Dating a Lightshow bass

[antipodean]

If the electrics were changed over that could explain the higains - a '72/3 4005 should have toasters....

Is it possible that the body was constructed in '68 and not matched up with a neck until '72/3?

[doctorwho]

... The 331LS Light Show guitars were made in 1971 (if the registry can be believed) ...

Ahem ... look again ... my 331LS has a JH (August 1970) date code (the earliest one in the register).

The orange caps on the control harness are definitely not 1968-era, as my 331LS has the era-correct blue drop caps, so I would agree with the wiring harness being changed out.

The lights on the boards are the "dyed auto lamps" type, which makes that a Type II circuit (my 331LS has the older Type I circuit).

Paul, maybe you could e-mail RIC service with the serial number and see whether they could look it up to confirm (or contradict) what model it was assigned to when it left the factory?

[8mileshigh]

I have a feeling Oyama's might have been the one Matt Hill drove half way across the States to buy from a music store in the 80's and the restored it at the factory with JH? It's a great story but I've forgoten the entire history of it. I think it may have just been the bass with no lights and JH had one set left at the factory - something like that? Matt or John would be able to say for sure.

[jwilli]

Graham, I heard pretty much the same story. Possibly a pawn shop in Las Vegas had the carcass. Definitely put back together in Santa Ana.

[bassduke49]

Well, figuring that this one will be the only one we'll ever see in such detail, I guess my question of when IT was built should be changed to when THEY were built (originally), and I'm going to modify the captions on this one to say "restored."

Anyone know of decent photos and info on any of the other four?

Thanks everyone for the continually interesting story!

[8mileshigh]

I found an old email from Matt, which explains a little more of that lightshow's history............

"Yes I did have a 4005 light show bass. I think there are 4-5 if I’m not mistaken. Three were original early 1970s and two (one?) were made in the early 1990s from NOS parts. All were Burgundy Glo as far as I know. Of the original 3, one was made for the Byrds, one for the Jefferson Airplane and one for the Kimberly Diamonds, a topless showband in Las Vegas. Mine was the one made for the Kimberly Diamonds. John (Hall) re-sprayed it Jetglo when it was restored in the mid 1980s. I sold it before I moved to Scotland in 1994. Scott Jennings of Route 66 guitars brokered it for me. It went to Japan as far as I know. The one that was the Byrds’s I think is the one that John Entwhistle owned"

[bassduke49]

Jetglo, eh? So this one I have photos is Burgundy, so not likely the Kimberly Diamond/Matt Hill one that supposedly went to Japan. Interesting!

[jwilli]

The mystery continues...... This is fun!

[8mileshigh]

So here's two of them.......

[8mileshigh]

And a link to Matt's old one - jetglo........

http://www.route66guitars.com/Gallery/f ... -full.html

This looks like the one featured on page 91 of the Smith Book with the Kimberly Diamonds. Another angle is shown in the Rittor book on page 39

[8mileshigh]

I think that's it for photographic evidence...........three lightshow basses. The Kimberly Diamonds' one.....originally BG, now re-finished JG

[Scastles]

Whether accurate or not, the Who gear website gives Entwistle's LS serial number as GE 2208, which makes it May of '67. It doesn't say where or how they obtained the serial number, or it's validity, but the number does match up. It also says he only used it briefly in the early '70's.

[johnhall]

Matt's bass was formerly the one owned by The Jefferson Starship. When I first got a call about it from a music store in Albuquerque, I did some quick checking and learned everyone who had owned one still had theirs . . . until I called the Starship office in San Francisco. The girl there said they couldn't find it and didn't care either . . . that someone had sold it for drugs.

At that point I felt it was fair game and within an hour my friend Matt hill and another buddy started a straight through drive from California and bought it (very cheaply) the next morning.

It came back here in pretty poor condition but with a few original parts, including the jack plate. Sadly the light show electronics were missing. However, my closet has quite a few goodies, which includes some original vintage stuffed circuit boards like this and we were able to make a total restoration.

The earliest light shows, especially those that folks like the Starship had, were made beginning in 1967. I can remember my dad and I flying to San Francisco to deliver the bass to some funky club on Fillmore; it was my sophomore year (1967) high school teacher that was into the San Francisco music scene (also an early proponent of the Phantasmagorian) and he's the one that put this together.

[sloop_john_b]

Was Entwistle's 4005LS included in the massive auction of his guitars a few years back?

[8mileshigh]

Was Entwistle's 4005LS included in the massive auction of his guitars a few years back?

Nope........