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Bass Builder - Your Style, Your Bass - 2012 Custom Electric Bass Guitar Guide
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FoderaCover StoryGetting Out of the Way
Collector's CornerAnthony Wellington,Teacher, Player, Collector
A Brief History of
Boutique Bass Guitars
Your Style, Your Bass
$9.99 US
2 BASS BUILDER #1 >
Contents
A Brief History of Boutique Bass Guitars ............................... 8Fodera Cover Story: Getting Out of the Way ........................ 18The Business of Bass Building ...................................................... 26Collector's Corner: Anthony Wellington .................................... 32
CONTENTS
STAFF
Pubisher and Editor in ChiefMaria Santory
Writers and Contributors Elton Bradman
Ray SantoryRick Turner
Mike Visceglia
Publisher's AssistantJennifer A. Wickes
Cover StoryPhotography by Roberto Falck
Art DirectorKit Oliynyk
InternsTre Jackson
Bethany Vaughan
Bass Builder Guide's editors, writers, and contributors aim to publish accurate information and recommendations, but neither assumes responsibility in the event of claim of loss or damage resulting from publication of editorial or advertising matter. Statements of writers and contributors are their own, and do not necessarily refl ect Bass Builder Guide Policy.
© 2012 All Rights reserved.Bass Builder Guide and its contents are copyrighted. Content printed in the magazine may not be reproduced or reprinted, in whole or in part, by any other party without the written consent of the Publisher.
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Bass Builder Gude, LLC.P.O. Box 706 Medford, NJ 08055, Phone 484-319-1287Fax 609-654-1556E-mail: [email protected]
Display until August 2013
Brubaker Brute is a division of AP International. For more info please call 732-919-6200 or visit www.apintl.com or brubakerguitars.com
Brute MJX-5w/custom pickguard
NBS-5 Xtreme bass KXG-1 guitar KXB-12 Xtreme bass NBS-4 Xtreme bass
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JBASS JBASS IMPERIAL SL
Ansirwww.ansirmusic.com
Jody has a background in business operations, product design and manufacturing. Founder and co-founder of several successful businesses over the past 25 years, Jody has operated high-tech manufacturing companiesas well as businesses operating in the entertainment and consumer electronics spaces. He is an active inventor with 3 US Patents awarded, several patents pending and more in process. Recent projects included partnering with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to form a musical medical device company using novel technology Jody invented to improve the quality of life for musicians with disabilities.
Jody MichaelInventor & Entrepreneur [email protected]
ANSIR
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A ny responsible piece on the history of boutique bass guitars has to focus on two specifi c areas of time and place, one being northern
California in the late 1960s, the other being New York in the mid 1970s.
As the music of the 1950s morphed from big band swing to big band R&B, and ultimately to Rock and Roll with amplifi ed guitars, a stronger back beat, louder drum sounds and more powerful singers, Leo Fender’s Precision and Jazz basses came into well deserved prominence, and helped the bass guitarist to not only be heard but to become stars in their own right, i.e., James Jamerson, Carol Kaye and Joe Osborn, to name a few. But as Rock and Roll evolved sonically, both live and in the studio, by the late 60s players began to demand more from their instruments.
The fi rst response to this demand was when, what can undoubtedly be called the fi rst ‘boutique’ bass guitar company in the world was formed in 1969, when Ron and Sue Wickersham created ‘Alembic.’ With its use of exotic hard woods, low impedance elec-tronics, on-board EQ, hand fi ts and fi nishes, and neck-through-body designs Alembic became the boutique standard of the time. The fi rst Alembic bass guitar was made for Jack Casady of the Jefferson Airplane. But soon to follow were Phil Lesh of the Grate-ful Dead, Lamar Williams of the Allman Brothers, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and John Entwhistle of the Who. But it was Stanley Clarke, with his Alembic bass, who opened up the jazz and burgeoning fusion scene to the benefi ts of the boutique bass guitar. With the notoriety of players like these, the marketability of the hand-crafted
A Brief History of Boutique BassGuitarsby Mike Visceglia
bass guitars as an alternative to Fender andGibson became a reality that would eventually spawn numerous companies around the world. The ‘Alembic’ bass guitar reigned supreme through the fi rst half of the 1970’s until a consortium of young geniuses, players and entrepreneurs turned the boutique bass business on its head in New York City.
