Bass of the Week: A Game-Changing Neck? Meet Sam Houston’s Radius Bass

Tried and true designs continue to stand the test of time, but I really love when luthiers try something a little different. This bass built by Sam Houston grabbed my attention while scrolling Instagram, and I had to learn more about it.

“This bass was a prototype and proof of concept for a molded bass neck,” Houston tells us. “These necks are comprised of a core of softwood (Doug fir, not unlike spruce) followed by layers of carbon fiber with a roasted maple veneer, this method, developed by Ken Parker, puts the ideal materials right where we want them.”

This only piqued my curiosity even further, so I asked the builder to explain the process.

“The neck is pressed, rather than carved,” he explained. “The veneer is loaded into an aluminum mold then the carbon fabric is layered, and in case of my archtop guitars, forms the post on which the neck raises and lowers into an aluminum sleeve which is how the action is adjusted. The Doug fir is then pressed into the mold which equally distributes the carbon. Also, as a justification of this extra effort – plenty of Luthier’s use carbon rods – Ken’s method is superior because it puts the carbon closer to the side of tension (where carbon is the strongest) and in a conical shape, which is super strong. Also, it allows us to use really strong resin, which pulltruded carbon sticks can’t use because of manufacturing constraints.”

The body is crafted with spruce skinned with carbon with threaded inserts. It’s curved in almost every direction with a thin profile – it’s less than half an inch thick nearly everywhere, Houston says. Other features include an ebony archtop bridge and an EMG P pickup with a single volume control.

“To give you an idea of how thin this bass is, the battery and pots barely fit in the cavity,” Houston says.

Sam Houston Guitars Radius Bass Specs: