each bought one the next day. They're very cool. My wife is having some issues with her hands and the Kala is easy to play and sounds very acoustic plugged in. Unplugged of course there's not enough volume for anything other than practice. The strings are a new material that solves the weird string problem the Ashborys had and there is finally a functional, good sounding small lightweight bass on the market in the $400 range (with soft case).
 

fronobulax

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mavuser said:
hi im not very active on this board, as of right now the only guild i own is a 1971 Maverick guitar amplifier. i have been thinking of picking up a bass and there is a 1987 Guild Ashbory for sale near me. i am wondering if anyone knows the range of value for this instrument? i see someone here bought one for $250, but i do not know how long ago that was, and if it was new or used.

i realize its fretless and all...im thinking of toying around with it for a bit until i find someone that really is after one. i read somewhere only 1275 were made from 86-88 and that was all she wrote for the original run.

thx for any info. i am really just wondering how much the original ones are valued at

I suspect the answers to the history questions are contained in links posted previously in this thread.

I don't pay attention to the Ashborys but they show up in a lot of my eBay searches and my sense is that the D'Armond reissues are currently going for $250-$300 in new condition. I don't know whether a Guild first issue would go for more or not. Previous posts suggest there are some playability issues with those and I don't know whether the collectors outbid the players or not.

Personally, and I don't know what you already play or why you want a bass, but I would wonder about buying a Pilot instead.
 

mavuser

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thanks for the feedback. i have been thinking about geting a bass for a while to play with my friends, since we all play guitar and no one has a bass, just to mess around. just so happens the 2 guys i play with the most have Guild acoustic guitars (late 90s Westerlys). my acoustic is an Ibanez Artwood (late 90s).

my electric guitar is a Gibson Melody Maker. its a 2003 so it actually looks and sounds like the les paul jr with one p-90. like i said i have the 1971 Guild Maverick amp for it. i do prefer the short scale and chunky neck over a fender and such. i have always been interested in the bass but for some reason prefer acoustic bass guitars over electric ones, so i actually like the idea of the Kala that was posted previously.

this Ashbory bass caught my eye, as i have been keeping an eye out for Guild guitars (they are out there!) since my friends' are so sweet...just seemed like a rare Guild bass and from the pix i saw, there might be an issue with one of the tuners, and obviously the thing is 25 years old...but it looks essentially all there and he was asking less than 200. in thinking it might be a collectors item (albeit not so valueable...) my thought was i could mess around with it and ultimately just break even on it, even if it needs some luv to start, and if im feeling it then go for a bigger price tag on something else. i like the idea of it being fretless and sounding more like a stand up/acoustic, but this thread makes it sound the the bass has plenty of "idea" in it that maybe did not come to fruition.

ill let u all know if i wind up checking it out, it would be tommorow. but ill probably just let it go as it seems the Guild hardcores here are recommending other instruments.

and the links in this thread are more about the new generation of ashborys, i have not found much at all anywhere on the old ones as far as the value, unless i am missing something. thanks
 

mavuser

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Here is a stupid question-could I just put the new kala strings on the old Ashbory, presuming the tuners are in working order or otherwise repaired or upgraded?
 
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