Bass of the Week: Ergon Guitars Cintra
Instrument builders always bring their best gear to the NAMM Show. As we were wandering the halls of the Anaheim Convention Center we found the Boutique Guitar Showcase, which brings builders from around the world to show off their work. We saw tons of great instruments, including the jaw-dropping Cintra bass from Portugal’s Ergon Guitars.
Luthier Adriano Sérgio was on hand to let us check out the bass, which features some deep contours for a comfortable fit. He crafted the bass with a one-piece, quartersawn, roasted flame maple neck with a beautiful dovetail slide-in joint. The body is fully hand-carved with two pieces of bookmatched flame maple for the back and a one-piece of swamp ash top. Besides nice contours on the horns, the back of the bass has an almost bowl-shaped carve. Its fingerboard is ebony that has Luminlay glow-in-the-dark side dot inlays. To make it an even easier player, Sérgio gave the neck a compound radius from 9.5? at the 0 fret to 12? at the 23rd fret.
The pickups are a set of SB “Seteais” custom pickups with carved Mozambique blackwood covers. Their control configuration includes a volume knob for each pickup plus a master tone. The Cintra is finished off with a Babicz FCH-1 bridge, Hipshot Ultralite tuners, and a nutshell Tuf oil and wax finish. It weighs in at 8 pounds.
Check out its tone with this quick demo video Ergon made while the bass was being finished:
Ergon Guitars Cintra Bass Specs:
| Construction: | Dovetail Slide-In Set-Thru Neck |
| Scale: | 34″ |
| Body: | Flame Maple |
| Top: | Swamp Ash |
| Neck: | 1-piece Quartersawn Roasted Flamed Maple |
| Fingerboard: | Ebony |
| Fingerboard Radius: | Compoud radius from 9.5? at the 0 fret to 12? at the 23rd fret |
| Inlays: | Dot inlays, Luminlay Side Dots |
| Frets: | 23 Jescar Evo Gold medium frets plus zero fret |
| Pickups: | SB “Seteais” custom pickups |
| Pickup Covers: | Carved Mozambique Blackwood |
| Controls: | Bourns pots, 3 Volumes and 1 Tone |
| Bridge: | Babicz FCH-1 Solo Rail saddles |
| Tuners: | Hipshot HB6 Ultralite |
| Finish: | Nutshell Tuf Oil and Wax |
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.
