mellowgerman
Senior Member
This one sold over on the talkbass forum
Though she may not be a Guild, she's a cool oddball that just doesn't get the deserved play-time. Only letting this one go because I have officially hit the too-many-basses level, play my Starfires & Gibson 98% of the time, and have had less and less time to play in general. Would happily donate $20 to the forum if it sells here for full asking price. Not really looking for trades, but will consider offers for any US Guild stuff, player-grade or projects.
NEWPORT JACK CASADY HYBRID BASS:
Short version:
Started it's life as an Eastwood Newport reissue bass, but has been modified with the following: Epiphone Jack Casady signature low-impedance humbucker, transformer, and 3-way rotary impedance switch. Volume and mini-toggle on/off tone switch. Custom DIY Wenge pickguard (cool dark wood volume knob to match guard). Fully shielded guard and cavities. Hipshot Supertone bridge. Hipshot Lic Ultra lite tuners. Strap buttons moved for better balance. GHS pressurewound strings. 30.5" short-scale, 1.5" nut, ~7.3 lbs per my bathroom scale. Nut was originally white, carefully colored black with Sharpie. Plays and sounds great! Ships in a new, nicely-padded tweed gigbag.
$615 + approximate shipping to your location. CONUS deals only please. Paypal, check, or money order are preferred, though the latter two will need to go through and appear in my account before I ship.
Local Orlando/Daytona area deals welcome! Will of course discount for an in-person, cash transaction.
Longer version with backstory:
I picked this bass up second-hand, last year, all stock, just out of short-scale love & Newport-curiosity. It had light finish scuffs here and there that would probably buff right out but never bothered me. Otherwise, all was healthy, with no fret-wear. The neck is slim and super comfy but the lackluster factory fretwork made a proper set-up tricky. After taking it to my luthier for a full fret crown/level and set-up, it plays perfectly.
I wasn't crazy about the generic mudbucker that was on it originally, so I started contemplating some modifications for optimization. Originally that entailed adding a Thunderbird pickup in the middle position and swapping the mudbucker for a DiMarzio Model-One. This sounded good, but when I came across the Casady pickup and electronics, I knew it could be even better. I made this custom pickguard out of a 1/8"-thick sheet of gorgeous wenge wood, in part to cover up the mudbucker cavity but also because I had to carve out a somewhat larger control cavity. Full disclosure, the cavity itself is not the prettiest, as it was enlarged with a dremel and the legendary Rickenbacker method (a drill) but it's all shielded with copper tape and fully covered by the guard.
The only aesthetic imperfections anyone sees on the outside is a few extra screw holes around the pickup (from the original chrome pickup cover and the Thunderbird pickup trim ring). Also, I hand-cut the pickguard with my scroll saw, hand-sanded, hand-filed, and finished with tru oil -- all done carefully, but I'm not a seasoned woodworker, so there are slight gaps around the neck heel and the overall cut isn't perfect... but all those things are purely cosmetic and really only noticeable from close inspection. Truss cover is also still kicking around somewhere, I just prefer the easy access and one less cheap-piece of plastic attached, but I'm happy to track it down for you if you like.
There, all cards out on the table!
End point is, this bass is a one-of-a-kind monster player, not a collector's piece for display. You may never again see another solid body bass with the low impedance Casady circuit, not to mention in such a lightweight package, with almost $200 of Hipshot hardware upgrades, and professionally done frets!
Though she may not be a Guild, she's a cool oddball that just doesn't get the deserved play-time. Only letting this one go because I have officially hit the too-many-basses level, play my Starfires & Gibson 98% of the time, and have had less and less time to play in general. Would happily donate $20 to the forum if it sells here for full asking price. Not really looking for trades, but will consider offers for any US Guild stuff, player-grade or projects.
NEWPORT JACK CASADY HYBRID BASS:
Short version:
Started it's life as an Eastwood Newport reissue bass, but has been modified with the following: Epiphone Jack Casady signature low-impedance humbucker, transformer, and 3-way rotary impedance switch. Volume and mini-toggle on/off tone switch. Custom DIY Wenge pickguard (cool dark wood volume knob to match guard). Fully shielded guard and cavities. Hipshot Supertone bridge. Hipshot Lic Ultra lite tuners. Strap buttons moved for better balance. GHS pressurewound strings. 30.5" short-scale, 1.5" nut, ~7.3 lbs per my bathroom scale. Nut was originally white, carefully colored black with Sharpie. Plays and sounds great! Ships in a new, nicely-padded tweed gigbag.
$615 + approximate shipping to your location. CONUS deals only please. Paypal, check, or money order are preferred, though the latter two will need to go through and appear in my account before I ship.
Local Orlando/Daytona area deals welcome! Will of course discount for an in-person, cash transaction.
Longer version with backstory:
I picked this bass up second-hand, last year, all stock, just out of short-scale love & Newport-curiosity. It had light finish scuffs here and there that would probably buff right out but never bothered me. Otherwise, all was healthy, with no fret-wear. The neck is slim and super comfy but the lackluster factory fretwork made a proper set-up tricky. After taking it to my luthier for a full fret crown/level and set-up, it plays perfectly.
I wasn't crazy about the generic mudbucker that was on it originally, so I started contemplating some modifications for optimization. Originally that entailed adding a Thunderbird pickup in the middle position and swapping the mudbucker for a DiMarzio Model-One. This sounded good, but when I came across the Casady pickup and electronics, I knew it could be even better. I made this custom pickguard out of a 1/8"-thick sheet of gorgeous wenge wood, in part to cover up the mudbucker cavity but also because I had to carve out a somewhat larger control cavity. Full disclosure, the cavity itself is not the prettiest, as it was enlarged with a dremel and the legendary Rickenbacker method (a drill) but it's all shielded with copper tape and fully covered by the guard.
The only aesthetic imperfections anyone sees on the outside is a few extra screw holes around the pickup (from the original chrome pickup cover and the Thunderbird pickup trim ring). Also, I hand-cut the pickguard with my scroll saw, hand-sanded, hand-filed, and finished with tru oil -- all done carefully, but I'm not a seasoned woodworker, so there are slight gaps around the neck heel and the overall cut isn't perfect... but all those things are purely cosmetic and really only noticeable from close inspection. Truss cover is also still kicking around somewhere, I just prefer the easy access and one less cheap-piece of plastic attached, but I'm happy to track it down for you if you like.
There, all cards out on the table!
End point is, this bass is a one-of-a-kind monster player, not a collector's piece for display. You may never again see another solid body bass with the low impedance Casady circuit, not to mention in such a lightweight package, with almost $200 of Hipshot hardware upgrades, and professionally done frets!
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