Bass of the Week: Hot Wire Blues Bass
Hot Wire Basses took a page out of the old school with their Blues Bass. Modeled after the early fifties Kay Electric Bass, the Blues Bass is a vintage-style hollowbody, which the company notes was often played by four-stringers backing up Blues legends like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
While the design imitates an old Kay, Hot Wire made some adjustments. “The Blues Bass neck has a truss-rod and a dovetail-joint, both of which the original does not have,” they write. “Instead of plywood we use solid maple for the top. The original pickup is microphonic, we silenced it a bit to avoid finger noises and the like and also eliminate feedback. The bass has a trapeze string holder and Hipshot tuners.”
Hot Wire builds the Blues Bass by hand in Germany with a maple body, medium scale maple neck, and rosewood fingerboard. Its Bassculture pickup is controlled with Volume and Tone knobs. The bass is quite light, weighing in at approximately 5.5 pounds.
Hot Wire Blues Bass Specs:
| Strings: | 4 (5 available) |
| Design: | Hollowbody |
| Body: | Solid Maple Top and Rounded Back |
| Binding: | Bindings |
| Neck: | Maple |
| Fingerboard: | Rosewood |
| Frets: | 20 |
| Nut: | Bone |
| Truss Rod: | Fully Adjustable |
| Pickup: | Bassculture |
| Tuners: | Hipshot |
| Other: | Trapeze string holder, cutaway, vintage finish, custom options available |
For more information, check out the Hot Wire Basses website.
