Soares'y left-handed acoustic/electric piccolo bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's a very specific instrument for a player with a very specific list of requirements. It's a Soares'y left-handed acoustic/electric piccolo bass, one of a number of unusual instruments, primarily tenor guitars, built for American company Soares'y (with that annoying out of place apostrophe) by a small shop in Portugal.

The oxymoronic "piccolo bass" as a concept is an oddity in itself. Originally created by Stanley Clarke, it is essentially a bass guitar tuned an octave higher allowing a bassist to play up in the guitarist's range. So, technically it's not a "bass" at all. It's a long(er) scale 4-string guitar. In the case of Clarke's instruments he has bass scale-length, bass string spacing, they are played with a bass player's technique, and apparently as far as he's concerned anything with 4 strings is bass.

Still, with a change of strings and a set-up, this short-scale piccolo bass could easily be strung as a proper bass. Currently being auctioned on eBay with a starting price of $200 some lucky southpaw bassist could get themselves an individual instrument at a bargain price.

G L Wilson

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Soares'y electric tenor guitar

Here's an eBay purchase from earlier in the year.

As older readers will know I am quite interested in guitars with reduced numbers of strings, and am a fan of the baritone ukulele which is tuned the same as the first four strings on the guitar.

I was intrigued to try out a similar electric instrument, and I got a good deal on this Soares'y tenor guitar. However, I found the sound to be too bright for the usual DGBE tuning, so have been experimenting with open tunings on it and also trying to teach myself a little slide.

Soares'y Guitars website