Bass of the Week: Gildaxe Devil Magnum

Gildaxe Devil Magnum BassGeo Kitta of Gildaxe creates unique basses by way of custom art finishes. He also utilizes separate instrument pieces to create interesting hybrid instruments, including this bass he calls the Devil Magnum.

The axe is comprised of a refurbished late 70s Ovation Magnum neck and a custom-designed and sculpted body based on the late ‘60s Ampeg “Devil Bass”.

Kitta gave us the full scoop in an email:

“The body is cut and sculpted from a beautiful one-piece slab of Honduran mahogany,” he writes. “It is 1.25″ thin and the bass weighs a very light and comfortable 7lbs/11oz. It is equipped with a Curtis Novak Darkstar/Bi-Sonic single-coil pu, 500k stacked V/T pot, and .047uf cap. It has a UK-style jack and the control cavity is fully shielded for silent operation. The two fully adjustable-post chrome-plated brass bridge is one of the newest products from Hipshot. Like all Hipshot products, saddles are fully adjustable and the bridge is beautifully finished. The strings go through the body grounded at large ferrules at the lower angled edge giving it a retro-rocket vibe. The neck heel/body interface allows unobstructed access to the 20th fret. The bass has inset Dunlop Strap-Lok ports and balances perfectly. The sculpted body conforms to your body and allows full freedom for comfortable playing. The bass is 45.5” long and is 34” scale and fits snuggly in its Glarry HSC.

“The Ovation Magnum 20 fret mahogany neck has an ebony fingerboard, bone nut, and a carbon ribbon the full length of the back for superior rigidity with no extra weight. Ovation was an early innovator to use carbon reinforcement. Tuners are Schaller Light, a lighter version/clone of the Grovers that originally came on the Magnum, so a perfect drop-in upgrade. Strings are D’Addario EXL nickel Balanced Tension rounds.

“The neck was stripped of its degraded original clear-coat and beautifully refinished by master finisher Pat Wilkins (SoCal) and Pat matched that lovely brown-burst finish to the body. Pat does really stellar work. The original frets were in VGC so I leveled where needed and dressed/polished them – they look brand new. Nut width is 1-5/8″ and heal width is 2-7/8″, and the neck has inset steel mollies with hex-head machine bolts for a totally solid neck-body connection. And finally, I designed the body so that it stands safely upright against an amp on stage with the Strap-Lok strap engaged.”

Thanks for sharing, Geo! If you have a bass to feature, drop us a line.

Gildaxe Devil Magnum Bass Specs:

Scale:34″
Construction:bolt-On
Body:Honduran Mahogany
Neck:Mahogany
Fretboard:Ebony
Nut:bone
Frets:20
Pickup:Curtis Novak Darkstar/Bi-Sonic single-coil
Controls:Volume, Tone
Bridge:Hipshot
Tuners:Schaller
Weight:7lbs 11oz

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  1. Troy Hughes

    Nice!

  2. Troy Hughes

    Is it for sale?