Semi-hollow Archives

This week we’re checking out the Starfire II from Guild. The iconic semi-hollow bass first debuted in 1967 where it was used by artists like Jefferson Airplane’s Jack Casady and the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh. It was reintroduced in 2015 to the delight of many a bass player. Central to the Starfire II’s design is a pair of Guild BS-1...

Jack Casady and Epiphone are celebrating twenty years since the introduction of the bass legend’s signature bass. Launched in 1997, the bass will be offered this year in a special limited edition outfit defined by a flame maple veneer top and a Wine Red finish. It will also come with a custom gig bag, deluxe leather strap, and a certificate...

Bass builder Stephan Mongeon sent me some photos of his latest build and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. The Stellart Guitars Nemesis is a six-string neck-through semi-hollow fretless bass. Judging by these pictures, it’s a work of art, too. Mongeon builds basses with his wife, Ella, in Quebec where they’ve been honing their craft for...

Besides celebrating the 30th anniversary of the SR this year, Ibanez also introduced a new semi-hollow body model called the SRH. The bass comes in four and five-string versions with the option of fretted or fretless fingerboards, all of which all built with a mahogany semi-hollow body and a spruce top. The body has a single f-hole with a special...

Steve Lawson has teamed up with Elrick Bass Guitars to release a signature model. The Gold Standard Steve Lawson Custom Bolt-on Neck Bass Guitar is a semi-hollow body that features the company’s “heel-less” body design. The bass is built with a maple body topped with marbled walnut. Its quarter-sawn maple neck sports a 33-inch scale and is bolted to the...

Ibanez gave their Artcore line of basses a rustic turn this year with the Artcore Vintage Series. The semi-hollowbody, short-scale basses come in distressed finishes to give the vibe of an old workhorse instrument, right down to the antiqued pickup covers. Each of the models is built with a maple body, which the company says balances out the “boomy” quality...

This week we’re checking out the Chowny CHB-1, a semi-hollow body bass with lots of flair. Designed in the UK and manufactured in China, the bass centers around a maple body and neck. It comes in a variety of flamed maple finishes as well as flat black or flat white colors, all of which are accented with 5-layer binding. Its...

Guild Guitars is introducing two new basses this summer with the Chris Hillman Signature Byrds Bass and the Starfire Bass II. The company revealed the instruments at the 2015 Summer NAMM Show in Nashville, Tennessee. Chris Hillman anchored the Byrds during the mid-1960’s and used a Guild Starfire to record the songs “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “Eight Miles High,” and “The...

Bass builder Rob Allen has a way with creating clean designs that are very playable pieces of art. Our bass of the week is the luthier’s Deep model, a semi-hollow body bass available in four and five-string models that features a classic f-hole. “The body starts out with 3″ thick alder stock and is surfaced down to 2 1/8″, and...

I love checking out new basses that set themselves apart from the pack, and the LedBelli Jonah does just that. The fretless, single-cut, semi-hollow bass is a real eye catcher. The company just shared pictures of the recently completed Jonah #015, which features a stunning book-matched California Redwood burl theme. The bass’s body is semi-hollow and chambered with f-holes. Its...

The DiPinto Belvedere Deluxe bass is a hot rod with strings. The retro styled bass has is adorned with an extensive pearl pickguard, white binding, star inlays in the fretboard and a sparkle finished headstock. The bass is built with a semi-hollow mahogany body, a bolt-on maple neck, and ebony fingerboard. DiPinto adds some extra flair with chrome covers for...

Fender is quite busy these days. The company has just announced they are bringing back their Coronado bass, as the newest addition to their Modern Player series. The Coronado, originally introduced in 1966, was Fender’s first hollow-body instrument line including both basses and guitars. The instruments were designed by Roger Rossmeisl, who previously worked at Rickenbacker. The line ultimately had...