Bass of the Week: Bonobo Guitars Double Neck Headless Bass

Bonobo Guitars Double Neck Headless Bass

As I’ve said many timed before, Facebook is a great tool for discovering awesome instruments. I saw bassist Roey Haviv’s quick demo of his new double-neck headless bass from Bonobo Guitars while scrolling through my feed and my jaw dropped. With one fretless neck and one fretted neck, the bass is made for versatility.

It’s designed after the Zira model, which is still a work in progress. Bonobo luthier Jeremy Moldovan-Trujillo built the behemoth with an African mahogany body with dual roasted maple necks.

“I went to work on basic design starting with a single cut body I had just designed,” he explains. “I laid it out for two necks making them as close as I thought comfortable, then coming up with a good way to do the lower bout to reduce size/weight and still have it look proportionate and aesthetically pleasing. Once Roey saw what I drew up it was a go, though it took some time to finally decide and purchase parts.”

Besides its unique design, the bass has several neat aspects that set it apart. The fingerboard, for example, is called Blackwood. “It is an engineered wood product made by Blackwood Tec. to replace African ebony, the luthier tells us. “It is made from Monterey Pine that goes through a proprietary process that compresses the wood and injects it with the dye and a natural resin. The result is a wood that has the look, density, and hardness of good ebony but is way more stable and not nearly as susceptible to moisture and climate changes.”

The electronics include a pair of EZI pickups custom made for the instrument with a three-way rotary switch, and series/parallel push-pull volume controls.

Check out Haviv’s demo and explanation of the bass:

Bonobo Guitars Double Neck Headless Bass Specs:

Body:African Mahogany
Necks:Roasted maple
Fingerboards:Blackwood engineered ebony alternative
Frets:Jescar jumbo EVO frets
Pickups:Custom EZI Humbuckers
Hardware:Hipshot headless bridge units
Controls:Wired with a three way rotary switch and series/ parallel push pull volume controls.
Finish:Tung oil

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