[Ibanezbenz]

Hey, i've had this bass guitar sitting around the house for a while. It was an old bass guitar that my grandfather had and gave to me before he died. Unfortunately he didn't leave any identification nor does it have anything on the guitar itself. I don't have much knowledge in identifying these sort of things, and i am not wishing to sell it, so give me your honest guesses on what it is.

Thanks in advance...

[NuRockid08]

I think it's an early Silvertone. The first year/or 2, sold in Sears, they did not have the brand name on the top. It looks amazing.

You might want to work down the groove on the Nut/E string. Nuts can crack if the string doesn't fit, normally on new guitars...which in this case the nut looks new. Check out the E string on the bottom picture.

[randallflagg]

While I tend to agree that the headstock seems to resemble an early Silvertone/Danelectro model, I checked this out:

http://www.danguitar...ertone.html#Top


Silvertone guitars are sort of special to me - first guitar I ever had was the one with the amp built into the case......

Unfortunately, unless I'm missing something, they never built an Acoustic bass model.....but remember that the Sears Silvertone - Danelectro thing was a 4 company deal and at the moment, I can't recall the other 2.....


But she IS a beaut!!



RF

[surfwhammy]

Hey, i've had this bass guitar sitting around the house for a while. It was an old bass guitar that my grandfather had and gave to me before he died. Unfortunately he didn't leave any identification nor does it have anything on the guitar itself. I don't have much knowledge in identifying these sort of things, and i am not wishing to sell it, so give me your honest guesses on what it is.

Thanks in advance...

It is a very nicely crafted guitar with a lot of attention to detail, so I think that you have a treasure, for sure . . .

For sure!

It looks more like an early Hofner bass, perhaps a prototype, but I did a quick search of a few vintage Hofner sites and did not find any similar models . . .

The wood is stellar, and from what I can tell from the photographs there is a lot of detailed woodwork that typically is found only on high-end instruments, even though there is no logo on the headstock, which is a bit puzzling . . .

It has a Hofner look to it, perhaps late-1950s and early-1960s, where I am going by the wood and finish, tailpiece, bridge, tuning pegs, and the way the two knobs and switch are arranged on the plastic piece, which also is the way the single pickup is done . . .

For example, one of the things that continues to make me think it is a Hofner bass is the tailpiece, which has the same type of end bracket as my Hofner "Beatle" Bass, which I have not named, as yet, which is a bit unusual, since I usually name instruments, but so what . . .


"Marshmallow" (Circa 1965-1967 Hofner "Beatle" Bass) Tailpiece

So what!

For now, I am calling it "Marshmallow", since Hofner "Beatle" Bass guitars sound a bit like a marshmallow, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

[NOTE: Although it is not so easy to see in the photographs you posted, your bass guitar also has the classic Hofner white plastic guitar strap holder on the tailpiece bracket, so this is yet another bit of evidence which points to it being a Hofner bass . . . ]

If you can do it very carefully, you might unscrew the plastic plate with the two knobs and switch, so that you can look inside the guitar body, because there might be some information inside--noting that you want to be very careful, since there are wires connected to the underside, and you do not want to break anything, so the key to doing this type of examining is to do it slowly with a lot of patience rather than in a hurry . . .

I also am judging based on the form-fitted case, which is nice . . .

The metal frets look very crisp and precise, as well . . .

There are a lot of websites that have catalogs of vintage guitars and basses, and if you do enough searching, perhaps you will find more information . . .

And even if you cannot find an exact match, there are other clues that can provide more information, such as the shape and type of the tuning pegs, knobs, bridge, tailpiece, pickup, plastic, and so forth and so on . . .

It looks to be a FUN puzzle . . .

It is a very nice bass guitar, certainly a fine instrument, for sure!

For sure!

P. S. If you can post a few more photographs, this might help folks provide more information, where a close-up photograph of the back of the tuning pegs, end of the tailpiece bracket, tailpiece and bridge, control knobs and switch plate, pickup and plastic piece, as well as the metal piece that attaches the neck to the guitar body will be nice . . .

P. P. S. And although it is not so easy to determine from the photographs you posted, I am seeing the classic Hofner style white and black trim around the top and bottom outside edges of the guitar body, which is yet another clue that is is a Hofner bass. And if it is a Hofner bass, then it probably is a rare Hofner bass, which certainly raises its appraised value considerably. As an additional bit of information with respect to appraising, it is very important to avoid altering the patina of the instrument, which refers to the wood finish, the way the metal pieces look, and so forth and so on . . .

It is OK to clean the instrument lightly with very mild cleaning solutions designed specifically for vintage guitars, but do not try to make everything look new, because patina is part of what increases the value of vintage instruments, as well as other types of antiques and art . . .

Another key aspect of determining value is something called "provenance", which is the verified history of something, with the verification coming in several forms, which essentially maps to being able to trace the history of the instrument, including when and where it was built, who owned it, how it was used, and so forth and so on . . .

And since your grandfather gave it to you, this is part of the provenance of the instrument . . .

You might ask your parents and other relatives if your grandfather was in a band, owned a music store, or perhaps traveled to Europe and was in Germany for a while . . .

If you can find photographs of your grandfather with the instrument, then this increases the detail of the provenance . . .

One way to learn about patina and provenance is to watch the PBS program, "Antiques Roadshow", since the various appraisers explain a lot of stuff, some of which can be quite surprising . . .

Perhaps most surprising (and disappointing) is hearing an appraiser tell someone that the antique table they brought to the show normally would be appraised at $50,000, except that they removed all the varnish, sanded it heavily, carved smiley faces in it, and painted it fluorescent pink, thereby decreasing its value at auction by approximately $49,950 . . .

In other words, if they had simply left the table alone, it would have been worth $50,000, but since they decided to make a bunch of alterations without doing any homework and taking the time to understand how the value of antiques is determined, they transformed an otherwise very valuable old table into a piece of worthless junk . . .

So, you want to avoid changing the patina, since I think that your bass guitar is valuable, although it difficult for me to guess, since I do not do instrument appraisals professionally . . .

Yet, as a wild but somewhat educated guess, I certainly think that the instrument easily is worth thousands of dollars, although I have no idea precisely how many, since it depends on whether it actually is a rare Hofner bass, and a lot of other factors . . .

The back of the instrument is arched, which maps to a finer level of craftsmanship, and I am seeing multiple layers in the headstock, which also maps to extra skill in woodworking, so it definitely is a well-made instrument, and I think the plastic, celluloid, or whatever material surrounds the single pickup is a stellar bit of design work, which actually might run the clock back to the late-1940s or perhaps the late-1930s (but probably not that far back in time, although the look is somewhat consistent) . . .

Were there electric bass guitars in the 1930s?

I have no idea, really . . .

Really!

After doing a bit of quick Googling, it appears that there were electric bass guitars in the late-1930s, which is fabulous . . .

Paul Tutmarc, Inventor of the First Electric Guitar

Fabulous!

This post has been edited by surfwhammy: 18 February 2009 - 09:18 PM

[tjoyner30]

Isn't that the same brand of bass that Ethan Embry played in Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do?