Bass of the Week: Tomisic Guitars MarkOne Bass

Luthier Milos Tomisic and bassist Marko Cvetkovic have teamed up once again to create the MarkOne bass, which Cvetkovic says is an attempt to solve all the typical issues modern players face. The result in a creative instrument that centers around a forward-thinking set of electronics.

Tomisic MarkOne Bass

“As shown on pictures, there are no visible pickups nor hardware, except tuners,” the bassist explains. “All electronics are accessed from the back of the body and fixed on custom design ramp that holds pickups. That ramp allows us to change the pickup positions according to the desired sound. On this bass we developed the ramp from two segments – one for the neck pickup and one for the bridge pickup – that allows pickup changing from more traditional warm sound to 70’s position jazz pickup. On this bass we used two single pickups, but this design solution opens a completely new way of changing electronics and getting different tone. The ramp covers a slot where we or potential users can change the pickup or even the type of pickup, from single to humbucker or soap-bar, without any intrusive change on instrument.”

Tomisic built the singlecut body out of baked hard ash with a one-piece flamed maple top. The top has an ergonomic form with a natural ramp built in, allowing your thumb to be placed anywhere between the fingerboard and saddles. The ramp is decreased under the G and D strings near the neck joint for easier popping and slapping.

Another distinct feature is the seeming lack of a bridge, “seeming” being the operative word. “As shown on pictures, the only visible part [of the bridge] is the saddle that keeps string in position and allows easy height changing,” Cvetkovic says. “The saddles are screwed into a big brass block that sits just between top and back of the body. Basically, that designs helps keeping and distributing perfect string vibration through whole instrument, resulting in awesome sustain and stability of tone on each string. What is even more outstanding, we could not find any dead note through whole fingerboard.”

For more information, check out Tomisic Guitars’ website.

Tomisic Guitars MarkOne Bass Details:

Body:Baked Hard Ash
Top:One-piece Flamed Maple
Neck:Quarter-sawn Maple
Fingerboard:Ebony
Pickups:Single Coils
Bridge:Brass, Embedded with String-thru-body

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Share your thoughts

  1. Ray

    No info on website

  2. David Burningthymes

    From the description, it would appear to be heavy. pretty, though.

  3. Here is a video of the MarkOne bass , maybe a little late but better late than never

    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153821965979075&id=753119074

  4. Steve

    Similar design to the Jimmy T high ridge bass 2012

    • Mark

      Nowdays it is quite imposible to create totaly inovative instrument, but as you can see, besides similarities, there are significant differencies between these basses. At least modular pickup system is unique.
      This bass is much more oriented to traditional players that want improvements that matters.