4-string Bass Archives - Page 62

Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel now has a signature bass from Fender. Modeled after the ’71 Precision that carried him through over half of his career, the Nate Mendel Fender P Bass features special body contours, extra-slim neck and nut width, and a lightly worn Candy Apple Red finish. The bass is built with an ash body, a maple neck,...

The Shuker Singlecut Elite is one beautiful instrument. Built by luthier Jon Shuker in the UK, the bass is highly customizable with options running from number of strings to top wood to construction type. Standard features include a 7-piece laminated neck made of maple, wenge, and padauk, a walnut body core, and a fingerboard of either Rio Rosewood, ebony, or...

This week we take a look at the Citron AE4 and AE5 Swallow Basses built by luthier Harvey Citron in collaboration with jazz legend Steve Swallow. Citron first presented Swallow with one of his acoustic/electric basses, and their work went from there. It was Steve’s perfectionism that pushed the bass builder to invent a new bridge. “Working with Steve has...

Ibanez has given its Premium treatment to their ATK model, resulting in the ATK800E and the ATK805E. Beyond being built at their Premium Factory to premium quality standards, the company’s bass designers spent a lot of time researching and developing the pickup configuration, which includes a CAP double humbucker in the bridge position and an Ibanez proprietary CAP Sonic Arch...

Luthman is a company that puts out some pretty intricate work yet also knows simple elegance, the latter of which is evidenced in their Natural model. Handmade in France by luthier Thierry Etienne, the Natural has a unique, fluid body style with customizable options. Available in 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-string configurations, standard features on the Natural include an ovangkol...

Xotic has released a 4-string of the XP-1T model, which thus far had only been available as a 5-string. The P-style bass offers vintage and modern tones by including a toggle for passive or active electronics. The active portion is Xotic’s Tri-Logic bass preamp, which has Bass, Mid, and Treble controls, a Mid switch, a Bright switch, and an Active...

Le Fay has introduced a new fretless version of their Singer model with a 32-inch scale and 19mm string spacing. Among the new features is the inclusion of the company’s new single-coil pickups, which have angular thumb rests and a three-point screw arrangement to prevent wobbling. Two pickups are under the bridge pickup cover while the neck cover houses one....

There are lots of interpretations of the old J-bass, but one that strikes me most is the BeBop made by Dutch boutique shop De Gier. It offers a little more in the curves department with subtle tweaks to set itself apart from the classic design. Available in 4- or 5-string versions, the De Gier BeBop comes standard with an alder...

In 1978, Patrice Vigier set out to become an independent luthier of guitars and basses, and Vigier Guitars was born. Thirty-four years later, the Vigier is still going strong. We got our hands on the company’s Arpege IV bass, and took it for a test drive. The Arpege IV is a lovely sounding four string bass and will easily handle...

California-based Kauer Guitars has introduced the Daylighter Bass, modeled after their popular series of guitars by the same name. With several feature options, the company says the bass can cover ground from “classic Motown vibe straight through the most aggressive modern bass tones.” The Daylighter’s body is made of Spanish Cedar and is available in a plethora of color options....

Back in April, David Ellefson gave us the scoop on a new bass he was working on with Jackson that would combine elements of a classic bass style he sported during Megadeth’s “Countdown to Extinction” tour, and the company’s Kelly guitar model. Jackson has now introduced the resulting Kelly Bird basses as part of their JS Series. Available in Burnt...

Schecter’s Stargazer-4 is a quirky take on basses of years past. The old school-inspired 4-stringer is built for versatility with EMG’s MMHZ humbucking pickup in the bridge position and the EMG SJHZ single-coil pickup in the neck position. For further tonal adjustments, the bass has an EMG active 2-band EQ in addition to a pickup blend knob. The Stargazer-4 features...