[Bass of the Week] Sparks TRS

See the business listing for this bass builder here

Bass builder Edwards Sparks calls his TRS “special,” and oh yes, it certainly is.

Edward writes:

My first bass was built in 1980 from kit parts and resembled a 70’s Fender Telecaster bass, complete with an original Fender Telecaster humbucking pickup and Fender tuners (need Fender-style tuners?).  It had certain custom features, such as a switchable Hi to Low Z circuit built inside the control cavity and, later a built in tuner.

After playing my friend and bandmate’s Breedlove acoustic fretless bass, I was inspired to build a fretless of my own! I designed this new bass with the Hi to Low Z circuit, installed a (now discontinued) “N-Tune” volume control mounted tuner and a blend control instead of the standard pickup selector switch.

Body: Alder, with two body cavities, one for the control cavity and the other for weight reduction. Capped with a 1/2-inch thick curly maple top.  The twin jacks are mounted on an ebony plate, recessed into the lower bout.  The binding is on the body top only and is two layers, the inner layer cream plastic and an outer layer of tortoise shell.  The control cover and string through plate are tortoise shell as well.

Neck: A 34-inch scale Carvin made solid rock maple neck with fretless ebony fingerboard and an ebony headstock overlay inlaid with my last name and a star in mother of pearl.

Electronics: Two Carvin passive radiused-top Alnico V humbucking pickups. Two volume and two tone controls and a blend control in lieu of the standard three way selector. The neck pickup volume switches the N-Tuner in and out. The neck pickup tone control switches in the low Z circuit, allowing the second output to send a balanced signal direct to a mixer or record input, and also acts as a kill switch when using only the Hi Z output. The blend pot has a middle position detent and blends the two pickups together to the desired degree.

All hardware is gold plated including the Carvin bridge, Schaller strap locks, Martin tuners and output jacks. The faux ebony/tortoise shell bound tailpiece hides a 9 volt battery compartment (which powers the tuner) and is held on with small magnets. The cover is also in inlaid with my wife’s name in mother of pearl and a dime. The dime is dated 2003 and represents our tenth anniversary.

It is a special bass indeed!

Very well done, Edward! Great fit and finish!

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