Attila Balogh Odyssey Bass

This is a made-in-Vancouver Atilla Odyssey four-string bass. I don't know the exact year of production and this information is hard to obtain. It is a neck-through design with a rosewood board and 24 frets, standard 34" scale. The Grover tuners have an open gear at the back and an "S" shaped tuning key. The nut is an ivory style material that has yellowed significantly. I believe the neck and body are the same wood type. The body is a P style. The wood may be maple due to the colour in the lighter parts, the slight hints of quilt and the weight of the overall instrument (quite heavy) but I'm no expert judge of this. It has an active (EMG) split pickup. The headstock has two mirrored "A" logos on it in black and silver. The truss rod cover is three-ply plastic, black with a white center.

On the body there is a volume and tone knob which are chromed with a flat top and tele-style except only partly knurled. There is a small toggle switch that is disconnected but was doubtless once a coil tap. It has a solid chromed Badass bridge firmly attached to the body, with individual adjustable string saddles (both height and intonation). The body is tobacco sunburst, with a hard clear finish and no pickguard. The sunburst carries on down the back of the neck all the way to and including both sides of the headstock. It is beautifully finished, with only a few minor dings none of which have broken the finish.

It's a versatile instrument, warm and full with good sustain and definition. You can hear the wood. Good sustain, very quiet electronics. I use it with a Peavey Mark VIII head and Trace Eliot horn-loaded 4-10. Best way to describe it...you can nail that Chris Squire "Roundabout" tone with this instrument. If I would put this in one category it would be prog.

Got it used so I don't know about the factory setup. But it's extremely playable with minimum fuss. Nice low action, no fret buzz all the way up the neck. Anyone who plays it loves the action although not everyone likes the glossy neck (I don't mind but I think people with sweaty hands find them sticky).

This instrument is extremely solid and reliable. Only needed to replace the jack as it started to crackle. I have never had to adjust any part of this instrument and it plays perfectly--neck, string height, intonation. I have gigged many times without a backup. Even the battery lasts forever in this bass.

Not applicable...they're long gone.

I will never ever give up this unique instrument willingly. I don't think it's replaceable so I keep good care of it.

I got this bass from an aquaintance in '95. He had two of them which he had taken to LA in the early eighties for a Punk project he was involved in. The one I got had been spray-painted black. Looks like the neck was maple stained red and you can see the grain of the ash body under the black. The other one he had was a Sunburst and he'd buchered it into a frettless. There is a tone and a volume for each Bartolini humbucker and one small threeway toggle that seems to go: neck-bridge-loud. I take it to jams and people can't believe it produces that much volume without active electronics. 24 frets on a 34" scale. Big chunky solid brass bridge, nobs, nut and rear coverplate. Plated Grover heads. Oh and the truss rod was broken when I bought it so there is a fair bit of shall we say "relief " in the neck but I love it anyway. Maybe I'll get that fixed someday.

I play it hard hard hard with a 1mm graphite pick and thickish strings mostly through a Hartke head with a Randall 2X15 but have played through a few nicer larger rigs. Very full sound. I always end up having to turn amps down that other people have been playing through. Doesn't slap to good but I'd be willing to bet thats the truss rod.

Like I said. Broken truss rod and black spray-paint. Can't beat it. No complaints about the electrics. Quiet no noise.

The hardware is rock solid and I'd be willing to bet it smashed a few things before the trussrod broke. Came with strap locks. I gig with it regularly.

I've been through a lot with this thing and if it were ever lost or stolen I would be quite upset. It's irreplaceable to me. It has character in spades. Point is anyone can screw up a bass and paint it black but if you screw up a really nice bass and age it just right you've got something to be proud of. Does that make sense? If I ever came across another Odyssey I'd snap it up in a second. Makes me proud to be Canadian.

My bass is a 24 fret four string made in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in 1974. It is a solid body with tone and volume knobs for each pickup and a three way wsitch. Both pickups are Bartiloni Humbuckers.
The body is mohogany with an ask/oak neck thrugh. Natural finish. Schaller tuners, very sweet bass.

I play mostly jazz and it sounds great for it. I play through a 100 watt ampeg amp which makes it really punchy with warm bottoms and clean highs. Deep rich sound. really good for slap but not to hot on harmonics. I play alot live and it has never let me down.
I dont like that it is very heavy but it help out the sound.

