Bass of the Week: Jerzy Drozd Soul IV “Matisse”

Jerzy Drozd Soul IV “Matisse” Bass Cobalt Blue

Tim Cook sent us a few pictures of his bass, and we were drooling. The Jerzy Drozd Soul IV “Matisse” is a real piece of art, which is fitting since it was inspired by other pieces of art.

“Jerzy Drozd monikers his work as ‘Jerzy Drozd, the Bass Art Company’ and fittingly a search for a description of this bass leads to its inspiration being short story/poem and a painting by Henry Matisse,” Cook explains.

Matisse: La Danse

The poem is entitled “Matisse Blue” by Lorenna El Mar (Translated by Luis Murillo Fort):

“There was this lady we spotted among the stones, at the bottom of the sea, and she was made of blue wood. She looked frightened somehow at seeing us, and she turned into a cat. We set this cat’s skin with pearls, borrowed some red from the sea coral, then stole a layer of black from the night sky. And paired with pearl white, coral red, and night black, that Matisse blue wood feigned to be the landscape of a dream.”

Drozd took these pieces and interpreted them into his Soul IV model. The “Matisse” bass exudes blue with its swamp ash body finished in a high gloss blue while its maple/ash neck and birdseye maple fingerboard are finished in a satin blue. It really pops as the body’s wood grain is accentuated with a White Pearl finish.

Another accent is in the padouk pickup covers and controls. The covers house a pair of Drozd’s JeD4XS single-split coil noiseless neodymium pickups, while the knobs control an Aguilar OBP-3 preamp. The controls include a 3-band EQ with a mid-frequency selector, an active/passive switch, and a passive tone knob. The bass is rounded out by the luthier’s two-piece bridge and Hipshot Ultralite tuners. All in all it weighs 7.7 pounds.

And how does it play? “I own a couple of Jerzy Drozd basses but one in particular is something special,” Cook says.

Jerzy Drozd Soul IV “Matisse” Bass Specs:

Scale:34″
Construction:Deep-set bolt on neck
Body:Swamp Ash
Body Finish:High Gloss Matisse Blue With Accentuated Wood Grain in White Pearl finish
Neck:Maple and Ash
Fingerboard:Birdseye Maple
Nut:Ebony
Fingerboard and Neck Finish:Satin Matisse Blue
Frets:24
Pickup Covers:Padouk
Pickups:JERZY DROZD proprietary JeD4XS Single-Split Coil Noiseless Neodynium Pickups
Knobs:Padouk
Electronics:Aguilar OBP-3 Preamp With Mid-Frequency Selector, Active/Passive Switch and Passive Tone
Bridge:JERZY DROZD two-piece bridge
Tuners:Hipshot Ultralite tuners,
Other:Mother of Pearl Headstock Logo
Weight:7.7lbs (3.5kg)

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Leave a Reply to Anthony Cancel reply

  1. Anthony

    That is one gorgeous bass. If it plays as good as it looks, it must be heavenly!