Travis Bean TB-3000 Wedge

#30....possibly made mid-late 70's (?). Solid Aluminum neck w/ rosewood board. White finish.

This is a LOUD guitar!! I've read other reviews that said the same , and they are right!

The heel of the neck is a little thick for my taste...but it'll do.
Better balance than I expected. Feels constricting though...

Hmmm...no problems yet...

Out -o - biz I believe...

I own alotta guitars (as of this writing...42). I got a Veleno, which in comparison is alot better. though I do like the wedge's look, it might not be the most "practical" stage guitar, but it is an attention getter...which I need all the help I can get!
check me out at: www.williamweber.com

This hi-tech, aluminum-neck rocketship was most likely manufactured (apropos term!) early 1977 in Sun Valley, California. A total of only FORTY-FIVE Travis Bean Wedges were built, all in '76-'77. The guitar is essentially a TB1000 Artist with a fairly large, wedge-shaped koa body; it's somewhat similar to a Flying V, but narrower, and without the big notch cut out at the end of the body - get the picture? It's WEIRD. The top is also carved, really deep-dished. The finish is a slightly pearled off-white. Controls are set up as on a Les Paul, but WAY down at the end of the wedge, so no pinkie volume swells here, jack! There is also a coil-tap switch, but the tap must be pretty late in the winding, because the effect is rather subtle. The pickups are Travis' own large overwound humbuckers in chrome-plated covers. The neck is one chunk of polished milled aluminum; the tuners are Schallers. Non-original case; more on that below.

For loud, overdriven rock, this guitar has got a GIGANTIC sound. Boy, are these things loud - the loudest non-active guitars I've ever played. The pickups are potted and virtually noiseless. This particular instrument sounded a lot meatier than my poplar-bodied Bean Artist, but then I put a NOS koa body on the Artist and now they sound very similar, which is to say GODLIKE. A very cool thing is that you can play the most potentially mud-inducing chord voicings, and, nope, each string still sings out wonderfully! You can even clean and brighten your sound by backing off the volume knob, much more successfully than with a Les Paul, for example.

My Wedge is still set up a wee bit high, owing to some slightly rusted allen screws on the low-E bridge saddle, but it plays great. String tension feels pretty light on Beans to start with, so I took advantage of those thunderous pickups and put 008s on! Whee!! You can't adjust the pickups (they're screwed right into the "neck"), but you wouldn't want to anyway. Here's a category where the Wedge loses points, though: it's an unbalanced design, and it tends to meander WAY off to my left when I have it on a strap. My picking hand ends up over my left hip! Coupled with the fact that this is a rather large instrument, it can get awkward. If you're thinking about buying one of these just for the rarity or flash appeal, be aware it's not the easiest instrument in the world to get comfortable with. I still think it's worth the hassle!!

This guitar is built like a battleship. This is one area where Beans really shine. I guess with the Wedge you just need to mind your personal space; mark off your area on stage - the thing really sticks out... but that's the idea, isn't it? Everything on this instrument would be near-perfect after nearly 25 years if the original Anvil case's foam lining hadn't disintegrated and then re-integrated with the guitar's finish... Fortunately, that's only on one edge, and it's not too disfiguring. So apart from that admittedly unforseeable "oops" I say this thing is A++ sturdy - "The Rocket of Gibraltar!"

I don't think Travis or his associates have the time or the inclination to tend to second-hand owners of original Beans. They're concentrating on trying to sell the new Beans... For $7000 apiece... Fortunately, if you've got a soldering gun and a set of allen wrenches, you can take the whole thing apart and put it back together in a couple hours. It's a guitar - and a piece of machinery!

I've been playing for twenty-plus years and I've owned about forty guitars, including Pauls, Strats, Mustangs, Gibson hollows, Gretsch, Dean, Hamer, Kramer, etc. Apart from a Veleno, the Travis Bean Wedge has always been my most-sought instrument. I never thought I'd actually own one! I'm quite satisfied; the guitar was well-worth two grand, although I tend to play my Bean Artist just as often. The Wedge is a wild attention-getter that happens to sound like a very melodic nuclear detonation - what a combination!! Overall rating 9 or 10, depending on the weather...