For a crafty friend - homemade fretless acoustic basses 85% reused material

[Philip Donovan]

Hello,
I was hoping for any guidance or direction on this at all.

My best friend who is ending his business due to health issues and such has asked me to find a place where he can make known his line of acoustic fretless bass guitars that he made from about 80-90% recycled materials. He was very enthusiastic about creating things from materials from other sources that he felt were perfectly good and usable materials. His fretless basses are indeed unique and not so easy for me to categorize in terms of build approach, materials, scale length or tonal class. They are all one-offs and have not been modelled off of anything in particular. But, they are indeed hopelessly unique, and I will be on a quest for finding places, internet, catalog, where these can be seen or heard about, and people can take it upon themselves to contact me, or my friend Pete, to have their questions answered.

Thank you, any advice or ideas at all would be very much appreciated and give me a starting point.

Best,
Phil Donovan, Reading, Ma.

[JC Whitney]

Are they viable musical instruments, or primarily art objects? If the former, are they good enough that a professional musician would consider using one?

Maybe see if you can find a way to get the word out about them at Berkeley, given your proximity to Boston? Have you considered pursuing having a musician-oriented publication do a feature article?

Any pics you can share here?

[Philip Donovan]

Thanks for stopping by.

I can't say that they are viable instruments at least compared to the known brand level of integrity. So it is difficult at this point to assess the exact viability in relation to top quality builds. I have played and recorded with one and while it was a playable instrument on a certain level, it surely wasn't a Martin, Gibson or Larrivee.

I've been hard pressed to think of places to present these, and how to present them given the ambiguity of their class. I figured their story would be presented with pictures and my friend could offer their description should anyone be interested. The main element of these is that they are constructed with materials and hardware that were primarily parts from other products and items. Some people find that an attractive element and they would need to converse with my friend for more finer details on the instruments.

Below is a link to a multi-track youtube recording/picture movie I made and used the instrument on that he sent out here to the east coast (he lives in Alaska).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IAJvfZzCCo

His basses are all unique and different but, this video ought to highlight the kind of basses he makes. It's obviously these are going to call on a very niche audience.

But, I'm just his friend that agreed to help him sell off the collection that he has made through the years. Thats all I can do. and I'll try for the guy. This my first stop so, I don't know yet what this all will entail.

Thank you for any advice and help. I will consider everything I hear.
Best,
Phil Donovan

[Barry Daniels]

Hate to be a "Debbie Downer" but there is no market for instruments like that. Hopefully, he got some satisfaction from making them.

[Karl Wicklund]

What kind of price are you hoping for, and how many instruments? An acquaintance of mine moved a number of instruments that were certainly playable, but had a clear folksy homemade look. No attempt to be a “standard” axe. Something more like the cigar box world.

We are in very rural WI, but with a robust tourist trade from the Twin Cities. Most of them seemed to go out as players, but to hobbyists. Maybe a hundred bucks a pop for the novelty.

[Philip Donovan]

Hi Karl, thanks for responding,

i would expect around that, 100-200 for starters. And these are in the vein of "Artsy but playable". Afterall, the whole idea of his basses were to use materials extracted from previously manufactured products. 9he claims approximately 85% reused materials. He is trying to model the making of these according to green principles. This guy was actually visited by National Geographic for a documentary called, "Alaskan Pickers - Junkyard Crazies". He was one of two chosen for his unimaginable collection of items from junkyards and yardsales. He thought the world was insane for the huge amount of things that they threw out on a continuous basis. They thought is was old junk, he thought it was like gold. So, he decided to get to a line of fretless basses that drew off his re-purposing collection of "junk/gold". They seem to be build like tank - he used very strong material held together with industrial level epoxies and glues. But, those details would be for him to explain. I've only held and played one of them. I left a link above that would take you to a soundtrack/photo video I did for him.

thank you again for coming by and I will certainly relay your post to him. He needs all the advice and ideas he can get (good craftsman, bad businessman).

Best,
Phil D.,

[Matthew Lau]

I'd recommend Etsy, facebook marketplace, Craigslist, and local cafes/music stores.

My main concern is that shipping is crazy expensive.

[Matthew Lau]

Hey Philip,

I know the type. Good luck to your friend.