THE new (to me) Bass

It arrived today and I've already spent a good hour or so playing with it. I think it probably took something less than a minute from walking into the house with the bass to having it plugged in and playing it.

"It" is a Hohner Professional Headless Bass also called "The Jack", built circa 1988. Typical of the era it is equipped with two humbucker pickups, active as well as passive electronics, and with the full size solid body has excellent sustain when you want it. It is called headless because the bass doesn't have a head at the end of the neck with tuners in it. Instead the tuners are fitted to the bottom of the bass in the Steinberger licensed bridge.

Tonally it is every bit as good as the Fender Precision Bass I had on loan. In fact the Hohner is more flexible because you can modify the tone quite a lot by adjusting the tone controls and switching the electronics on or off. Of course different playing techniques will also make a huge difference in tone. One of the modifications suggested by "those-who-know-these-things" is to replace the original humbucker pickups (which are made in Korea copies of EMG humbuckers) with real dinkum EMG pickups. That is something I'll keep in mind for the future.

The neck is somewhat slimmer than the Fender and the string spacing is also a bit tighter under the right hand. Once I get proficient enough for it to matter this slim neck will allow me to play fast riffs with more ease than on a wider neck.

The Steinberger bridge is fantastic. It incorporates the tuners in the tail stock. You do need to buy double ball strings, which do cost a whole lot more than ordinary bass strings, but once you've got the guitar in tune the Steinberger system is so stable you will barely ever have to re-tune.


The look and feel of the guitar are everything I had hoped for. In the beginning it does feel a bit odd not having a head and I felt as if my left hand might accidentally slip off the end of the neck. There are some small battle scars on the body but, realistically, what do you expect from a guitar that is some 21 years old.

On the wish list now are a better guitar amp (I need one with at least 100 Watts RMS output and I covet a Marshall or Mesa Boogie, preferably a separate head and cabinet) and a Marshall Gov'nor GV-2 effects pedal.

First of all though, I need to practice, practice, practice so I can become good enough to become one of the club's official bass players. Now I'm really looking forward to the Wellington Folk Festival in October this year for two reasons. One, I'll have had enough time to become reasonably proficient, and two, it will be the first most of our Wellington friends will know about me playing bass and I'm looking forward to surprising them with this.