Vintage Acoustic – Black Widow Bass
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The Acoustic Control Corporation was well known for making amplifiers but decided to try their hands at offering guitars. The result was the vintage Acoustic Black Widow Bass.
What’s the Story?
Actually, that’s a good question. There isn’t a lot of information about the Widow, we don’t even know the production numbers, and what little information there is seems to be conflicting.
What makes it even more complicated is that Acoustic didn’t actually make these guitars. The original design was made by Paul Barth who worked at Rickenbacker for a time. It was his company, Bartell, which manufactured the first slew of Widows. The story goes that since Bartell couldn’t keep up with the demand production was outsourced to Matsumoku of Japan.
1969 Hohner Black Widow
Some sources place Acoustic’s guitar production from 1969-1974 while others say it didn’t begin until 1972. In looking around I’ve seen several Black Widows sold that were dated 1969, however, these were not offered under the Acoustic label.
All the Widows I’ve seen for the years 1969-1970 were made by the German company Hohner and were carried under their label. However, they are often referred to as a Hohner/Bartell Black Widow.
The Hohner model differed from the Acoustic model because it had two “f” holes with two pickups, were typically fretless and, although they came mostly in black, they were also available in natural and sunburst colors.
To the left is a picture of a Hohner Black Widow in the rare natural color.
Vintage Acoustic Bass
The Black Widow that most are familiar with is the vintage Acoustic model manufactured from 1972-1974 and made mostly in Japan, although Mosrite founder, Semie Mosely, was said to have produced the final 200 Widow basses and guitars.
The basses had a 33½”scale length, semi-hollow double-cutaway maple body with a single split pickup with adjustable pole pieces and a 20 fret rosewood fingerboard. Most, if not all, were black and they had a red pad on the back with an hourglass design stitched into it. It’s easy to see where they got their name from.
Acoustic Black Widow
Black Widow Pad
The Real Thing
These vintage Acoustic basses were originally available only through dealers who sold their amplifiers. What is interesting about these basses is that it was not a copycat design. Most bass manufacturers of the day were simply copying and slightly modifying the successful designs of other company’s models.
These basses were also of superior quality compared to other Japanese makes of that era. The pickups could almost be considered high-output for that time period and it was just a great sounding bass.
Collectibility
The widow wasn’t produced for very long and they weren’t made in great quantities. Even though they are rare you will come across them from time to time and they won’t cost a small fortune.
If you can get one in excellent condition you can expect to pay from $900-$1,200. The ones made by Semie Moseley which used Mosrite parts may run you a bit more, if the seller knows what he has.
Acoustic’s foray into guitars didn’t last long and they would continue making amplifiers. But they took a shot and gave us the really cool looking and great sounding vintage Acoustic Black Widow Bass.
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