Bass of the Week: Monkey Bassness No. 12 “The Jazz Monkey”

Monkey Bassness No. 12 "The Jazz Monkey" Bass

Today we’re featuring a bass submitted by Stijn Deldaele, who is a professional bassist that took up building over the past few years. His craft has grown, leading him to build under the name “Monkey Bassness”.

“I was first doing it for fun and for myself, but I started to get good comments on my basses and even already build some 6 basses for other bass players,” Deldaele writes.

This bass, which is build number 12, is crafted with a number of beautiful features and is his take on a Jazz bass style. It has a reduced headstock to reduce neck dive and 24 frets with a deeper cutaway for more range. Daldaele also built the instrument in part to test out the RML Innovations Torpedo Bridge, which is a new design concept to improve acoustic qualities and aesthetics. RML Innovations says the bridge helps your fundamental stand out while hiding the action and intonation screws.

“The bridge is a single unit string bridge so it isolates better for unwanted string vibration of other strings,” Deldaele explains. “The bridge construction is body through, but not string through. You can set the action with a hex key on the back of your body that raises or lower pillars where the torpedo is mounted on. As for the intonation you can set them at the end of the torpedo bridge under the string ball end. The setting of the action and intonation is very accurate, even better than a traditional bridge. Also the bending of the string on the bridge itself is minimal as you move the whole bridge for the action with the string and not raising or lowering a string saddle. This gives you more sustain and allows you to set the string action very low. Visually it is like the string is going quite straight over the pickups and fingerboard.”

Other features include an East UK preamp, Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder Jazz Bass Pickups, Schaller S locks, and Gotoh tuners. All that and it weighs just 6.2 pounds.

Hear the bass in action:

Monkey Bassness No. 12 “The Jazz Monkey” Bass Specs:

Scale:34 Inches
Body:Abachi Back, Korina Middle Veneer
Top:Flamed Maple
Neck:5-piece Meranti/Maple/Jatoba
Fingerboard:Blackwood
Frets:24
Pickup:Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder Jazz Bass Pickups
Electronics:East UK J-Retro 01
Tuners:Gotoh GB707
Bridge:RML Torpedo
Other:Schaller S Straplocks, Clear Pickguard
Weight:6.17 lbs

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  1. MikeyM

    Totally dig it ?

  2. Daniel Villablanca

    Where can you purchase MonkeyBassNess No 12 The Jazz Monkey Bass