Bass of the Week: Murray Kuun Elemental
Murray Kuun is a South African luthier who admits he came to the profession relatively late in life, but his passion is in creating fresh designs.
“I am not keen on making copies of instruments that have been copied ad nauseam,” he shared. “All my instruments are original designs.”
His first bass model is the Elemental, a neck-thru bass with unique body wings.
The Elemental is built with African woods including a sapele mahogany body and neck with a figured imbuia fretboard and matching “pods” to fill out the body shape. The bass is fitted with a Bare Knuckle split coil pickup with volume and tone knobs nestled in the lower pod.
Kuun builds each of his basses by hand, so the Elemental can be ordered with a variety of options for hardware, pickups, and woods. Check out Kuun’s website for more.
Murray Kuun Design Elemental Bass Photos:
Murray Kuun Design Elemental Bass Details:
Scale: | 34″ |
Construction: | Neck-thru |
Neck: | Sapele Mahogany |
Body: | Sapele Mahogany |
Body Wings: | Figured Imbuia |
Finish: | Nitrocellulose |
Fretboard: | Figured Imbuia |
Pickup: | Bare Knuckle Split Coil |
Hardware: | Choice |
Marvelous looking bass, reminds me a bit of Spalt Instruments.
Spalt done tastefully
I think I’d like to see it without the wings and with the control knobs relocated to the upper bout. That would look sharp. The bass would probably be top – heavy, though (but when has that stopped us from buying a cool – looking bass?).
Definetly cool, but I dont think it would accommodate for my hard and fast live show. Especially not with those wings, they would be gone in the first twenty minutes of the set.
Here’s a video of the Elemental from Murray Kuun’s youtube channel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXK3pwea0IU