Visited the Hallmark World Headquarters today. Bob had two new prototype basses with medium-scale length necks.
Since I have been bugging him to do this for a year or so, I was pleased to see these. Now, these are not for sale, and I have dibs on the single-pickup sunburst one. The two-pickup black one is going to a pro touring musician whom Bob can name if he wants to.
Bob plans to have these on the market, should all go well, early next year.
Anyway, these sound and play great! Having had an original Mosrite single-pickup sunburst back in the late 1960s-early 1970s (it used to be in my avatar), I can say these have, as my memory serves, a more distinct voice; almost Rickenbackerish to my ear. However, Bob and I were playing these through an old Mosrite guitar amp (at low volume, natch) and that could have colored the sound, too. Seems to me that my Mosrite one had a shorter scale than these; more like the Hofner I had then, too, but I can't swear to that.
So, here is an iPhone pic. I tried five times to upload a set of four pics, but the I kept getting a "Your images may only be up to 1000 pixels high" alert. I reduced the pics several times, finally down to 600 pixels high in PhotoBucket and still kept getting that alert, so I am giving up on the set of pics. Maybe one photo will get through!
Any questions about these basses can be answered by the Bobster:
Pretty attractive, eh? The sunburst has a set neck. The black one has a bolt-on neck and the neck plate has a nifty engraved Hallmark logo.
--Jim
