Moni Bassus bass and Moni Solo guitar were made at Szegedi Hangszergyבr (Instrument Factory of Szeged). The factory was famous for making bowed acoustic instruments. In the sixties they saw the popoularity of the electric guitars and produced a couple of electrified instruments. There were only several models and, reportedly, all of them were of a very low quality.

Monis are not very good quality guitars, but quite rare. The Bassus features a tremolo bridge - probably because Solo guitar and Bassus had identical hardware, including tuner keys, the bridge, the pickguard assembly, the string tree etc.

Not a surprise that Hungarian musicians prefered Jolanas to Monis.


Credits:
Lordbizzarre (Belgium),
Sandor Berger (Hungary),
Morula (Hungary).


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Here are some comments on this instrument from Sandor Berger (Hungary):

On the pictures you can see the serial number, the hidden tremolo system and the electronics of the guitar. The pickups made by Balogh Patent Budapest; unfortunately I don't have any information about this company.

Playing the bass is terrible, because the side of the frets can cut yout hand while you try to move it... The bridge is also "ideal" for six strings. But that's the small problem, the real problem is the tuning keys. It's the same as on the Moni Solo so I think you can imagine how hard is it to tune the bass with guitar tuners. Surprisingly, the sound of this thing is very good!!!! Very warm and rich sounding. There are two volume potentiometers - one for each pickup.