VINTAGE - Odyssey - B200 Ash Bass w/ Original HD Case (Tobacco Shade -1977) - USED

This is a consignment sale item.

Vintage and very rare 1977 Odyssey B200 Ash 4-string neck-through bass guitar, in excellent condition for its nearly 50-year vintage. A fantastic example of high-quality Canadian craftsmanship. This bass has been very well cared for and comes complete with its original rectangular hardshell case and original Odyssey factory warranty card.

The Odyssey B-200 Ash Bass is a rare, custom-shop-quality vintage boutique instrument handcrafted in Vancouver, Canada, during the late 1970s and early 1980s by luthier Attila Balogh and his partners. Positioned below the top-tier Series 100, the B200 features a distinctive carved solid ash body and neck-through construction without body binding. It has a satin “Tobacco Shaded” finish and was factory-loaded with a set of black vintage Bartolini HI-A pickups.

The HI-A pickups were among Bartolini’s first pickup designs from the early to mid-1970s. These original-series Bartolini pickups produce a rich, warm tone with more low end than stock ’70s Fender bass pickups and slightly less high end than modern Fender bass pickups.

“HI-A” was the original brand name used by Bill Bartolini when he began making magnetic pickups in 1973. Designed to reproduce the organic and complex response of acoustic instruments through asymmetric magnetic fields, these vintage pickups were eventually rebranded simply as Bartolini Pickups & Electronics. The pickups in this B200 Ash were manufactured just before the company rebranding in 1978, making this pre-Bartolini-branded set particularly rare and collectible.

The bass features a 5-ply laminated Mahogany/Maple neck, 24 jumbo frets, a rosewood fingerboard, and abalone dot inlays. It has no side-dot markers, along with a brass nut and an inlaid brass Odyssey headstock logo.

The bass retains its original set of high-quality Grover Titan Series 2+2 high-mass gold tuners, as well as a custom-machined high-mass brass 4-string bridge and independent tailpiece.

These handcrafted, 100% Canadian-made instruments were produced in very limited numbers, making them highly sought-after collector's items among enthusiasts of vintage Canadian-built gear worldwide.

Also included in this listing is a picture of an original Odyssey price list dated May 1, 1978, providing an interesting perspective on the original cost of this instrument during the late ’70s.

• Made in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: 1977
• Serial Number: 77-080
• Total Weight of Bass (without case): 4.62 kg / 10.18 lbs