Bass Gear - Page 274

After 20 years of work making and repairing stringed instruments, Meaulnes Laberge formed ML Basses to focus on building electric basses. One of his striking instruments is the Volcan, an edgy yet elegant design available in 4- and 5-string configurations. Featuring bolt-on construction, the Volcan is built with a light maple body, three-piece maple neck and an Indian rosewood fingerboard....

Fender has introduced the 2012 line of Pawn Shop guitars, which they claim are inspired by their eccentric creations from the ’60s and ’70s and are “guitars that never were, but should have been.” Included in that lineup is the Fender Pawn Shop Reverse Jaguar Bass, an instrument that takes their classic design and flips the body as well as...

Warwick has added to their Rockbass Alien Deluxe line this year with a new 6-string model. The acoustic bass shares many features with its predecessors, including a laminated spruce top with laminated bubinga for the back and sides, and a mahogany neck with a rosewood fingerboard. The 6-string instrument departs from the 4- and 5-string models by utilizing Fishman’s Prefix...

Höfner has expanded their Ignition series with a new version of their Club Bass. First introduced in 1965, the Club Bass is is a hollow body, single-cut design, and the new Ignition model provides a cost-effective version for vintage bass lovers. Available in right and left-hand models, the bass has flame maple sides and a spruce top with a sunburst...

Epiphone has announced a new, limited edition of the Jack Casady Signature Bass in a rare Silverburst finish. Limited to 500 instruments, the semi-hollowbody bass is built with set-neck construction with a mahogany neck and laminated maple top, back and sides for the body. Designed by Casady in collaboration with Epiphone, the bass sports a low-impedance JCB-1 humbucker. “I went...

Ibanez expanded their Promethean combo series this year with the P3115, a 300-watt combo amp with a 15? driver and an HF dome tweeter with a passive crossover. Unique to the P3115 is an on/off switch for the tweeter, allowing for more tonal variety by eliminating unnecessary high frequency overtones. It also features a Class-D power amplifier and internal limiter...

While looking up videos of Jack Casady on YouTube, I stumbled upon a real head-turner of a bass: the Lane Poor Minima. Poor, who is renowned for his pickups, designed and manufactured the bass in the early ’90s. Besides the obvious headless and stepped-tuner body design, the Minima had a graphite fingerboard with special epoxy “frets”, which as Bob Gollihur...

Fodera is now offering a Janek Gwizdala Signature Imperial model, based on Gwizdala’s own bass. Hand-built in Fodera’s New York shop, the 5-string bass sports a 33? scale and comes tuned E to C. The instrument has a walnut body with an alder tone block and a stunning non-solid Buckeye Burl top. The 3-piece ash neck is paired with an...

Genz Benz has released their newest generation of the Shuttle Series bass amps, including the Shuttle 6.2 and the Shuttle 9.2. Featuring a tube preamp and a Class D power amplifier, the new line builds upon its predecessors with increased tube gain and the addition of the company’s “3 Dimensional Power Management” circuitry (3DPM), which adds heft and girth to...

String company Pirastro has introduced a new set of double bass strings called the Flexocor Deluxe. Building upon their pre-existing Flexocor range, the Deluxe strings offer wider tonal range, longer sustain, and better overall playability. Pirastro explains that the Flexocor Deluxe’s structure allows the string to possess great resonance and “unsurpassed carrying power.” It’s core material is high-stability steel rope....

Announced at the 2012 Winter NAMM show, Ibanez is now shipping their 25th anniversary of their SR model basses. The SR 25th Anniversary Limited Edition bass series includes a 4- and 5-string edition, both premium model basses built at Ibanez’s “Premium factory”. The basses sport a Padauk top. The company says the wood’s “subtle reddish hue has long captivated fine...

New for 2012 is the Ibanez SGBE series acoustic bass guitars, available in Natural and Sunburst finishes. Also fit for electric sets, the basses feature under-saddle piezo pickups and Ibanez’s AEQ202T Preamp with a 2-band EQ as well as an onboard tuner. Featuring a grand concert body shape, the SGBE series is constructed with a mahogany neck, back and sides,...