Custom Bass Guitars

The Bass Guitar is enjoying its 60th anniversary this year. Originated by Leo Fender, the Precision, or “P-Bass” made its debut in 1951 and revolutionized the music industry. Although still an iconic standard, the P-Bass’ single coil split pickup design and 21 fret range 34″ scale length maple neck defined a particular sound that has not met the requirements of all bass players. Those seeking different tone shaping, different scale length, electronics, etc. had to either choose between models made by other guitar manufacturers or to opt for customization.

The first major breakthrough in custom bass guitars occurred in the late 1960′s. Jack Casady of the Jefferson Airplane and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead had Guild Starfire semi-hollow short scale basses that were hot rodded with a slew of additional electronics by Rick Turner, who subsequently went on to become a founder of Alembic. The modifications included additional tone filters, preamps for overdrive, heavier brass hardware for greater sustain and intonation adjustment, and customized pickups.

Alembic became the premier custom bass guitar manufacturer of the 1970′s, with exotic hardwoods, an emphasis on using roundwound strings for a sharper, more piano like note attack, brass hardware, and custom electronics to meet the needs for both greater live amplification fidelity requirements as well as for the recording studio. Jack Casady was the recipient of Alembic #1, and Alembics were soon seen in the hands of many rock star bassists, especially from the UK, such as John Entwistle, Greg Lake, John Paul Jones, John McVie and others.

Jazz fusion pioneer Stanley Clarke, another Alembic player who expanded the scope of solo playing on the bass guitar, pushed the boundaries with the development of a Carl Thompson piccolo bass and further modifications.

Ned Steinberger’s composite material headless bass in the 1980′s was the next technical milestone in the bass guitar’s evolution. Since then, custom bass manufacturers such as Tobias, Lakland, Kubicki, Modulus, Pedulla, Sadowsky, Suhr, and Fodera have found favor with thousands of bass players from all musical genres.