Bass of the Week - Page 50

This week we take a look at Spanish custom shop o3 Guitars’ Palladium bass. Available in 4-, 5- and 6-string versions, the bass takes its moniker from the chemical element, which is a “rare and lustrous silvery-white metal.” All of o3’s basses are hand made, so each is customized. Standard features include an ebony fingerboard, mahogany body, and a 5-piece...

Mike Lull mashed up his M-series body and T-bass pickups to create the JT4 and JT5, a bass with a modern yet familiar feel and “T-bass boom.” And while the body is a modern take on a classic style, Lull designed the pickups by trying to get the same sound of an original Thunderbird bass while creating his own T-Bass....

The Gus Guitars G3 is an awesome bass with futuristic aesthetic. First introduced as a 4-string model in 1996, the G3 follows the company’s G1 guitar and is constructed using a special carbon fiber over cedar technique for the body with chrome plated aluminum tube for the horns. While the features are extraordinary, they’re far from arbitrary. Gus Guitars proprietor...

Science just got a whole lot cooler thanks to Victoria University of Wellington engineering student James McVay. As part of Bachelor’s degree, McVay designed and built the MechBass, a 4-string robotic bass guitar. And yes, it rocks. Built with lasercut and 3D-printed parts, MechBass has four separate units for each string controlled with PCBs. The strings are plucked with picks...

If you’ve met Jack Casady, you’d know that the Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna bassist is particular about his gear. He’s always tweaked his basses, pickups, and amps to get just what he wanted, so it’s no surprise that he had a large role in designing his own signature bass with Epiphone. “It’s based off of the Les Paul bass that was...

This week we check out the Schecter Blackjack ATX C-4, a 4-stringer with attitude. Available in Sunburst, Black Satin, and Aged White finishes, the bass is built with a mahogany body, 3-piece mahogany neck, and an ebony fingerboard. The company explains ebony has a “snappy, crisp attack” that lends itself to picking due to its high amount of percussive overtones....

The upper horn on the Datum RM Series bass may look cool, but it’s there for more than looks. The G-shape adds more contact between the body and neck, essentially giving the benefits of a singlecut bass to double cutaway design. Handmade in Italy, each bass is available with several options, including the number of strings, fretted or fretless, and...

When longtime friends Edwin Paanakker and Frans Haarmeijer decided to join forces to build basses, they knew they wanted to make something different. Enter the Convolution Bass: a lightweight, handmade bass that shares mechanical properties of an upright bass. Built with a red cedar body topped by Zebrano wood, the fretless bass has a gorgeous ebony bridge with piezos in...

Peter Malinoski is a luthier with an artistic vision for his instruments and passion for uniqueness. With several college degrees in the arts, it’s no wonder his designs stand out. “[My instruments] are a step back and beyond the roots of electric guitars that represent what electric guitars could have been and still can be when mass production and mass...

Fretted and fretless models respectively, the Pedulla MVP and Buzz are the flagship basses based on the design that first brought luthier Michael Pedulla to prominence. The unique body shape and fresh approach to ergonomics set them apart from standard designs. The bass starts with a three-piece laminated maple neck that’s reinforced with a double-acting truss rod and two steel...

This week we take a look at Pavel Musical Instrument’s flagship singlecut bass, the Aryel. Described as the “Roaring Lion” of basses, the bass’s upper horn section connects to the neck at the 12th fret, which the company says adds more tone transmission to the body. The Aryel is hand-built to order in Texas and comes in Deluxe and Signature...

Pino Saracini is professional bassist in Italy. He’s also creative guy. While out on tour, he typically has to play synth bass in addition to his 4-string with little time for changing between instruments. To fix the issue, he came up with the Keyboard Bass, a bass with a Korg Nonokey2 USB controller built in. After designing every detail of...