Between 1959 and 1969, Wandre created dozens of unique designs in partnership with various other companies, and he made instruments under many names for different distributors. This bass was made in partnership with pickup maker Davoli and was officially called the Etrurian. In English, “Etrurian” sounds like authentic frontier gibberish, so I suppose “Black Tulip” is a little more memorable.

It’s hard to know where to begin to describe this oddity. I can’t say it’s ugly, but it’s quite … let’s just say, different, like a cartoonish reverse Flying V crossed with a Mosrite. The pink and black color scheme screams for attention and adds to the bizarre vibe of the whole design—yet, one has to look hard to find the Wandre name anywhere on the bass. Because of this, there was much confusion over the years regarding the various names given to these instruments. The ones made during the partnership with Davoli are often incorrectly called Davolis, because the name is prominently stamped on their pickups.

By themselves, the soft Italian woods Wandre employed for necks weren’t up to the task of bracing against string tension, so he used plastic shells around the necks to reinforce his wacky amalgam of aluminum and wood. Despite this futuristic attempt at reinforcement, this bass’s neck has bowed, leaving it with a high action. I found that the high action helped me get into a “faux upright” frame of mind, à la NRBQ’s Joey Spampinato. An interesting side effect of the Black Tulip’s incredibly light body is that it feels like a short-scale bass, even though it has a normal 34” scale.

With the 90-degree-angle tuners hiding from view, this headstock looks different from any other bass I’ve seen. The mysterious screw-on black headstock cover’s only purpose seems to be to cover the neck’s construction, and its only ornamentation is the pink “nail file” with a single plastic jewel, which has to be removed for changing strings.

The electronics are fairly straightforward, once you realize there is a second pickup you can’t see in the bridge. The neck-position magnetic pickup sounds appropriately warm and “plunky.” Judging from the thin sound when soloed, the bridge pickup seems to be a piezo, but it can be useful for adding more definition and complexity to the magnetic pickup’s sound.

This bass is a ton of fun to play, has a sound that takes you back to a bygone era, and looks like it’s from outer space. I can’t help but smile when I see it, and especially when I play a few notes on it. Pioli, who died in 2004, was a visionary. We can all be glad that he graced the world of bass with some of his magic.