In the mid ‘70s bass guitar icon Anthony Jackson had a very unusual idea. He wanted to have an instrument made with an extended range, to include a low ‘B’ string- a fourth below the typical ‘E’ on the bass, and a high ‘C’ string- a fourth above the standard ‘G’. Toward this end he approached a New York City based luthier named Carl Thompson. Carl was initially not a fan of the idea, but with the persistence of Mr. Jackson he eventually relented and, what Anthony has termed the ‘Contrabass Guitar,’ came into existence. This was the fi rst bass guitar not only to have this wide of a range but to also maintain the string spacing that bassists were use to, as standardized by Fender. Needless to say, it was the biggest design innovation to the instrument to date. But Mr. Jackson was only getting started in his pursuit of more and more refi ned and adventurous reinventions of the bass guitar.
Around this same time an informal co-op of luthiers and artisans was formed in New York City. This brain trust consisted of some of what would become the biggest names in the boutique bass world: Vinnie Fodera, Ken Smith, Stuart Spector and Ned Steinberger. I personally witnessed this formative and inventive group at work, creating, designing and sharing the ideas that would set the standards for boutique bass
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BOUTIQUE BASS GUITARS
ELTON BRADMAN: HISTORY OF BOUTIQUE BASS
Broadway and in the thriving jingle scene in New York in the 1970s. This hotbed of creativity can truly be pointed to as the springboard for boutique bass luthiers world wide and the acceptance of these innovations into the mainstream market. It would be remiss to not mention the great bass maker Mike Tobias, who is a contemporary of these masters and started his ‘Tobias’ company in Florida around this same time. ‘Tobias’ was later sold to Gibson in 1990. I mention these specifi c luthiers because they are the ones that helped generate artistic and market interest in boutique bass making throughout the world, and are still thriving today in a business where boutique companies are now too nu-merous to mention.
Generally speaking, the boutique bass market falls into two primary categories: painted bodies with bolt-on necks and hardwood designed bodies with neck-through construction (although there are painted bodies with neck-through construction and vice-versa.) Painted body/bolt on neck players are usually a fan of ‘Fender’ or ‘Gibson’ style basses and hardwood body/neck through players are usually a fan of ‘Alembic’ or ‘Fodera’ style instruments. Some companies like ‘Lakland’ and ‘Alleva Coppolo’ offer painted bodies exclusively, while others like ‘Pedulla’ or ‘Nordstrand’ offer both. There has also been a great evolution in machine and hand made metal components like bridges, nuts, tuning machines and frets, offering the consumer an array of options. Since the boutique manufacturers offer a variety of these more-customized parts, it has become advantageous to pay a premium in a higher price for this attention to detail and quality.
makers around the world. Vinnie Fodera, with the ethic of an old world artisan, began his career with an interest in building classical guitars, but switched to bass building while working for Stuart Spector, who at the time had only one bass model that he was marketing. In another part of the work space, Ned Steinberger was making custom furniture- but always had his eye on what was happening with the bass makers. Ned pretty quickly changed occupations to bass making and came up with the extraordinary concept of removing the headstock from the bass, placing the tuning machines down near the bridge, and using graphite as the main component in construction. His main goal was to use a strong and consistent non-organic element (as opposed to wood) to make instruments that were more stable and devoid of ‘dead spots’ on the neck. This revolutionary idea, while not to every player’s liking, won many design awards and to this day serves him well, especially for his ‘NS’ bodiless upright basses and cellos- as championed by bass legend Tony Levin. This headless design was copied in the ‘80s in England with the ‘Status’ bass company. The only other boutique bass guitars of note that were made in England at the time were the ‘Wal’ bass by, the now deceased luthier, Ian Waller. The ‘Modulus’ bass company also took the graphite idea and to this day uses it in all of its models to reinforce their bass necks. Ken Smith was the only luthier at the time who started out as a professional bass player, having been successful on
RICK TURNER: THE BUSINESS OF BASS BUILDING…BASS BUILDER #1 > A BRIEF HISTORY OF BOUTIQUE BASS GUITARS
ALEMBIC 1972 DOUG IRWIN IN THE COTATI WOODSHOP
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ELTON BRADMAN: HISTORY OF BOUTIQUE BASSRICK TURNER: THE BUSINESS OF BASS BUILDING…BASS BUILDER #1 > A BRIEF HISTORY OF BOUTIQUE BASS GUITARS
But it was and still is the players who, working intimately with boutique luthiers, constantly pushing the boundaries of materials, design and electronics that continuously help the boutique bass guitar business thrive. One can site the ongoing relationship between Anthony Jackson and ‘Fodera Guitars’- with the ‘Anthony Jackson Presentation’ single cutaway design- or Michael Manring with ‘Zon Basses’ as shining examples, and more recently, Will Lee with his relationship with ‘Sadowsky Guitars’ and the ‘Will Lee’ model. Some companies, like ‘Sadowsky’ even offer their pre-amps to be retrofi tted into other instruments.
