See the business listing for this bass builder here
This week’s feature bass is an acoustic/electric!
Builder John Isch writes:
I got the idea for this bass from a friend who made a similar one out of reclaimed wood. I took his idea a step further and used a knot as the sound hole for this acoustic/electric four string bass. I wanted to keep it as natural looking as possible (no knobs) and have it sound acoustic when plugged in. Finding the perfect piece of wood with the right size hole in the right place proved to be pretty challenging. This four string fretless bolt on is constructed using bookmatched mahogany for the neck, Macassar ebony fingerboard with mahogany fret lines, chambered mahogany as the main body wood and a three piece black walnut front with black laminate for an accent around the body. I resawed the piece of black walnut to create the front, using one piece for the middle and the other for the two sides. The grain patterns in the wood to outline the sound hole as well as the upper and lower contours. I strung it up with LaBella Deep Talkin flat wound strings to further develop that deep, mellow tone. The bridge is constructed from two pieces of black walnut and the string saddle is ebony with a walnut stripe. I’m using a K&K transducer system with an external preamp for amplification. It’s a very expressive bass with mwah to the tenth power. I accomplished my goal of producing a very warm sounding bass that has a very acoustic tone.
Being my first acoustic/electric and my first bolt on neck, I learned a lot as I built this one!
I recorded a quick song using this bass here: https://soundcloud.com/jisch/ae-confusion
(video demo is also below the photos!)
Well done, John!
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Awesome!!
Absolutely stunning, you done a great job mate
I’d say you’ve achieved everything you set out to do – lovely looking and sounding bass. You should be very pleased.
Work of art
A work of art
Love the sound hole. Those bars across the front are a good way to keep birds from nesting. Love it!
Wow, that’s nice …. and unique!
Lots of interesting custom basses posted here, but this one takes the cake so far.
Beautful looks and sound!
Killin’!!!
Thanks for the interest! It was a great project and I learned a ton – way more than I wanted to.
Your love of the craft, both lutherie and musician,s shine brightly#
JOHN.I. DEFINITELY KNOWS HOW TO WORK WITH WOOD,ANOTHER REASON I LOVE BBG…YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOUR GOING TO SEE AND HEAR IN THE WORLD OF BASS….THAT WE ALL LOVE!
REAL NICE…DIFFERENT…GREAT JOB JOHN!
NICE JOB JOHN! I REALLY ENJOYED LOOKING AT AND LISTENING TO YOUR WORK.
Stunning bass, beautifully crafted, so simple and natural, I love it!
what an awesome instrument!! Looks amazing! Video isn’t available for me to hear it but I can tell it is beautifully crafted and with it’s fretless board it must sound great! Congrats!!