Wandre Waid Bass Solid Body Electric Bass Guitar (1959)
1
/
of
19
Couldn't load pickup availability
Item #13987
Wandre Waid Bass Model Solid Body Electric Bass Guitar (1959), made in Cavriago, Italy, red sparkle top and back with smoke green sides finish, Plywood body; aluminum neck with rosewood fingerboard, black hard shell case.
The Wandre story is a book-length tale of the constant battle between creativity and commerce; there is an (unfortunately rare) 2014 book "WANDRE-The Artist Of The Electric Guitar" by Marco Ballestri for the curious! While Italian artist/dreamer/luthier Wandre Pioli started his professional lutherie career with upright basses his early electric bass guitars are quirky at best; still they are rare and of interest to fans of his instruments. This is an early production "Waid" bass, one of his original late 1950s models as indicated by the quirky headstock configuration, full-length aluminum neck/body centerpiece and single volume control mounted below the tailpiece.
There are many titles one could bestow upon Wandre Pioli, "romantic" certainly among them. Pioli designed a number of instruments he cited as abstractly inspired by non-musical subjects, from film stars to his wife and child. The beautiful if eccentric "Waid" model he claimed was a tribute to his love for his wife; the name "WAID" combines Wandre and Ida, and the fluid body shape was intended to suggest the couple entwined in a dance.
Whatever its theoretical origins, the Waid launched in 1958 as a semi-hollow guitar built on a thin but very wide body, initially with two abstract soundholes. By the time this 4-string bass example was built in 1959 or '60 the design had evolved, including losing the soundholes. The body is very wide, over 17 1/2" at the lower bout but less than 1 3/4" at the rim. The shape is more conventional than many Pioli creations but has a bulging contour on the upper edge, with a sloping-back cutaway on the treble side. The most unusual feature is the top, which is concave instead of convex like almost every other guitar ever made. The top slopes inward and downward from the rims, leaving the metal neck extension/centerpiece fully exposed. While this looks wildly eccentric, the "negative space" effect does not affect playability in any negative way!
The back is arched in the conventional manner and both edges are bound with heavy white/black/white plastic, the sides covered with smoke green pattern plastic. The top and back are covered with a thick coating of the unusually heavy Poly compounds Wandre worked with, in a striking red with a coating of gold sparkles achieving more depth than the familiar sparkly Silvertone look; it really does create a dramatic effect on the top and back.
Besides the unique aesthetics, another trailblazing feature Wandre guitars is a bolt-on aluminum neck/body centerpiece. Over a decade before Travis Bean or Veleno, Pioli's instruments feature a thin, rounded aluminum neck with an extension set into body running all the way down to the tailpiece and an integral aluminum headstock. The rosewood fingerboard has multi-color plastic inlay illustrating (from top to bottom) the Wandre logo, the crest of Cavriago where they were made, a banner with "mod. WAID" engraved and an "Export" logo, indicating it was destined for sale outside Italy. The back of the neck is bare aluminum with an overhanging fretboard bound with very thick white plastic. The aluminum headstock is a flat minimalist design with the strings passing through slots in the face to engage backwards-facing Italian-made plastic barrel button tuners, mounted from the rear to flange pieces and concealed from the front, a pretty unique way of doing it!
Like all early Wandre bass guitars this instrument has a guitar-scale neck. Up into the mid '60s guitars and electric basses from the round Cavriago factory share the same layout, design and materials; basses are simply 4-string guitars with heavier strings. Perhaps Wandre did not want to invest in the tooling required to make a longer scale neck or maybe he just liked the concept, but not until the mid-60s did Wandre offer a long scale bass. This idea was also used by some US companies including Valco (with the National Style 85 and the Supro Pocket Bass), Carvin, Kay with their Value Leaders and a few others, but generally players expected at least a 29 1/2 to 30" scale on a bass guitar.
