1960s Japanese-made Conrad Violin Bass with f-holes and scroll headstock

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I think I prefer the design of this 1960s Japanese Conrad Violin Bass over that of the Höfner which it is so obviously inspired by (which in turn was inspired by the Gibson EB-0, but because of it being Paul McCartney's bass of choice it's the Höfner design that the legions of copies all emulate). The scroll headstock and the f-holes in the hollow body make it much more violin-like. It's a short-scale bass with a scale length of 30", although this particular example is not 100% original having Eastwood P90 style pickups installed (probably better than the originals) and non-original rosewood volume and tone knobs. Hey, at least the mods are tasteful. That's the golden rule - if you MUST modify a vintage guitar, do it tastefully.

Currently listed on eBay with a very reasonable Buy It Now price of $350.

See here for a 12-string companion to this model.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Conrad "violin" 12-string electric hollowbody guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We previously looked at quite a selection of Beatle-esque violin basses, violin guitars and even a violin 12-string guitar before. Here's another 12-string, a Conrad violin 12-string, which looks much more faithful to the Hofner design that inspired the myriad other copies (and yes, I am aware of the irony that the Hofner violin bass was itself inspired by Gibson's earliest bass guitar). This Conrad features the same slim outline as the Hofner; some violin guitars and basses are just too chunky, don't you think? It's Japanese-made (the seller even suggests it's Matsumoku-made, which is usually an indication of a quality Japanese instrument) also has a impressively lengthy scroll headstock, furthering the violin metaphor.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Conrad and 20th century industrial design...

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I'm afraid that this Conrad will never make music again, but maybe it can still toast bread, provide air conditioning,  vacuum clean... 

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Conrad/Crown Bass VI (or baritone guitar if you prefer)

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One of the many things I've been learning from the years of compiling this blog is that there were a lot more companies producing Bass VI guitars in the 1960s than just Fender and Danelectro.

This particular Japanese-made example from 1965 bears the Crown brand insignia on the headstock, although the seller (lawman-mike - who certainly seems to know his stuff) tells us that it is a Conrad. It has a 27" scale length, four pickups with attendant rocker switches, a whammy bar (which looks to be all present and correct, and big pointy body horns that you might expect to see on a Burns.

He does, however, refer to it as a baritone guitar and says that: "They are tuned B to B instead of E to E". Well, that's all dependent on the strings you use. It almost certainly would have been strung E to E originally. (Unless you know differently.)

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Conrad Bison baritone guitar (allegedly - I'm not convinced)

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's another vintaqe Japanese-made oddity for your. It's a Conrad Bison, and according to the seller it is a baritone model having a longer scale (although it's not too obvious in the photos - I'm not 100% convinced about this).

If it IS indeed a longer scale guitar, possibly it should more accurately be labelled a Bass-VI. As many of you will know, Fender, Danelectro and various other companies jumping on the bandwaggon produced these six-string basses in the 1960s. They were basically 6-string guitars with longer scale-lengths and tuned like a guitar, E to e, but down an octave. String spacing was as a guitar and they were often equipped with tremolo arms.

In more recent years people have taken to calling these "baritone guitars" so as to distinguish them from the more modern vision of the 6-string bass with low B-string and high C-string. But this, for me at least, causes another problem because it then confuses the Bass-VI with the modern baritone guitar which uses a tuning somewhere between a guitar and a bass (tunings vary), whereas the original Bass-VI guitars went down as low as a 4-string bass but added two higher strings.

Sure, some players took the Bass-VI and tuned it in ways more akin to our modern baritone guitar, but that is not how these instruments were envisioned.

Anyway, don't you think the shape of this Conrad with its offset pointed horns reminds you of the "Unknown" 12-string we looked at recently? (Which was, we decided, most likely an Arai/Aria Diamond or similar). From what I can find out, Conrad was indeed a related brandname for these same instruments, probably used by a certain store as its in-house brand.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!