See the business listing for this bass builder here This week’s feature bass is a Rickenbacker inspired 5-string. Builder Steven Baxter writes: This Tiberius-5 bass was built by Steven Baxter the founder of Dudacus Custom Basses located in Cambridge, MA. Steven has been involved in the greater Boston music scene and making his own instruments … Read more
The newer version of a V-4B is a very good modern interpretation of this model. It’s 100 watts of all-tube goodness, but has nice newer features like integrated DI, among other things. Looks-wise, the modern V-4B totally nails it. But how does it sound? See (and hear) the video below and decide for yourself.
When it comes to 1950s and 1960s design, that’s something pretty easy to figure out. If you do an image search for googie architecture, you will see many, many examples of that “swoopy” style that began in the 1940s and lasted all the way into the mid-1960s. Everything from houses to furniture to cars and … Read more
See the business listing for this bass builder here This week’s feature bass is an acoustic archtop. Builder Daniel Whitt writes: 17 inch arch top acoustic bass. 32 inch scale fret less. Sapele body and neck. Ebony fretboard, binding and trim.humbucking neck mount pickup with volume and tone knobs under pick guard. Hipshot tuners.3 inch … Read more
Ordinarily, we keep clear of any video game references, but this is an exception just because it sounds cool. Team Fortress 2 is a video game, but it’s main theme is Peter Gunn inspired, which of course has great bass tone to it. The video below shows how to play along with the TF2 main … Read more
One of the more rare electric bass guitars from the 1960s is the Moni Bassus, made in Hungary. Reported only to have been constructed in the 1960s and having a low production number, coming across one isn’t exactly easy. Made as good as a Fender or Gibson of that era? No. Designed well? That’s debatable. … Read more
See the business listing for this bass builder here This week’s feature bass design started with the string retainer and was built from there. Builder Giorgio Benedettini writes: Hi, I’m a luthier form Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This Bass started with the idea of a coin used as a string retainer. Then I designed everything … Read more
Some players think a tremolo system is the most useless thing one could install on a bass guitar. Not true. A tremolo (which is actually vibrato) system when put in the right hands can be used to create interesting sounds that are actually usable. And by usable I mean “something that could be used in … Read more
What makes a gold finish gold? Gold for all intents and purposes is a “light mustard brown” or “burnt yellow.” How do you take that color and make it gold? Metallic flake is added in… …and that’s where things get interesting. There is no established standard that states how much metallic flake is required to … Read more
See the business listing for this bass builder here This week’s feature bass is a 6-string beast made of swamp ash built by Touch Singleton. Touch writes: Guitar Model: Andromeda6 Body Wood: Featherweight Swamp Ash Zebrawood Top Neck Wood: Flamed Maple Koa Strips Ziricote Board Neck Back Shape: Asymmetrical Fingerboard Radius: 16″ Bridge: Hipshot “A” … Read more
