This Hybrid Chestnut 8-String Bass by May Custom Basses Is Stunning
This week, we’re featuring another jaw-dropping piece of playable art by luthier Shawn May. The big, beautiful DCSM8MS Origin model is a custom eight-string bass that features a multi-scale neck. But before you can count the strings, you’re surely taken in by the colorful finish.
May used some highly figured chestnut for the top, back, pickup cover, and 12th-fret inlay. The wood was stabilized by Tobias Caspar, whose process makes softer woods more durable and easier to work with.
“Hybrid stabilized wood is stabilized wood where the large voids have been filled with a casting resin to create a solid billet of material that can be easily bookmatched with a band saw,” Caspar writes on his website.
“Under vacuum, dyed resin is pulled into the wood fibers as opposed to your standard rub-in dye,” May says of the swirling bursts of color. “Cool thing about it is that it leaves a lot of the existing artifacts in the wood, so you end up with a lot of contrast rather than a single wash of color.”
May crafted the bass with neck-through construction. The massive neck is a combination of maple and roasted flame maple, while the body has a roasted flame maple core and maple layers just beneath the chestnut. Its roasted flame maple fretboard holds 26 frets for even more range, and illuminated side dots light up in color-cycled octaves.
The pickup cover houses three Ulyate split-coil pickups, matched to a Lusithand Devices 800BM 4-band preamp. Hardware includes a GraphTech scalloped nut, Hipshot Ultralite tuners, and Guyker GB111 roller bridges.
As you can imagine, this bass is not light. May shares that it is 13.4 pounds, adding that he’s “not surprised.” But whether or not you play an extended-range bass, you have to admire the sheer beauty of this beast.
May Custom Basses DCSM8MS Origin Photos:
May Custom Basses DCSM8MS Origin Specs:
| Strings: | 8 |
| Construction: | Neck-through |
| Scale: | 34-36″ Multi-Scale |
| Body: | Roasted Flame Maple Core with Maple |
| Top and Back: | Hybrid Chestnut Burl |
| Neck: | Maple and Roasted Flame Maple |
| Fingerboard: | Roasted Flame Maple |
| Frets: | 26 |
| Inlays: | ″Super C″ at 12th Fret, Illuminated Side Dots |
| Pickups: | 3x Ulyate Split Coils |
| Electronics: | Lusithand Devices 800BM 4-band Preamp |
| Bridge: | Guyker GB111 |
| Tuners: | Hipshot Ultralite |
| Finish: | Target Coatings Acrylic Satin Finish |
| Other: | Dunlop Recessed Strap Locks, D'Addario XL Nickel Strings (.018-170) |
| Weight: | 13.4 lbs |
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.
Not the type of 8 string I was expecting. I switch my P basses to J necks because I can barely handle the normal instrument. I envy anyone who could play this.