There is little information available about this extremely rare tabletop version of the Weltmeister® Basset, but it is in many ways identical to its predecessor, the Basset 1. Difficult to acquire in the US, this rare "Cold War" electro-mechanical keyboard instrument was in production for a brief time in the late 1960s by accordion manufacturer, Weltmeister in East Germany.
There is little information available about this extremely rare tabletop version of the Weltmeister® Basset, but it is in many ways identical to its predecessor, the Basset 1. Difficult to acquire in the US, this rare "Cold War" electro-mechanical keyboard instrument was in production for a brief time in the late 1960s by accordion manufacturer, Weltmeister in East Germany. The battery-powered Basset 2 was popular in the 1960s and early 1970s with East German dance bands. Its mechanical piano action was derived from its big brother, the Weltmeister® Claviset. Pressing a key causes the lip of a rubber disc to pluck the tine. When the key is released, the sound is stopped by a foam damper. A warning label in German, Cyrillic Russian, and English warns of "danger of life" if you connect it to a radio or an amplifier with AC-DC!
Resources: Keyscape Reference Guide
All musical instrument manufacturer and product names used in Keyscape are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with Spectrasonics. The trademarks of other manufacturers are used solely to identify the products of those manufacturers whose tones and sounds were studied during Spectrasonics sound development. All names of musical artists and instrument inventors have been included for illustrative and educational purposes only and do not suggest any affiliation or endorsement of Keyscape by any artist or instrument inventor.
