Bass of the Week: John Jowitt’s Bogart Bass Sport IV
Bassist and pillar of the prog rock community John Jowitt wrote in to share his new Bogart bass, and we’re sure glad he did. This Sport IV model marks his seventh Bogart bass since meeting luthier Stefan Hess back in 1996. The bassist will use it with his band Rain and gigs with Tim Bowness and Drifting Sun.
“Bogart basses are unusual, featuring carbon necks and foam and glass fiber/epoxy bodies – the body now includes aluminum, but they’ve always sounded great, both live and recorded, getting lots of compliments,” Jowitt shares. “This one is different, as I asked Stefan to add a Darkglass Tone Capsule pre-amp; as Stefan says, ‘it makes it more Precision bass-like in terms of its sound,’ but as ever, it really cuts through and responds to one’s technique. And it looks even better in the flesh!”
Hess adds that the body is based on the Karl Clews Signature “Silver Surfer” bass. “I added the aluminum to get more punch and clarity in the low mid and mid area. So this works perfectly together with the Tone Capsule preamp,” he explains.
Other features include a hand-laminated carbon neck filled with Resofoam, a rosewood fretboard, a Bartolini MMC humbucker, and ETS hardware.
John Jowitt’s Bogart Bass Sport IV Specs:
| Scale: | 34″ |
| Body: | Bogart Composite. Inside: wooden core (German spruce) surrounded with “Resofoam” (a high resonant 3-component epoxy foam). Hardshell made from glasfibre-reinforced Epoxy gelcoat, filled with 15% aluminum additive. |
| Body finish: | polyurethane satin lacquer. |
| Neck: | hand laminated carbon neck filled with Resofoam |
| Neck finish: | polyurethane satin laquer |
| Fretboard: | rosewood, 24 silver nickel (18%) medium frets |
| Thickness at nut: | 2.1cm |
| Width at nut: | 42mm |
| Pickups: | 1 x Bartolini MMC dual coil humbucker (original series) |
| Electronics: | DarkGlass Tone capsule preamp, passive switchable |
| Bridge: | ETS brass, satin black finish |
| Tuners: | ETS brass, satin black finish |
| Other: | Schaller S-Locks |
| Strings: | Bogart regular gauge (045-105) strings nickel wound, stainless steel core |
