Bass Gear - Page 204

Joe Kruse has spent the past eight years working with Carl Thompson and two more years in Roger Sadowsky’s shop. Now he’s striking out on his own with MBJ Guitars, which focuses on unique short-scale designs and killer wood combinations. The luthier gave us the rundown on his Nutsy bass, which is our bass of the week. “I used mahogany...

New for 2015, Schecter has built upon their Diamond Series of basses with the Diamond Plus Series. The new lineup includes the Diamond-J Plus and Diamond-P Plus in a variety of finishes. Both models are built with a choice of swamp ash or alder for the body, a 6-bolt maple with carbon fiber reinforcements, and either a maple or rosewood...

Ernie Ball is fusing the elements of two types of strings with their new Slinky Flatwound Electric Bass Guitar Strings. Developed with the company’s patented cobalt steel alloy, the strings are described as having the sound of round wound strings with the smooth feel of traditional flatwound strings. The strings are constructed with a cobalt ribbon wire wrapped around a...

Spector Basses has introduced a new Mike Starr Signature version of their Euro4LX bass. Available as a limited edition, the bass is crafted in the company’s Czech factory and will only be available for order in the 2015 calendar year. “We started working with Mike on this before he passed away,” Spector’s PJ Rubal told us. “He’s known for his...

This week we check out a custom Cremona 5 by New York Bass Works. Built by luthier David Segal for bassist Sean Joynes, the instrument is based around a rare wood from central Africa called Moabi. Joynes gave us the scoop: “This new Cremona 5 bass is made of Red Alder with a Moabi Pommele (African Pearwood) top,” he wrote....

After announcing the pedal at this year’s NAMM Show, Tech 21 is now shipping the Boost Comp. The all-analog compressor utilizes FET-based technology, which the company says is inherently warm, while simplifying the controls for easy tweaking. The pedal offers pre and post-effect tone shaping capability with its Presence and Tone controls. Presence adds a pre-compression tonal boost in the...

Our monthly celebration of the top bass gear news coverage continues. Here are the top 10 most read gear stories on No Treble for the month of April, 2015. As always, it comes with a warning: may cause GAS. 1. Demeter Amplification Bass-400D Hybrid Bass Amplifier Amplification guru James Demeter was at NAMM this year to introduce the prototype of...

Warwick is introducing a new lineup called the German Pro Series, which aims to offers their German-made instruments at an affordable price. All of the basses are produced in Germany by Warwick and a partner company. “The tone woods for the German Pro Series are naturally air dried, hand selected, and glued at Warwick in Markneukirchen, also the necks, and...

Levy’s Leathers has introduced the MGJ2 Strap Series, featuring nine textured jacquards. Each of the nine models is lined with a tucked edge leather backing and tri-glide adjustment. The straps are two inches wide and adjustable up to 56 inches in length. An XL version adds an extra 12 inches to the overall length. They are available now for $93.30....

Two Notes Audio Engineering introduced their new Preamplifiers series at Musikmesse this year including the Le Bass. Housed in a pedal format, the tube preamp features dual channels with a Fusion mode to blend them together. The company says it also runs internally at 200 volts to “preserve the interaction between you and your bass while working with your other...

Vitaly Ganya sent us a note suggesting we check out the Brutal Guitars Egregore 5, and I’m glad he did. The instrument is the first bass by Latvian luthier Andrew Schultz and was made in collaboration with Ganya for his band avant-garde band Theatrum. Ganya gave us the whole scoop: “The body of this five string instrument is made from...

Artisan Bass Works has introduced the Fidelity Series of basses, which they describe as the pinnacle of five years of development and testing. Featuring their ANSIR angled neck technology, the Fidelity series is available in several configurations with the main version being the Fidelity Maple. The Fidelity Maple comes with a figured maple bookmatched top and walnut stringer over a...