[513]

Originally Posted by VOXguy

Nothing plays better - NOTHING, especially for long gigs. The closest second is a Hofner (have that too).

My favorite is the longer scale '67, but my fantasy is another bat wing pickguard '64 Cougar like I played in 1964.

By the way, I know of at least three different pickups used on Cougars and of my three present Courgar there are two of those; so the guy who says there was only one was mistaken. There are the white plastic four pole pickups ('66 & later Cougars), the chrome pop-up pickup called the "toaster" that was also used on the LYNX guitar(late '64/early '65), and finally another chrome pop-up with round holes instead of the slits on the "toaster" (late '65s).

I have also been asked about dating Cougars. The '64 had the bat wing pick guard, mother of pearl fret inlays and the heavy chrome gear knobs. The '65 has the inlays and the heavy chrome gear knobs, but different pickups and the teardrop pickguard. The '66 has no inlays on its ebony fretboard, flat riveted on gear knobs, a tear drop pickguard and the white pickups. The '67 is the same as the '66 except it has one more fret (all Cougars have a top fret right under the nut not found on most guitars) on the fretboard and is about 1" longer than the '66. They didn't make them in Italy much longer to my knowledge.

Hi,

I'm new on this forum. I joined to give some details about the first bass I played.
It was a cherry red with black sunburst Italian hollowbody bass.
I was able to identify it as a model '64 batwing pickguard Cougar.
The previous owner that passed it over to me in 1983 had been doing some modifications on it.
It was in a state when I got it.
It has no brandname on the headstock, which could mean that it's a copy, made in Italy.
Or models without brandname were sold on the continent, and branded ones with a logo on the headstock were sold overseas.

Anyway, I did some work on the bass, got it more or less functional and learnt to play on it. I also did my first gig on bass with it.
After that it went down, a bandmember gave it it's last sounds and dipped it in goldpaint to relic it.

I've used some of the remnants on a Ibanez EB0 bass, the original (by then decorated) pickguard was taken by another bassplayer that wanted to do up his jazzbass with it.

I did like the sound and the weigth of the cougar, although I have to underline that the one i started off with had an altered bridge pickup and a Gretsch type steel bridge. A guitar player described it's sound as Rickenbacker like, back then.

It's replacement is a Hofner Cavern that sounds similar in some ways,
I do like the smaller body of a violin bass, the flatness of the cougar has it's nice sides too.

[jules]

Hi and welcome

Crucianelli were making hollow bodies for Vox at this time (1964), but they also made them under other makes too, so it is not surprising to find non-Vox ones

Sounds like an interesting bass. Do you have any pictures?

[513]

Originally Posted by jules

Hi and welcome

Crucianelli were making hollow bodies for Vox at this time (1964), but they also made them under other makes too, so it is not surprising to find non-Vox ones

Sounds like an interesting bass. Do you have any pictures?

This is how it looked after the paintjob, the pickguard was missing then.
The headstock was black with a white line around it.
The bridge and the Hofner pickup have been placed by the previous owner.
It had a broken headstock that had been glued back on again too.
Heavily road worn so to speak.

[VOXguy]

I have a photo of the 1964 I owned when it was still new. I'll get it scanned this week. I'll also post photos of my other Cougars.

I'm waiting for my wife to go out of town later this week to get some photos. Last week she called me at work and said "Do you know you have 16 guitars?" and I said yeah, but most of them are "old" and a lot of those cases are empty. Anyway she cooled down. Thank goodness she hasn't found the other 20 or so yet (we have a very large house and parts of it no one goes there very often). And there are three in my office at work.

[Repairman77]

LOL VOXguy;
I had about 20 at one stage but recently got rid of a few.
They just don't understand do they; I think my OH has just given up.
The garage which is also my music room/workshop is so cluttered she'd never notice if I smuggled another few in LOL.
Mike.

[VOXguy]

I now have a photo of my Cougars on my photo album. Look close at my '65 fireburst, its basically the same as the '64 with the exception of the '64s bat shaped pickguard and black truss rod cover.