Thinline

The history of the thinline bass begins at Framus with the design of the Star bass: A small, light, semi-acoustic electric bass with a pointy cutaway, pickup plate, and a scale that made it playable for guitar players - that's how it was presented at the Frankfurt music trade show in 1956. Framus promoted the Star-Bass with the reasoning that it would free the upright bass player of his exasperating transport worries.

This early electric bass was so convincing sound-wise that it became part of many dance bands. One oft he first musicians who use the Star Bass was Terence"Jet" Harris legendary bass player for the British instrumental band "The Shadows". This model of the early sixties, already with a bigger body shape, received the nickname "Stone Bass" - thanks to Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. The rare Akkerman-Bass from the seventies had a resemblance to the early Star bass, whereas the thinline models Atlantik, BL, Caravelle and Sorento were based on the classic ES-Design. A real Framus original was the TV-Starbass 5/151 with asymmetrical softline body.