Best of 2016: Top 10 Bass of the Week Features

Every Monday, Kevin shares his pick for bass of the week – a column featuring low-end instruments ranging from beautiful to bizarre.

Of the 52 we shared this year, here are the 10 reader favorites.

Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass

1. Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass

Fender set the standard with the Precision Bass in 1951, following it up the Jazz Bass in 1960. This week we’re taking a look at a bass that sleekly blends the two icons: the Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass…

Evilectric Skull Bass

2. Evilectric Skull Bass

With a name like Evilectric, you might guess that the company makes some gnarly looking basses. You’d be right. Evilectric builds full 41 3/4-inch scale electric upright basses with custom designs. Only three have been made so far, and this week we’re checking out the Skull bass…

Tomisic Guitars MarkOne Bass

3. 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…

AMJ Guitars Fretless Bass

4. AMJ Guitars Fretless Bass

No Treble reader Deryl Gallant wrote in to us with a cool story on the creation of his AMJ Guitars fretless bass. Strangely enough, it started out as just a neck for his Fender Jazz and ended up with a body of reclaimed wood…

Hot Wire Blues Bass

5. Hot Wire Blues Bass

Hot Wire Basses took a page out of the old school with their Blues Bass. Modeled after the early fifties Kay Electric Bass, the Blues Bass is a vintage-style hollowbody, which the company notes was often played by four-stringers backing up Blues legends like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf…

Barton Basses 11-String Fretless Harpbass

6. Barton Basses 11-String Fretless Harpbass

Barton Applewhite of Barton Basses sent this in for us to check out and it stopped me in my tracks. This monstrous 11-string fretless Harpbass includes a four regular bass strings plus seven standalone harp strings…

Ploughman Guitars Semi-Hollow Bass

7. Ploughman Guitars Semi-Hollow Bass

This week we’re checking out another beautiful instrument by Serbia’s Ploughman Guitars. Their take on a semi-hollow body bass is crafted with a one-piece Sipo body that topped with book-matched, hand-carved, Bosnian maple…

Pachyderm Basses Blonde Bass

8. Pachyderm Basses Blonde Bass

Les Claypool has always played distinct basses, and this week we’re checking out one of those basses he helped design: The Pachyderm Basses Blonde Bass. Claypool worked with luthier and longtime friend Dan Maloney to form the company and create his idea of the ultimate bass…

Emerald Guitars Balor Bass

9. Emerald Guitars Balor Bass

This week we’re checking out the Emerald Guitars Balor, an acoustic bass guitar built entirely with carbon fiber. The model is the latest in the evolution of their acoustic bass models…

Roks Instruments Futura

10. Roks Instruments Futura

This week we’re taking a look at the Futura from Roks Instruments out of The Netherlands. Luthier Axel Roks, who created the bass as part of Dutch Design Week, uses the human body as a large influence on his creations…

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