Some interesting and very effective innovations have been made recently by companies like ‘Spector’ and Canada’s ‘F Basses’ with the inclusion of hollow chambers in the body design of some of their models. This not only makes these basses lighter but also more resonant, which is especially good for fretless bass guitars. The hollow body/chamber idea has been perfected by boutique maker ‘Rob Allen’ who makes some of the lightest and most resonant basses on the market.
Gradually, over the years boutique basses have offered the professional and the lay-man an alternative to mass produced instru-ments and have even infl uenced companies as big as Fender, causing them to compete somewhat in the boutique market. Certainly the Fender ‘Custom Shop’ is a response to the detail and personal touch that boutique bass makers have given to the professional and part time player. All in all, it’s a wonderful time to be a bass guitarist and even with the higher price tag of the boutique market, compared to what classical musicians pay for fi ne instruments we’re way ahead of the game!
Gradually, over the years bou-tique basses have offered the professional and the layman an alternative to mass produced instruments and have influenced companies as big as Fender, causing them to compete some-what in the boutique market.
VICTOR WOOTEN AND VINNY FODERA
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PO Box 1745Wimberley, TX [email protected]
Birdsong Guitarswww.birdsongguitars.comwww.sdcurleeusa.com
As a designer and builder, I’ve been developing profes-sional quality short scale basses since 1998. I couldn’t fi nd the balance, tone and build quality I wanted all in one small bass so I began making my own, resulting in the 31” Birdsong Cortobass in 2004. Short scale basses are our main devotion and every Birdsong is hand built in our workshop in the Texas “Hill Country” by a small team of luthiers and players to be lightweight, easy playing, comfortable and much bigger sounding than one would expect. Birdsongs start at $1850 including case and shipping.
BIRDSONG GUITARS
CORTOBASS FUSION HY5 5STRING SDCURLEE
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Delgado Guitarswww.delgadoguitars.com
Playing guitar by age fi ve, repairing guitars by age seven, and building his fi rst guitar at the age of 12 to beat his father’s record of 14, Manuel A. Delgado is the owner and operator of Delgado Guitars. A family business started by his grandfather and great-uncle, Manuel and his family have been building handmade guitars since 1928 for artists like Andrès Segovia, Los Lobos, Jose Feliciano, Charo, Arlo Guthrie and countless more. Choosing to keep the tradi-tion alive, Manuel builds each instrument individually using the methods taught to him by his father and grandfa-ther which have been proven to stand the test of time. 615.227.4578
BAJO QUINTO DELGADO'S ACOUSTIC ELECTRIC BASS
DELGADO GUITARS
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DP CustomGuitarswww.DPCustom.com
Handmade electric basses from select hardwoods and exotic woods. Custom confi gurations and shapes done to your specifi cation. Chose from a wide vari-ety of hardware and electronic options to suit your music tastes and playing style. For more info and to get started specifying your bass the way you want it, please visit [email protected]
QUILTED BUBINGA MAPLE BURL BUCKEYE BURL MAPLE
BASS BUILDER #1 > DP CUSTOM GUITAR
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DC MODEL 7 DC MODEL 6 THE BETTY
DrakeCustom Bass www.drakecustombass.com
Drake Custom is a small custom shop founded by An-drew Drake who has been building basses profession-ally since 2005. Andrew specializes in easy playing 32 and 33 inch medium scale 4, 5, and 6 string basses as well as long scale basses and 8 string tappers. Andrew crafts his own necks and bodies by hand with pride in his design and workmanship. Special attention is focused on the playability, sound, and longevity of each of his instruments.
DRAKE CUSTOM BASS
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COBRA 5 STRING KUNGHA 6 STRING MAG 6 LW COBRA 6 STRING
GarzGuitars & Basses
www.garzguitars.com
I have been building instruments since 1986. All basses are handcrafted by me, one at a time. I use the highest quality woods, electronics and hardware available. You can choose one of my current models, or I can design one for you. I have many custom options available. Contact me for your dream Bass.
