Heiko Hoepfinger, BassLab Founder and Composite Bass Innovator, Has Died
We have sad news to share today. BassLab founder and innovative luthier Heiko Hoepfinger has passed away. Few details are available, but the news was shared on the BassLab website.
“It is with great sadness that we bid farewell to Heiko Höpfinger. Heiko was a passionate guitar maker. He had a special knack for things that make sound, vibrate, and have character: for guitars, for engines, for his Kawasaki,” it states. “He also remained connected to his craft through his words. With his passing, we lose a beloved son, big brother, and friend whose personality, experience, and passion will live on in our memories. We will all miss you very much.”
Hoepfinger’s interest in music began at an early age with classical guitar at age 8. He taught himself bass and electric guitar starting at 12 and played a wide variety of styles including jazz, rock, and hardcore.
He studied physics at the University of Kassel in Germany, focusing on energy storage systems. In 1993, his scientific perspective caught up with his love of music.
“Heiko had the original idea on how to improve today’s basses,” the BassLab USA website explains. “The idea consisted of a singular body and neck construction, and a different way to handle and chemically support composite materials and to calculate and predict the acoustic behaviour. He calculated the first instrument completely theoretically, before he began construction of the prototype bass at the start of 1994. Even at that early stage, Heiko says that his ideas worked as far as the sound was concerned, but some of the cosmetic details still needed refinement. This design formed the basis for the L-BOW series.”
Hoepfinger founded BassLab in 1996, beginning with only custom orders to continue developing his tuned mixed composite material. The innovative designs included a “monocoque” one-piece, fully integrated acoustic body. He created the STD, L-BOW, and SOUL models.
Bassist Colin Edwin reflected on his friend’s unique approach in a touching post on his Substack.
“Not using wood as a construction material for his creations, Heiko didn’t have the luthier’s more usual carpentry background,” he explains. “Instead, somehow, working in the European Space Program, he had made the leap to making what he called ‘tuneable composite’ bass guitars from the materials he had been working with in fuel cell development, he explained it to me once but I couldn’t really follow. I still can’t quite imagine how you make the transition from scientist to bass maker, but Heiko obviously had the required combination of imagination, knowledge and courage to do something very different, especially considering those unconventional designs.”
Aside from his innovative designs, Hoepfinger was a longtime contributor to Premier Guitar, where he wrote about the physics and evolution of bass gear.
Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Heiko Hoepfinger.
Check out YouTuber Thunderthumb playing on a six-string fretless L-Bow:
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