This bass features a single Davoli pickup mounted just under the fingerboard giving it a surprisingly full sound that mellows nicely at lower volume. It is mounted solidly to the body floating over the exposed aluminum spine, wired to a volume knob all the way down at the tail where the jack is also situated. The bridge is a Hofner-style slotted piece cut from aluminum, adjustable for height with 4 fretwire saddles. The strings run a long way down under an aluminum holding bar to a hollow aluminum tailpiece attached to the center insert above the "K" (Krundaal) logo plastic knob; the jack is mounted on the back edge.
This rather unusually wide and flat-feeling short-necked bass is another rare, wonderful and iconic piece of the Wandre puzzle, incredible looking in its multi-hued sparkling livery, unique as they all are, an extremely eccentric but cheerfully fun instrument to play.
Overall length is 43 1/4 in. (109.9 cm.), 17 5/8 in. (44.8 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 9/16 in. (4 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).
This very rare bass guitar has survived in original and quite decent condition; all original hardware is intact including the often missing strip of black plastic tape covering the spine of the aluminum neck. Wandre instruments often appear today missing parts or with damaged bodies due to the quirky nature of their construction; this one has survived very solid and all original.
There is very little of the common checking lines to the top with no cracking off or chipping to the starry covering; there are some puckered spots to the edge covering but no cracking or peeling. The back is also quite clean with only some small checks, scratches and scuffing. The heavy plastic body binding has some light discoloration and one small crack in the upper waist. The aluminum neck and headstock have some nicks and scratching, and the tape overlay on the spine has shrunken just a bit.
All hardware is original showing light general wear. The jack is an original 1/4" standard used on "export" models instead of the now-obsolete 5mm Geloso jack fitted to Wandres made for the Italian market. The adjustable bridge with its 4 fretwire saddles is fully intact as is the rest of the fairly minimal hardware; the original frets show minimal wear.
This single-pickup bass plays fine and sounds as good as any 24 3/4" scale 4-string we have heard; actually a usable instrument if not a pro-grade bass by modern standards. It is not particularly versatile but the Davoli pickup works well in bass mode, imparting a tight clarity even to the lowest notes. Wandre's space-age construction results in a fairly ethereal feeling semi-hollow bass but this is a very nice example ready to go in a modern hardshell case. Overall Excellent - Condition.
View full details
The Wandre story is a book-length tale of the constant battle between creativity and commerce; there is an (unfortunately rare) 2014 book "WANDRE-The Artist Of The Electric Guitar" by Marco Ballestri for the curious! While Italian artist/dreamer/luthier Wandre Pioli started his professional lutherie career with upright basses his early electric bass guitars are quirky at best; still they are rare and of interest to fans of his instruments. This is an early production "Waid" bass, one of his original late 1950s models as indicated by the quirky headstock configuration, full-length aluminum neck/body centerpiece and single volume control mounted below the tailpiece.
There are many titles one could bestow upon Wandre Pioli, "romantic" certainly among them. Pioli designed a number of instruments he cited as abstractly inspired by non-musical subjects, from film stars to his wife and child. The beautiful if eccentric "Waid" model he claimed was a tribute to his love for his wife; the name "WAID" combines Wandre and Ida, and the fluid body shape was intended to suggest the couple entwined in a dance.
Whatever its theoretical origins, the Waid launched in 1958 as a semi-hollow guitar built on a thin but very wide body, initially with two abstract soundholes. By the time this 4-string bass example was built in 1959 or '60 the design had evolved, including losing the soundholes. The body is very wide, over 17 1/2" at the lower bout but less than 1 3/4" at the rim. The shape is more conventional than many Pioli creations but has a bulging contour on the upper edge, with a sloping-back cutaway on the treble side. The most unusual feature is the top, which is concave instead of convex like almost every other guitar ever made. The top slopes inward and downward from the rims, leaving the metal neck extension/centerpiece fully exposed. While this looks wildly eccentric, the "negative space" effect does not affect playability in any negative way!