743-770 Pickens RdP.O. Box 687
Doyle,Ca 96109530.827.2369
BASS BUILDER #1 > GARZ GUITAR & BASSES
20 BASS BUILDER #1 > A HUNDRED LITTLE DECISIONS: GETTING OUT OF THE WAY
A Hundred Little Decisions: Getting Out of the WayFodera’s approach to crafting modern bass tone is all about getting out of the way and letting each player shine through. E.E. Bradman talks to Fodera’s Jason DeSalvo for insights into the company’sever-evolving ideas of tone
T ruth be told, it’s all about tone. Tone sets us apart or marks us as a member of a group; it gives
instruments their identities, an-nounces our intentions, and helps defi ne our chosen genres. Just as our tone of voice is as important as what we say, our bass tone, our musical voice, sets the stage for everything else we play: It’s tough to appreciate good phras-ing, well-developed technique, and other desirable qualities if we can’t get past a player’s tone. Many of us will spend a lifetime and a big chunk of our bank account looking for instruments that can help us manifest the tones we hear in our heads.
For many players, that search leads to Fodera, the New York City company that builds instru-ments designed and crafted by bassist Joey Lauricella and lu-thier Vinny Fodera. Fodera is renowned the world over for its blend of old-world craftsmanship and attention to detail, as well as a thoroughly modern aesthetic that would be impossible without 21st-century advances in preamp, pickup, amplifi er, and manufac-turing technology. Like Rolexes and Rolls Royces, these instru-ments long ago transcended their humble, practical beginnings to become status symbols; even in today’s crowded boutique bass
market, owning a Fodera is a sign of having “arrived.” But what exactly is “Fodera tone?”
Few would know the answer to that question as well as Jason DeSalvo, the business consultant who has been the third member of Fodera’s leadership team since 2009. As a bass player whose fi rst interaction was buying a Fodera back in 2006-and whose journey through bass tone has inspired him to assemble a stable of 12 Foderas since then DeSalvo has plenty to say about what gives a bass its tone, Fodera’s earliest tone templates, the defi ni-tion and evolution of the Fodera sound, and the company’s intensive approach to helping customers fi nd their own voices.
Are all your basses custom basses? We now have two product lines. Our Standard line—which in-cludes a Matt Garrison, a Ying-Yang, and an Emperor—cater toward a very common set of specifi cations that are regularly asked for. To get one of those, you don’t have to wait as long, and we make them in batches of 60 or 30 pieces. When you buy one, you are buying that instrument the way it sounds, for the tone it has. For everything else, there’s our custom line.Roughly 50 percent of our pro-duction is Standards, and 50 percent are custom instruments.
How does a new customer’s Fodera tone journey begin?Once a customer emails or calls to say they want to build a bass, the fi rst part of the process is asking the right questions: What are you playing now? What tone do you like? What tone don’t you like? The most important thing in get-ting the right tone for a customer is understanding their concept of good tone. I ask them, if you could have a bass that sounded perfect, what would it sound like? We start by having them send me some sound samples, or by them saying some-thing like, “Man, I love the sound of my ’64 Jazz Bass.” We know by defi nition that a Jazz Bass has an alder body, Brazilian rosewood fi ngerboard, maple neck, and it’s a bolt-on. So they’ve just given us some clues to level the fi eld and let us start thinking about tone.
How much do the woods de-termine the tone of a bass?We are defi nitely, devoutly, 100 percent, positively in the camp that wood matters. We believe we are building acoustic instruments that happen to be electrifi ed, and that every single thing we do related to the choice of woods plays a role in the fi nal tone of that instrument. We don’t believe, as some builders do, that it’s all about the electronics, and that you won’t hear the difference in the wood.
21BASS BUILDER #1 > A HUNDRED LITTLE DECISIONS: GETTING OUT OF THE WAY
I think we have one of the most versatile preamps out there, but our preamp is meant to be as transparent as possible. It will let you alter the innate tone of an instrument, but it’s not going to let you change the tone of the instrument. If I build you a bass out bright woods, it doesn’t mat-ter how much I boost the bass on that preamp, it’s never gonna give you that kick-in-the-pass big bot-tom that you’d get if you had an alder bass body. It’s just a different thing.
