Shine SPB1008NT 8-String Bass
Stats
| List Price | Unknown |
| Body | Mahogany |
| Neck | Maple/Bubinga line |
| Top | Walnut |
| Tuners | grover |
| Frets | 24 jumbo |
| Fingerboard | Rosewood |
| Inlays | Abalone dot |
| Joint | Neck-thru-body |
| Scale | 34" |
| Pickups | 2 BB641A |
| Control | 3 band active EQ |
| Bridge | TH8 |
| Hardware | Satin Nickel |
| Finish | Honey Stain |
Pictures
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“She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts.”
— Han Solo
WARNING: This instrument has been known to inspire severe cases of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) in spendthrift musicians!
I bought this bass second hand from Music-Go-Round on March 30, 2008. It represents a lot of firsts for me: it’s my first 8-string bass; it’s my first instrument with neck-thru-body construction; and it’s my first instrument with active electronics. It’s not very nice-looking, but it was cheap, it’s easy to play, and it sounds good. It’s notable for being able to play any bass riff that’s meant to mirror a guitar riff (such as Pink Floyd’s “Money,” for example) by playing both parts at the same time. If you have a three-piece band, it frees up the guitarist to concentrate on solos. The only problem I ever had with it was a buzzy first fret, but a visit to Ron Jones at Cream City Music cleared that right up. The action is a little higher now, but nothing I can’t handle. I think I may try to find lighter gauge strings to put on it and see if that will allow for the action to be lowered.
When I brought it in for a set up, one of the staff members recognized it as having been sold originally from the Guitar Center where he used to work. Legend has it, the previous owner had suffered from a severe bout of GAS, and sold his big bass amp in order to buy it. He then kept it for only a month or two before hawking it to Music-Go-Round so that he could buy back his old rig. When I spotted it, it was only the second 8-string bass I had ever seen, after a Rickenbacker 4008 at Wade’s Guitar Shop about 10 years earlier. Although I would still contend that this example is an excellent entry model in the field of 8-string basses, if I had been smart, I would have done a little more research on the Internet before taking the plunge on this thing. I would have discovered that 8-string—and even 12-string!—basses are not as uncommon as I had thought, nor as ugly as this Shine model, nor as expensive as a Rickenbacker (but then again, few guitars are). So now I’m trying to sell it privately, make back the money that I paid for it (or as much as possible), and eventually replace it with a Hagstrom H8.
