Bass of the Week: The Upgraded Brooks 1.2 Short-Scale, Inspired by a Classic

by Kevin Johnson Monday, January 20th, 2025

Brooks 1.2 Bass

Brooks basses have been popular with No Treble readers, as evidenced by their two appearances on 2024’s Top 10 Bass of the Week articles. Builder Rob van den Broek has already completed his first bass for 2025 and it’s our bass of the week.

The Brooks 1.2 is a short-scale bass that the luthier explains is “basically a remake of the very first bass I ever built (the Brooks 1), but with a few upgrades.” Taking inspiration from the Gibson Les Paul Bass, the 1.2 has a 30.5-inch scale. Its chambered body is made from two pieces of mahogany and then topped with bookmatched flamed maple finished in a Wine Red. Cream-colored binding helps the red to really pop.

The three-piece mahogany neck is fitted with a rosewood fingerbaord and marked with white dot inlays. One of van den Broek’s big upgrades from the Brooks 1 is the electronics set. The 1.2 is loaded with a pair of Artec Sidewinder AlNiCo humbuckers. A six-way rotary switch gives tons of tonal variety by letting you select the coils.

Hear the whole palette in this quick demo video:

Brooks 1.2 Bass Specs:

Scale:	30.5″
Body:	Chambered Two-Piece Mahogany
Top:	Bookmatched Flamed Maple
Neck:	Three-piece Mahogany
Fretboard:	Rosewood
Nut:	Bone
Inlays:	Dot
Frets:	24
Pickups:	Artec sidewinder humbuckers AlNiCo
Controls:	Volume, Hidden Tone Pot
Tuners:	Hipshot
Bridge:	Guyker Two-Point
Finish:	Wine Red

In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.