Electric Bass Archives - Page 22

Fodera has added a five-string version of their Emperor-J to the Standard Classic line. The retro-styled instrument can be ordered in two different layouts to represent the tones of different eras. “The Emperor-J 5 is available in either a 60’s jazz-style configuration of an Alder body/ Rosewood FB with its pickups in 60’s location or in a 70’s jazz-style configuration...

AC Guitars has scaled down their Krell model with the new Micro Krell, a bass featuring a tiny 26.5-inch scale while still being tuned as a normal bass. Luthier Alan Cringean created the model out of a bit of exploration. “It started out as an experiment using a Krell guitar body I had in the workshop to find out just...

This week we’re checking out the Waja Bass Soma NT five-string, which features a striking body shape in an equally striking high gloss blue finish. The neck-through bass is crafted from a three-piece swamp ash body topped with flamed maple and a seven-piece birdseye maple and bubinga neck. Its fingerboard is ebony. Waja fits the bass with a pair of...

Fodera has teamed up with bassist James Genus to release a new signature model of their Emperor 5 Elite bass. Genus, who has worked with the top names in jazz and is currently the house bassist for Saturday Night Live, worked with the company to make the bass comfortable and tonally versatile. “The James Genus Signature Emperor is designed to...

Jerzy Drozd creates some fantastic instruments. Alongside his regular line, he also goes out of his way to create some over-the-top beautiful basses. This week we’re checking out the Orion, a bass created from his Soul VI model that is decked out in moissanite gems. The bolt-on, six-string bass is built with a swamp ash body attached to a one-piece...

Ernie Ball Music Man has unveiled the Ball Family Reserve series for August. The lineup for this month includes two guitars plus one bass: the Bongo 6HH in Grabber Green. “The Ernie Ball Music Man Ball Family Reserve series is a celebration of our heritage in instrument craftsmanship,” the company writes. “These rare pieces are offered in limited production runs...

Germany’s Bassline went over the top for the Musikmesse show one year with what they called a “multi-scale, multi-layer” version of their Re:Belle model. Besides the obvious multi-scale design, the company routed out the sapele pommele body and actually inlaid the flashy quilted maple top. Its pickguard is made from the same piece of maple. Bassline opted to use Canadian...

Spain’s Bacce Guitars has a beautiful lineup of instruments, but they also make special boutique one-off instruments as well. This week we’re checking out the Anya 4 Powerbass, which looks like a race car with four strings. The neck-through bass is built around a five-piece maple and Honduran mahogany neck that’s topped with an ebony fingerboard. Its body, which has...

Eastwood Guitars is reviving another unique vintage bass through their custom shop. The Klira Beatle Bass was a take on the Hofner bass made famous by Paul McCartney. “Through the 1960’s there were many variants of the popular Hofner Beatle Bass coming out of Japan and around the world,” Eastwood writes. “Our favorite was this Klira version – made in...

Amorite Guitars has introduced their first bass model called the Kothar. The bass was two years in the making and will be available alongside other Amorite instruments. Designed in part with bassist Omar Harb, the Kothar features neck-through construction with a five-piece maple and walnut neck with an asymmetric profile. Its neck is also reinforced by carbon fiber rods in...

We’ve featured a couple of instruments by AJR Guitarmods over the past couple years, and now we’re checking out their lightest bass yet: the Swift Lite 34-inch four-string bass. The inspiration came to luthier Andy Rogers while thinking of the first time he picked up a bass. “One of the things that surprised me the very first time I took...

Extended range bassist Lucas Gonzalez was approached by luthier Emiliano Bernal to collaborate on a series of ERBs. He shared the first of the results with us, dubbed the Burazco Series BS0001, and it’s beautiful. The hand-crafted instrument is built with a Bolivian mahogany body, a zebrawood top, and a two-piece quartersawn hard rock maple neck topped with a birdseye...