Bass of the Week: Wintergatan’s Cyber Bass

Wintergatan Cyberbass

Wintergatan is a Swedish band that focuses on engineering and innovation to create their music. One of their main creations is the Marble Machine X, which rhythmically drops marbles onto instruments to create music. The machine previously had a violin-style bass guitar, but they’ve just upgraded it to what they call the “Cyber Bass.”

As bassists, we know dampening the strings and changing note lengths creates a deeper groove. Of course, it’s not as easy to make falling marbles groove like a human.

“This Custom Bass guitar for the Marble Machine X is a 4 string bass built on a 5 string neck, 4 Mics (one per string) and today I am adding the FUNKALIZER,” Wintergatan’s Martin Molin explains. “An adjustable felt pad that can be pushed onto the strings and dampening the sound. This is designed to shorten the notes when the Cyber Bass is played by the Marble Machine X.”

You can see Molin go through the creation of the Funkalizer and the result in this awesome clip:

The large plates sticking up near the bridge act as channels to guide falling marbles. Check out the rest of the bass’s creation in this clip:

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