Stambaugh Designs bass seen at the Grammys

At the Grammys this year, yes there was a Stambaugh Designs bass guitar present, on stage, being used. It was custom made for Imagine Dragons by Chris himself, and before we get into the build, here are some photos of it from the show:

The first thing to notice about this build is its finish. It’s white.

You don’t see a white finish often because it is arguably one of the toughest colors to make look good on a stringed instrument – especially for a bass guitar.

What Chris did, appropriately, was not make the finish a stark bright white, but rather slightly cream-colored. And it works.

The idea here was to have an elegant-looking instrument. Little touches here and there like the block tailpiece with a diamond-shaped ivoroid piece were used. You can also see ivoroid on the truss rod cover as well.

Yes, it is a real semi-hollow body with center block. And yes, there is binding both on the body and neck. Without that binding, the look of the instrument wouldn’t have worked a well as it did.

Chris is a regular customer of Best Bass Gear and we thought it was great that an instrument of his was seen at the Grammys being used on stage.

Products from BBG used in this build: Hipshot O-Ring Knobs and Hipshot Ultralight tuners with special “lollipop” buttons. To note, this is not listed in the BBG store, however, we can make special order for them if you like. Just contact us.

Quick specs on electronics: It is a passive setup, volume/volume/tone, and the toggle is a 3-way for selecting different capacitors for the tone desired.

Do you have to be a Grammy-winning band to get a Stambaugh bass? Of course not. Contact Chris and he’ll build one for you, too!