Take us through the process of choosing body, neck, and fi ngerboard woods.Generally, we build 95 percent of our instruments with walnut, al-der, ash, or mahogany. The body wood is the largest piece of mass on the instrument, so it is going to have the largest impact on tone. The neck wood also has a high proportion of the instrument’s overall mass, and it has a signifi-cant impact on tone. We build predominately with two differ-ent neck woods: Ash, which has a slightly warmer, more percus-sive sound, and maple, which has a brighter, more ringing tone. About 85 percent of our necks are maple. Then we get to fingerboard wood, which has a fairly pro-found effect on tone. Even though there’s not a lot of mass there, the string is being fretted (or on a fretless, is being vibrat-ed directly) against that finger-board, and the way in which that wood excites and resonates is very different depending on the woods we use. For fingerboards, we choose between bird’s eye maple, pau ferro, ebony, Macas-sar ebony, Brazilian rosewood, Indian rosewood, and Madagas-car kingwood. We have a num-ber of fingerboard materials, all of which have different densities and tonal properties.
The last wood we decide on is the top wood. A lot of our basses are known for their gorgeous exotic top woods, but those top woods are much more of a spice than a main ingredient, because they’re thin and because they’re not really signifi cant in terms of the quan-tity of the mass they add to the instrument. There are some very dense top woods that we use, and in those cases, we have to take into account the sound that they make. But most of the time, choosing the top wood is the last thing we so.
What happens when there are confl icts between how a customer wants a bass to look and how they want it to sound?It happens all the time. After we’ve made recommendations for woods based on the sound clips they’ve sent us, some customers will come back to us and say they love that sound but they don’t like the way the wood looks. And then we have to tell them that although they had their heart set on an ash body, for example, because they like that nice grain, they want a warm tone, and ash is not warm. We’ll tell them, It’s your bass, we’ll build it either way, but if we build it with ash, you’re going to love the way it looks but you’re probably not going to play it very much because it’s going to have the sound that’s in your head.
What kind of electronics op-tions do you offer?We use a preamp co-designed by Joey and Michael Pope of Michael Pope Designs, and that goes into every bass unless a customer wants a bass that’s completely passive, like Anthony Jackson, who runs his jack straight to the pickup.When we talk about electronics, we’re really dealing with pickups. We used to have a lot of choices, but over the years, we’ve found that
EMG’s or Seymour Duncans—ei-ther dual- or single-coils—seemed to consistently give almost every customer the sound they were look-ing for. Depending on what tone the customer wants, we’ll choose the right pickup for them, and then we’ll talk about spacing—we can space pickups in ’60s position, ’70s position, or any realm within that; we also offer other combinations, like Tom Kennedy spacing, for example, or Richard Bona spacing. Over the years we’ve developed a menu in our heads about how pickup spacing affects tone.
How much time do you spend with customers dis-cussing the options?We do have customers who’ve worked with us before and know exactly what they want, but for every one like that, there are many who need help narrowing down the millions of options. Usually, on a custom build, there’s anywhere between fi ve to 30 interactions before a fi nal spec is set; a lot of times, that involves the customer making a trip to the shop. I’ve had customers that I’ve spent 40 hours of my life with before they have a fi nal spec. If somebody needs that time, it’s there; we’re never going to say, “We’ve talked to you enough now. Make your decision or go somewhere else.” That’s just not who we are.
How do you know you’ve suc-ceeded?If we’ve done our homework right, when customers get their basses, they’ll have that big Fodera grin, which is like, “Yes!” At this price point, we can’t afford to put a bass in someone’s hands and not have them have that grin. The stakes are too high. When you’ve saved for a couple years for your dream bass and you fi nally get it, it better sound and play like you dreamt it was going to. We take that really seriously.
How would you describe Fodera tone?I think the Fodera tone is an ab-sence of tone, if you would. We like to think of our job as bringing out a musician’s voice, not imposing our concept of tone on them. We make basses that are articulate, nuanced, rich, deep, and extremely versatile, but the actual instrument should sound like a neutral fi lter. It should be a canvas for you to write what tone you want. Do you want to go with old-school tone you associate with a 1960s Jazz Bass or even a ’50s P-Bass, or do you want that Victor Wooten sound—that ultra-modern, extremely precise, almost high-end audio quality to it? Those two tones are about as far apart as you can be, and yet we make basses with both of them every day. The Fodera tone is more about understanding what the customer wants to get out of it, and pulling the right ingredients together to make sure that we deliver that. There is no one thing that goes into making a great Fodera—it is the end result of a series of a hundred little decisions made throughout the process of working with the customer to design each bass.
