Daisy Rock "Girl Guitars". 3/4 size, shorter scale length. Designed to encourage younger females to take up music. Not just silly looks: they seem pretty well thought out.

I can testify to that because I own 2 of the wee beasties.

Happened like this: I was in Songbird Music (Toronto, Ontario), playing an utterly gorgeous ($3000) Alembic bass. My friend Alfie Smith thought I was in danger of trading my car for it and leaving him without a ride home. To distract me, he took this silly-looking red heart-shaped bass down and handed it to me. I can take a joke: I plugged it in and discovered . . . it felt absolutely perfect for me - slim neck, great action, near-perfect fingerboard radius. Passive pickup, single coil, designed by David Duncan. Sounded better then any $500 (Cdn) bass had a right to.

Two of them I said? I eventually ordered another one (black) and had it converted to fretless.

Great schtick on stage, too - a short round man wearing a red heart-shaped bass proclaiming. "I'm secure in my masculinity, AND in touch with my feminine side at the same time!"

All that aside, don't write 'em off just for their appearance. Judging by my experience with the "Heartbreaker" bass, they're also serious instruments.