A little over a year ago I started having ideas for a new instrument...one that would combine a four string bass with a six string guitar. I played both the guitar and bass, and some of the musical ideas I heard in my head required both instruments to be played at the same time. I struggled to recreate these sounds using my six string bass, to no avail. After Jake Kot introduced me to Portland luthier David Minnieweather, my ideas started to become possible. David took the design that I had sketched out on paper, and made a full-scale drawing of the instrument he wanted to build for me. We worked out some of the details, and he started building. Now, this instrument I've had in my head for more than a year is finally in my hands. Whenever I think about it, I smile. Thanks Dave. Thanks Jake.
Specs for the first EVER guitar bass:
Neck-through body, 9 piece flamed maple and purple heart neck. The core body wood is african white wood, with a mouth-watering flamed tasmanian black wood top and back(the pictures really don't do the wood justice). The bass fretboard is palisander, the guitar fretboard is ebony. The bass scale length is 34 inches, and the guitar scale lenth is 25 1/2 inches. The bass side has 14 frets, and the guitar side has 22 frets. The bass electronics feature the Jake Kot signature Bartolini pickups and preamp. The guitar electronics are Seymour Duncan ('59 in the neck Duncan Distortion in the bridge). Two output jacks (one for the bass electronics and one for the guitar). The bass tuning gears are Gotoh, and the guitar tuning gears are locking Planet Waves (D'Addario). The knobs were made by THG out of flamed maple, tasmanian black wood, and purple heart. Both the bass bridge and guitar bridge are standard Hipshot models. If you have any further questions about the guitar bass, contact me. Thanks for your interest
Me with the beast strapped on. And no, the neck is not too wide. It's actually very comfortable; it's thinner than most bass necks. I really wouldn't recommend anyone with very short fingers trying to play it, though. It is a little bit of a stretch across to the bass side. Chording on the guitar side is incredibly comfortable because of this layout. If the guitar fretboard was on the top, chords would be insanely difficult. I'm glad I thought of this important design feature. It wouldn't be any fun to realize this after the instrument was built. Oh, and the tuning is standard...EADG on the bass side, EADGBE on the guitar side. Although, if I really wanted to mess with people I could do piccollo bass tuning, and baritone guitar tuning. =)
better picture of the figuring in the flamed tasmanian black wood. Even this picture doesn't really show the depth. And yes, the two fretboards each have their own radius, and seperate frets.
A close-up picture of the guitar bass body. You can see a little bit of the figuring in the top. The knobs on the bottom row from right to left are as follows: guitar volume, guitar tone, bass active high frequency boost/cut, bass active mid frequency boost/cut, bass active low frequency boost/cut, bass passive high frequency tone. The top knobs right to left are: bass volume(with a push/pull active to passive mode), bass pickup blend. The switches right to left are: guitar pickup selecter, bass low frequency selecter, bass mid frequency selector, bass high frequency selecter. Yeah, I know...only three of the knobs and switches control the guitar side. Bass guitar generally requires a lot more tone sculpting than guitar, though. I tend to prefer active bass electronics, but I like passive guitar
electronics better. I'm just weird like that.
A candid pose with my new guitar bass. Surprisingly, it fits on a regular guitar stand. I think this is going to be my new myspace picture. Notice the shirt I'm wearing? AccuGroove, got groove? Yeah, now I do...with the new instrument. I already have an AccuGroove cabinet for the bass. Now I'm going to have to get two guitar-size AccuGroove cabs to set up the stereo-chorus guitar rig I want for the guitar side of the guitar bass.
The original sketch I brought to the luthier, with almost all of the details worked out. I wanted to make sure my insanity made as much sense as possible before bringing the idea to a builder. Click on the sketch to view all the details.