As transparent as the preamp may be, some of Fodera’s most prominent players share a certain approach to tone, which seems to infl u-ence what customers ask for.Yeah. Let’s say someone just went out and heard Janek Gwizdala play, and then they’ll come to us and say, I want my bass to sound exactly like that. Well, that means they want a walnut body, an ebony fi ngerboard, an ash neck, Seymour Duncan single-coil pickups, and they want a certain spacing—that’s that instrument’s tonal signature, which is very easy to replicate, because we know what it is. So we do a lot of basses with walnut bod-ies, ebony fi ngerboards, and ash necks; that’s that Janek Gwizdala-Matt Garrison-Tony Grey kind of
RICK TURNER: THE BUSINESS OF BASS BUILDING…BASS BUILDER #1 > A HUNDRED LITTLE DECISIONS: GETTING OUT OF THE WAY
tone (although Tony actually uses a maple neck, so his basses tend to be a bit brighter). We have a lot of really spectacular artists we’ve been fortunate enough to work with, and part of their journey with us has been working with us to develop their signature sound. Then we rep-licate that tone for customers who like that person’s sound.
After such an intense process of choosing and building a bass, what happens when a player tires of their Fodera’s tone? We do have people who change their tastes over time. There are a
number of people who will trade in their Fodera and work with us on a new build; that happens at least a couple times a month. And then we go out and fi nd a happy camper for the other one. If your tastes have changed, there’s going to be some other cat out there who’s gonna love what you had, and we’ll fi nd a home for that. And there are a number of players out there with several Foderas; some cats keep their basses as a historical record of where they come from so they can go back and revisit it by play-ing the older basses.
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23BASS BUILDER #1 > FODERA GUITARS
Fodera Guitarswww.fodera.com
Founded in 1983 by Vinny Fodera and JoeyLauricella, Fodera remains a small, family owned company crafting less than 300 instruments per year all right in Brooklyn, NY. Our job here at Fodera is to listen to the needs of our players and build instru-ments that get out of the way and let them shine through. We pride ourselves on not having a typical “Fodera Sound.” All of our instruments are crafted from the very fi nest tone woods personally selected by some of the most experienced hands and ears in the business.
68 34th St. 3rd FloorBrooklyn, NY 11232
EMPEROR 5 ST YYS BUCKEYE BURL IMPERIAL II OLIVEMONARCH DELUXE
24 BASS BUILDER #1 >
Andrew Drake of Drake Custom
Devon Smullen and Family
Jason Desalvo of Fodera Jimmy and Caeser Coppolo Jody of Ansir with Mina Burnside
George of F Bass Jacques with Darryl Jones
Beau Leopard of BL Design Cleve Johnson of LedBelli
25BASS BUILDER #1 >
Joey Lauricella of Fodera
Mark Garza of Garz Guitars and Basses
Jon Maghini M Basses Manuel Delgado
Kenneth Lawrence Three Generations of Delgado Gerald of Marleaux Bass Guitars
Mike Kinal's Guitar Class Pete Skjold in shop
26 BASS BUILDER #1 >
The Business of Bass BuildingBy Rick Turner
THE BUSINESS OF BASS BUILDING
I started as a real professional bass builder about 40 years ago, and learned a lot of the business side the hard way…doing it all wrong and be-ing forced to pay the price for it. I’ve
had bad partners, been embezzled from, had tax problems, borrowed too much money, ran credit cards up too high…you name it. But I’ve gotten my “School of Hard Knocks” MBA, and am happy to share a bit of what I’ve learned.
The major considerations in your business are bookkeeping, sales & marketing, and staying up with the legal aspects of being in business, including needed licenses, proper tax filing, and staying on the right side of employment law. Here are some quick over-views of the issues:
BOOKKEEPINGFor bookkeeping, I recommend Quicken, which would probably be fine for a one person operation, or QuickBooks which is great for the next step and is good for pretty big companies. You can set your “Chart of Accounts” to help track all the items you buy and categorize your expenses correctly. If you have open accounts with some of your vendors, you can post invoices, pay bills and print checks out of QB. You can also develop your own parts numbering system, and have all the items you buy regularly stored for in-stant recall for when you write purchase or-ders. And with QB, you can do payroll pretty easily as well. Hire a professional bookkeep-er to help you set up your books properly. In a one-person shop, you could then do most of the actual data entry yourself and have a bookkeeper look things over once a month, or once a quarter. You really shouldn’t need an accountant (very expensive) more than once or twice a year.
SALES & MARKETING…AND ADVERTISING
Sales & marketing…What’s the difference? “Marketing” is the art and science of figuring out who is (a) most likely to want to buy your products, and (b) finding the most effi cient pathway to letting them know about your work. Don’t confuse marketing with advertising; they are different. “Sales” is ac-tually closing the sale…it’s all about getting the money. They are all very discrete and separate tasks, but go hand in hand.
