Just grabbed this off my local list for $60
An old El Degas violin bass -- I'm guessing it's Korean --
Short scale, hollow body. It's got a broken machine head, and decades of crud inside it, but it'll be pretty cool once I fix that.
Going to put some flats on it too.
What do I look for to determine its origin / age / etc.?
My guitars are mostly in cases right now while I am building my new music room... once I get things unpacked again (probably 2-3 weeks) I'll look my Hofner copy over so I can share any info I remember about it. I don't remember off the top of my head whether or not mine has any clues about the country of manufacture.
I started ElDegas.com many years ago to help celebrate and inform about El Degas instruments. It all started with a used Ric 4000 bass copy I bought in circa 2000.
El Degas stable as of 03/2022: 42 (13 bass, 26 electric, 3 acoustic)
Thanks guys -- any info appreciated.
I can't see any codes on the pots -- just ohm values.
Input jack's pretty badly oxidised and pots are full of crud. I'm going to clean it up over the weekend and in the process see if there's any identifying marks -- there's no Made in Japan plaque on the neck join, so working hypothesis is MIK. 80s? 90s?
It's light as a feather and kinda cute
devnulljp, can you post a photo of the headstock logo? That may help jog my memory. And if it is the logostyle used on the MIK's I'll see it right away.
I started ElDegas.com many years ago to help celebrate and inform about El Degas instruments. It all started with a used Ric 4000 bass copy I bought in circa 2000.
El Degas stable as of 03/2022: 42 (13 bass, 26 electric, 3 acoustic)
charles wrote:devnulljp, can you post a photo of the headstock logo? That may help jog my memory. And if it is the logostyle used on the MIK's I'll see it right away.
Here's a pic of the headstock. No accent over the 'e' Can't really tell from the pic, but it's a sort of mother-of-toilet-seat logo.
The tuners have plastic tips so one's broken -- they're getting replaced as soon as I can get a set of Gotohs.
Thanks
Last edited by devnulljp on Sun May 06, 2012 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Upon first glance, I think that headstock shape might be a little different than mine. I'll check when I pull that one out of its case.
I started ElDegas.com many years ago to help celebrate and inform about El Degas instruments. It all started with a used Ric 4000 bass copy I bought in circa 2000.
El Degas stable as of 03/2022: 42 (13 bass, 26 electric, 3 acoustic)
Some more pics now it's been cleaned up a bit.
Put some Gotoh tuners on it and a set of flatwounds.
Replaced those switches as they were really unreliable.
Going to put some CTS pots in it as soon as I can get them. Looks like there might be a pot code on the originals under the solder, so I guess I'll get a rough year of manufacture from that once I replace the pots.
I've never seen another el Dégas without the accent over the 'e' though
Thanks for the more in-depth photos - I will do the same with mine, as I can spot some big differences between our two violin basses.
I started ElDegas.com many years ago to help celebrate and inform about El Degas instruments. It all started with a used Ric 4000 bass copy I bought in circa 2000.
El Degas stable as of 03/2022: 42 (13 bass, 26 electric, 3 acoustic)
Barry wrote:Great job with the resto! Looks like she was a quality built instrument back in the day. Looks terrific.
But you didn't say how she sounds!
Sounds pretty good ... not a seriously loud bass, but good resonance and a real lower-mid focus regardless of the switch positions. The flatwounds really suit it.
I might experiment with a few different cap values/types and I've still to replace the pots --- I reckon 500k audio CTS for both should do it. I'm tempted to try some string mutes and pretend it's a standup doghouse
I'm interested to see the differences with charles' bass (and to get the solder off the pots to see the date codes)
Finally replaced the pots. The originals have a cod eon them but it doesn't mean much to me.
One says 08A, the other 08W -- not much help to me in dating it.
They're both 500k pots, weird thing is one says A500k, while the other says B500k -- looks like one was linear, the other log. I replaced them both with audio 500k and changed out the .033uF cap for a .047uF orange drop.
(13 bass, 26 electric, 3 acoustic)
