Bass of the Week - Page 46

This week we’re checking out the Puntundo 5 by Spain’s Ele Custom Basses. This version of their El Puntundo bass was made for Fabio Lessa and features the headless version of the striking singlecut design. One’s eye is led straight to the buckeye burl top, which is accentuated with matching pickup covers. The set-neck bass is also built with a...

With a name like Evilectric, you might guess that the company makes some gnarly looking basses. You’d be right. Evilectric builds full 41 3/4-inch scale electric upright basses with custom designs. Only three have been made so far, and this week we’re checking out the Skull bass. The body is a skull and cross bones with the bridge sitting right...

Fender set the standard with the Precision Bass in 1951, following it up the Jazz Bass in 1960. This week we’re taking a look at a bass that sleekly blends the two icons: the Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass. The blacked out bass features a slender basswood body fitted with a P/J pickup configuration. Contoured for comfort, the Aerodyne’s top has...

France’s Luthman Basses celebrated their 10th anniversary in December 2015 with a special version of their Lady M model, and now it’s our bass of the week. The company went all out on the bass with a highly figured burl camphor top with a “wave opening” over a flamed maple body, all finished in a maxi high gloss. Its seven-piece...

This week we’re checking out a fanned fret design by Ploughman Guitars in Serbia. Luthier Radovan Jovicic built the bass with a multi-scale ranging from 33 inches to 35 inches. It’s built with neck-through construction featuring a maple and mahogany neck and wenge fingerboard with mahogany binding. The body wings are a sandwich of mahogany, white ash, and heat treated...

This week we’re checking out a six-string Glade model from Mana Basso custom basses. The gorgeous singlecut bass features a Padouk, Wenge and Swamp Ash body matched to a Wenge, Padouk and Flamed Maple neck for a rich textural palette. Its Birdseye maple fretboard leads your eye to the bass’s carved headstock, which is made as part of the neck...

Many people know bassist Yves Carbonne for his incredible playing on extended range instruments with up to 12 strings. Most can enjoy the music, but some can’t get past the number of strings on his bass. After musing online about the merits of how many strings a bass should have, Carbonne teamed up with luthier Jon Letts to create the...

Jake Serek of Serek Basses has a style that is rooted in the tradition of bass guitar history while advancing in his own ideas. That makes sense when you realize that he worked for one of the larger bass companies around, plus his natural curiosity led him to reverse engineering classic designs. This week we’re checking out his Sacramento model....

This week we’re checking out a sleek black custom bass called the Gotham by Spain’s Ramos Guitars. The seven-string brute is built with a mongoy body and fretless ebony fingerboard for a dark theme and an air of mystery. Featuring neck-through construction, its three-piece maple neck is reinforced with graphite for added strength. Ramos fitted the bass with a Delano...

As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That’s why luthier Scott Sterling of Lea Bass Guitars decided to create the Dumpster bass. Although the bass has a fine fit and finish, the components didn’t start out that way. “This bass started out as an ‘upcycled’ experiment in tonality – all the wood is from dumpsters in my...

Made in the USA, the Wilkins Road Tested Roasted Cayenne WRTJ5 Bass is an instrument that the builder says will make you feel right at home. Luthier Pat Wilkins, who has been in the industry since 1976, writes that the WRTJ was developed from years of extensive research on one of the most widely used basses in the world. This...

This week we’re checking out the Sirius by Aquilina Basses. Available in passive and active versions, the bass has several options to dial it towards a modern tone or take you back in time with old school thump. The active version of the bass features an ash body, an American maple neck, and a maple fingerboard with 20 frets. More...