For custom and small shop bass players, it’s pretty easy to define your market…open minded bass players who are not strictly wedded to playing the same old P-bass for-ever. Luckily, bass players seem to be more open to alternatives than most guitar players, and many play more than one in-strument or brand of bass. I was incredibly
Rick Turner
RICK TURNER: THE BUSINESS OF BASS BUILDING…BASS BUILDER #1 > THE BUSINESS OF BASS BUILDING28
fortunate in the early days of my career to find (and be found by) open minded bass-ists like Jack Casady, Phil Lesh, Stanley Clarke, John Paul Jones, John Entwistle, and John McVie, who wanted the option of a more hi-fi approach to tone, and found them all quite approachable. It was a right place, right time, right new vision of bass building, with virtually no competition in my part of the bass market. It’s not as easy now, but bassists are still approachable and open to at least seeing new ideas and new instruments.
Sales…well, here’s the biggie…SELLDIRECT TO STORES. By selling direct…you get all the dough, but the big mistake budding luthiers make is underpricing their work- you think you can sell at what would really be a wholesale price to retail customers. You are doing this thinking it’s how you’re going to get “market share”… by undercutting your competition, and don’t forget that EVERY bass on the wall of amusic store is literally your competition.So you sell half a dozen basses to your pals and friends of theirs, and suddenly you can’t get arrested. You’ve saturated your easilyreached market. Now you want to sell through a store…and the consignment fee is25% or 20%, if you’re lucky. Can you do that or do you suddenly have to raise your prices? The best you’re going to do is about 60% of retail, and if you can’t make your numbers work at that price, you basically do not have a business.
THE LEGAL NICETIESThis stuff is just a drag to deal with, but it’s oh so necessary unless you really think you can fly under the radar. In a commercial building, you might have to deal with build-ing permits for the build-out and electrical work, or a “Use Permit” from the
The torturous and horrible part of bass building, the business end. It’s not why we become luthiers.
RICK TURNER: THE BUSINESS OF BASS BUILDING…BASS BUILDER #1 > THE BUSINESS OF BASS BUILDING30
costing 25% to 30% more in direct and indi-rect ways. To this you have to add employers contributions to UnemploymentCompensation and Social Security, the cost of Worker’s Comp, bookkeeping costs, and paid days off…sick pay, holidays, and vaca-tions. Having employees also affects your other insurance costs, liability inparticular.
So this is the torturous and horrible part of bass building, the business end. It’s not why we become luthiers. It’s time consum-ing, it’s not artistic, and it’s a bit distaste-ful…but if you don’t do it right when you’re playing the game, “they” will take away all the marbles and you go home a loser. Every hour you spend on the business side is an hour you’re not building instruments, but those are the breaks…so get good and ef-fi cient at it, suck it up, and do it so you can stay in business!
local planning department that allows you to operate a woodworking shop. There are also a business licenses, permits for our spray booth, one from the city with yearly inspections from the fire department…and the other from the local air pollution board. You can’t do much without a resale per-mit that ties you into the sales tax system. Landlords also demand that you carry vari-ous forms of insurance…fire and other loss, liability, etc.
Then there’s payroll and dealing withemployees. These days you just cannoteasily get away with paying workers under the table or pretend that employees are sub-contract laborers. If you’re doing it fully legally, you’re going to have to carry Worker’s Compensation insurance. To not do so is to risk losing your business and more if a “fake employee” hurts themselves, and it WILL happen. However much you pay an employee per hour, they are actually
32 BASS BUILDER #1 >
Kenneth Lawrence Instrumentswww.kennethlawrenceinstruments.com
Kenneth Lawrence Instruments is a one-man shop founded in 1986 specializing in high-end basses and guitars. With over 30 years of performance andrecording experience, a player’s perspective isemployed resulting in extremely comfortable andversatile instruments of uncompromised quality.
1055 Samoa Blvd.,Arcata, CA 95521 [email protected]
KENNETH LAWRENCE INSTRUMENTS
COCOBOLO ASSOCIATE BRASE II BDSEYE MAPLE CBRASE II SPLT
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Kinalwww.kinal.com
Michael Kinal has been building and repairing stringed instruments for over 40 years in his Vancouver shop. After graduating from High Schoolhe developed his own line of guitars and basses. In 1980 Mike completed a B.Ed. in Industrial Education and started teaching at the Secondary level. Over the years he has built and repaired instruments for a number of professional musicians.Currently, Mike teaches woodwork and guitar building at St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby, B.C. He also plays bass professionally and builds his own line of instruments which includes 4 string, 5 string, 6 string and a Kinal Kompact acoustic bass.