I do not know how this bass was set up in the factory.
It still has the original pickups in it which I think is cool.
There are no flaws that I have found.

This is the most reliable bass I have ever played. It has been through alot and the only thins wrong with it in almost thirty years are a few knicks and one fret starting to pop out. everything on this bass is solid. I have never needed the truss rod adjusted. I use this bass to play live all the time without a backup.

The maker of this bass died and his company dissapeared. you can't phone anybody about this bass or even look on the internet.

I have been playing this bass for over 4 years and it has never let me down. If it were stolen or lost I would search the world for another one. It playes beautifuly especially on ballads because it can hold a note for a very long time. One thing though is I wish that it were frettless. All the hardwear is solid brass and all the wiring hand done.
Please contact me if you want to know more.

My Odyssey 4-string dates from early to mid '80's. As far as I know it was manufactured in Canada. It has a strongly figured maple through neck (34") topped by a very high quality ebony fingerboard, fretted a full two octaves with big jumbo frets. The fingerboard is very wide but the profile is quite shallow so it's really easy to get around. Action is the lowest I've ever encountered on a bass.
The body wings are of a highly figured ash, and the whole instrument is finished in a light tobacco/amber sunburst.
The electrics consist of two passive Bartolini p-type pickups which have individual volume & tone pots. Each pickup also has a series/parallel switch & there is also an in phase/out of phase switch which works when both pickups are selected. All the switches including the pickup selector are mini toggles, which gives the bass a nice uncluttered appearance. Tuning machines are big gold plated open backed Grovers. The bridge is a big chunky gold plated original Badass. Body shape is a bit difficult to describe - it's original but still pretty much traditional. Quite wide but very comfortable due to the amount of contouring.

Being a passive bass the sound tends to be very dark & earthy, though it has more top end and definition than your average precision. I play a lot of different styles of music & the only thing I wouldn't use this bass for is slapped funk type stuff - it just doesn't sound right to me. For all rock/blues/prog styles it works just fine, having that ability to "sit in" with other instruments in a way that most active basses don't seem to do that well. Due to the coil taps & phase switch the bass is a lot more versatile than most passive basses, and excels at producing a really good Alembic/Entwhistle type growl. I currently use this bass through an old Trace Elliot head & 6x10 Ohm cabinet. I truely hate this amp & if I could afford to I would get an SVT!
The bass works fine both live & in the studio. Recorded it sits really well in a mix. I don't tend to play this bass live anymore as I'm too scared of it getting damaged or stolen.
My only fault with the bass soundwise is that the volume between neck & bridge pickup is very unbalanced - the neck pickup being far louder. Also I've got used to hearing active basses over the last 10 years so it can sound really dull until my ears get used to it again.

I would like to give this bass a 10 for this category but I can't for one reason - when new the bass had a lacquer crack along one of the laminates in the neck. The problem was purely cosmetic. This is how I came to own the bass! The guy that bought it from my local store saw this mark & became convinced the neck was going to drop off so he returned it & bought a Wal instead. Because the bass was now classed a damaged I picked it up for #90 instead of the #349 it had been the week before!
The bass was set up beautifully and the quality of finish (laquer crack accepted) is very good. Over the years the gold plating has gone a bit patchy but all in all it's a finely turned out beast.

No problems with any of this - I've owned it longer than any other bass and it has stood the tests of time, road & children without any problems at all. I've never had to adjust the neck since I got it! Guitar repairers have seen the neck & been amazed at how stable it is.It's even been defretted & refretted with no problems. It's built like a tank and if I wasn't so worried about losing it I would use it far more than I do - it's purely for home use these days.

I only found out by looking at your site today that the luthier who built it is no more. I'm trying to find out at the moment just how many of these basses & guitars there are out there. I never had to deal with the company so I can't comment on how good/bad they were.

I've been playing bass for about 22 years. I've owned a lot of different basses (Rickenbackers, Wal, JD,& a Chapman stick)& currently mainly play a Levinson Blade Jazz bass, which is a real beauty.
The thing I love about my Attila bass is that I still can't believe it's mine! When I first saw & tried this bass I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever heard, but being in school meant that there was no way I could afford to buy it. the chain of events that led to me owning it has always made me believe that it was destined to be mine, and I could never part with it. I can also remember the guitar version of this bass, which was finished in an incredible cherry sunburst - it played & sounded superb & I would love to get my hands on it so my bass wouldn't be lonely any more! It's out there somewhere....