The feature bass this week features a throwback design and some great hardware.
Builder Geo Kitta writes:
The Calabrone (Italian for Wasp) was inspired by the the late 60’s Coral Wasp short-scale bass. It is a 32” scale, 22 fret, set-back headstock neck that is 1-5/8″ at the nut to a 2-1/4” heel width, with a rotary wheel truss-rod adjuster inset at the heel. The maple/ebony boarded neck was made to my specs/design by Luthier Dan Ransom/SF. Once done I beveled the headstock face similar to a T-bird and inlayed 3 pearl-oid strips. (same material as the pickguard) It has a zero fret with a bone nut which in this application acts as a string guide. The heart-shaped tuners are from an Ibanez Roadstar bass from the 80’s and the E tuner was adapted for a Hipshot Drop-D mechanism. The neck-hugger pu is a Teisco single-coil from the mid-60’s and the bridge bucker is twin lipstick pu’s. Both pu’s are surrounded with custom-cut striped aluminum pickguard material from a 60’s Teisco guitar and the custom 3 piece pickguard (pearl-swirl/mirror over smoked brown acrylic base) was beveled like the Coral Wasp that inspired this bass. Controls include a 3-way pu switch, NV/NT/BV/BT. I fabricated the aluminum/wood bridge in the style of a Dano and routed the string-thru to the lower side/butt of the light basswood body, which is a slim 1-1/4″ similar to MIJ short-scale basses from the 60’s. It weighs a nice 8lbs/7oz and is ergonomically scalloped/contoured for comfort. I did the fine sparkle finish alluding to 60’s Silvertones and Marty Bell/SoCal did the gloss clearcoat. The neck is hand rubbed satin poly with abalone position dots. It has a unique vintage tone (warm and flavorful) and is a fun bass to play.
Well done!
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I love the string/body/bridge concepts. The grounding strip and the wooden saddle is very nice. Coolest tuners ever:)
Excellent use of vintage parts and modern neck. The headstock design fits right with the whole scheme. I’ll bet that it sounds superb as well. Great job!!!
Thanks David! 🙂
Thanks David! 🙂
Looks Great! Sure would like to see some more pictures.
Close ups are great but I wish you would have shown a couple overall shots to see the shape and proportions.
I second what Barry says! At least one straight on shot of the bass so we can get an idea of the overall look. The posted pics attest to details and great workmanship very well but we don’t know what this bass looks like!
I’ll try and get a profile shot up –
Wow! That is beautiful!
Thanks Alan! 🙂
May we assume that, since it has a Thunderbird inspired headstock, that it has serious ‘neckdive’? (J/K-this from a TBird owner who laughs at that rumor-mine doesn’t)
I am a T-bird player from way back and own a ’64 II (since ’78) – as yourself I never had that problem – frankly I adopted a way of playing it that thwarts ND and makes it easier to comfortably reach first position. Nothing sounds like a T-bird!
A video you playing that bad boy would be nice. Or some audio clips would be cool too. Very nicely done Sir.
Really inventive! I’d like to see more overall photos.
Looks interesting but I would have liked to see a square-on front view to see what the shape looks like.
I own an original Coral Wasp bass with the case. This is a very nice take on that design.
Such cool basses and guitars!
Looks very interesting and a nice build. Love those old pickup’s – reminds me of the old days, like the old Avon Bass Guitars.
But why no main shot? Please show is the entire instrument!!
Thanks William (and to all who requested a profile shot) I must has slipped up – I’ll try to get one posted (sorry!)
Very nice! I suppose you can use standard length strings with that through-body routing, yeah?
Yes, standard length strings – these are D’Addario EXL’s, my go-to strings of late.
Cracking bass .absoloutely beautiful and I bet it sounds fantastic also
Thanks Ken! It has a character all it’s own – as in, it doesn’t really sound like a Fender or Gibson etc, at least not strictly speaking. It errs on the side of sounding warm, especially through a nice rig. Combine that with a palm-muting and a pick – heaven!
Sweet and very unique…
Thanks Carl! 🙂
Great looking bass! Where did you source the knobs? They are very cool.
They are cool – I originally bought them at Radio Shack but after they folded I found them on eBay (from China) –
Very Cool.. Its a piece of playable Art!!!
Thanks Steven 🙂
Style for miles. Very nice approach to design, thoughtful, and your execution is first rate. A Teisco neck and twin lipsticks on the bridge!! – 32″ scale, narrow-ish string spacing, man- you’ve got a lot or really cool stuff going on here, congratulations. Great build.
Tim Whitehouse
Thanks so much for your kind words Tim! 🙂 The neck has original P-bass spacing at the nut (1-5/8″) and 2-1/4″ at the heel so it’s not really narrow, just closer in width from top to bottom. It’s different but very easy to navigate.
That has to be one of the coolest retro builds that I’ve seen in ages! My main bass is a Fender Custom Shop Rascal bass so I really dig the Dano look and shorter scale of the instrument. If I saw that hanging in a music store I would buy it in a heartbeat and I can only hope you start selling them soon. Fantastic work bro!
Thanks for that Dave! 🙂 For now it’s a one-off and I may consider parting with it to fund more builds. You can visit my fb page to see the scope of what I do.
Geo’s work is always amazing. Love the last picture. I know you are an artist, but man you really bring that sensibility to bass design in a very thoughtful way that is quirky and interesting.
Love it…but…
How do you change strings without scratching the string holes in the body?
Bass strings don’t behave no matter how you try to straighten the wind.
I’d push it thru a little and cut off the end, but there goes a spare set of used strings.