The back is arched in the conventional manner and both edges are bound with heavy white/black/white plastic, the sides covered with smoke green pattern plastic. The top and back are covered with a thick coating of the unusually heavy Poly compounds Wandre worked with, in a striking red with a coating of gold sparkles achieving more depth than the familiar sparkly Silvertone look; it really does create a dramatic effect on the top and back.
Besides the unique aesthetics, another trailblazing feature Wandre guitars is a bolt-on aluminum neck/body centerpiece. Over a decade before Travis Bean or Veleno, Pioli's instruments feature a thin, rounded aluminum neck with an extension set into body running all the way down to the tailpiece and an integral aluminum headstock. The rosewood fingerboard has multi-color plastic inlay illustrating (from top to bottom) the Wandre logo, the crest of Cavriago where they were made, a banner with "mod. WAID" engraved and an "Export" logo, indicating it was destined for sale outside Italy. The back of the neck is bare aluminum with an overhanging fretboard bound with very thick white plastic. The aluminum headstock is a flat minimalist design with the strings passing through slots in the face to engage backwards-facing Italian-made plastic barrel button tuners, mounted from the rear to flange pieces and concealed from the front, a pretty unique way of doing it!
Like all early Wandre bass guitars this instrument has a guitar-scale neck. Up into the mid '60s guitars and electric basses from the round Cavriago factory share the same layout, design and materials; basses are simply 4-string guitars with heavier strings. Perhaps Wandre did not want to invest in the tooling required to make a longer scale neck or maybe he just liked the concept, but not until the mid-60s did Wandre offer a long scale bass. This idea was also used by some US companies including Valco (with the National Style 85 and the Supro Pocket Bass), Carvin, Kay with their Value Leaders and a few others, but generally players expected at least a 29 1/2 to 30" scale on a bass guitar.
This bass features a single Davoli pickup mounted just under the fingerboard giving it a surprisingly full sound that mellows nicely at lower volume. It is mounted solidly to the body floating over the exposed aluminum spine, wired to a volume knob all the way down at the tail where the jack is also situated. The bridge is a Hofner-style slotted piece cut from aluminum, adjustable for height with 4 fretwire saddles. The strings run a long way down under an aluminum holding bar to a hollow aluminum tailpiece attached to the center insert above the "K" (Krundaal) logo plastic knob; the jack is mounted on the back edge.
This rather unusually wide and flat-feeling short-necked bass is another rare, wonderful and iconic piece of the Wandre puzzle, incredible looking in its multi-hued sparkling livery, unique as they all are, an extremely eccentric but cheerfully fun instrument to play.
Overall length is 43 1/4 in. (109.9 cm.), 17 5/8 in. (44.8 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 9/16 in. (4 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).
This very rare bass guitar has survived in original and quite decent condition; all original hardware is intact including the often missing strip of black plastic tape covering the spine of the aluminum neck. Wandre instruments often appear today missing parts or with damaged bodies due to the quirky nature of their construction; this one has survived very solid and all original.
There is very little of the common checking lines to the top with no cracking off or chipping to the starry covering; there are some puckered spots to the edge covering but no cracking or peeling. The back is also quite clean with only some small checks, scratches and scuffing. The heavy plastic body binding has some light discoloration and one small crack in the upper waist. The aluminum neck and headstock have some nicks and scratching, and the tape overlay on the spine has shrunken just a bit.
All hardware is original showing light general wear. The jack is an original 1/4" standard used on "export" models instead of the now-obsolete 5mm Geloso jack fitted to Wandres made for the Italian market. The adjustable bridge with its 4 fretwire saddles is fully intact as is the rest of the fairly minimal hardware; the original frets show minimal wear.
This single-pickup bass plays fine and sounds as good as any 24 3/4" scale 4-string we have heard; actually a usable instrument if not a pro-grade bass by modern standards. It is not particularly versatile but the Davoli pickup works well in bass mode, imparting a tight clarity even to the lowest notes. Wandre's space-age construction results in a fairly ethereal feeling semi-hollow bass but this is a very nice example ready to go in a modern hardshell case. Overall Excellent - Condition.
Loading...
Just arrived!
Item #