Kinal Guitars and Basses3239 East 52nd Avenue
Vancouver, British Columbia V5S 1T9, Canada
BASS BUILDER #1 > KINAL
KOMPACT MK21 BOCATE SK21 SUNBURST SK5B GREEN BURST
34 BASS BUILDER #1 >
Born in Alexandria, Virginia and still residing in the DC area, Anthony Wellington refl ects the rare qualities in a musician of being both a master bass
player, a teacher and a formidable collector, primarily of boutique instruments. At the age of thirteen he found his passion for the instrument by going to, what he refers to as ‘bass jams.’ It seems that during his youth most of the players he knew wanted to play bass. As he says, “Everyone wanted to play the bass part to “Brick House,” not the guitar part. So we would get together and have jams where everyone was playing the bass. After fi nding himself on the wrong side of the law and spending a year incarcerated, Anthony returned to the world with a revived determination to get back to playing. It wasn’t long after that he met the person who would become his mentor and friend, Victor Wooten. Although they are both about the same age, Victor has had a profound effect on Anthony and his career, and has remained a band mate, friend and protege since 1999.
Anthony has become world renowned not only as a player but also as a teacher. He has started his own school outside of Washington, DC, where he calls his courses studies in ‘Bassology.’ He keeps many of his instruments there, where he and his
Collector's CornerAnthony Wellington: player, teacher, collector
By Mike Visceglia
students can have access to them- from piccolo to 7 stringed basses- for lessons. He is also very active in ‘paying it forward’ to the community, and has bought and donated many basses to inner city and other deserving students who want to study music and the instrument, and to have an alternative to some of the travails and experiences that he has seen fi rst hand. He has also worked directly with, and donated instruments to the Ellis Marsalis Center in New Orleans. I recently had a phone conversation with him to ask him some specifi c questions about his collection and some of his prized pieces, which now number more than forty.
What was your fi rst boutique bass?My fi rst bass was built in the mid ‘90s by California based luthier Ken Bebensee. I still own it and also have one of his 6 string fretless basses with a bubinga top and a pau ferro fretboard.
What would you consider to be the top fi ve basses that you own?1- My 5 string ‘Fodera Emporer’2- My 5 string ‘Fodera Yin Yang’ design Emporer3- My ‘Ken Bebensee’ 6 string fretless4- My ‘OM’ bass made by ‘M Basses’5- My ’78 Fender Jazz bass, which was a transition year instrument without block inlays. It was given to me by my high school teacher and was the instrument that changed my life.
Are there any special or humorous stories about how you acquired a specifi c instrument?In April of ’96, I walked into a music store and saw a used ‘Mike Tobias Killer B’ bass. I asked the owner how much he wanted for it. He didn’t really know what it was but
ANTHONY WELLINGTON
Anthony has become worldrenowned not only as a player but also as a teacher.He has started his own school outside of Washington, DC, where he calls his coursesstudies in ‘Bassology.’
RICK TURNER: THE BUSINESS OF BASS BUILDING…BASS BUILDER #1 > ANTHONY WELLINGTON
did know that it had a G string that slipped of the fretboard. Not realizing that that was an easy fi x he said “$600.00.” Containing my excitement, I went outside and immediately called Mike on the phone. When I told him about it he said that HE would even buy it from the store for $600.00. I bought the instrument, replaced the nut and it has been perfect ever since!Then there’s the story about a rare ‘Fodera Emperor Deluxe’ that was originally made for latin bassist Ruben Rodriguez. It’s a 5 string, with a FULL ebony top and a chambered body. It also has a hand rubbed lacquer fi nish- a very special instrument. When I saw it I knew I wanted it, but it was already sold to Ruben. After a while he then sold it and I kept track of it through its vari-ous owners. I eventually convinced one of them to sell it to me and it is now part of my collection.
Is there any instrument that would fall under the category of the “THE HOLY GRAIL”- one bass that you would just love to own or would pay anything to own?Any bass that’s owned by Victor Wooten would fall under that category because of what he means to me and what he’s done for me.
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38 BASS BUILDER #1 >
M Basses Companywww.mbasses.com
MJ5 OLYMPIC WHITE MJ4 LAKE PLACID BLUE MJ5 FIESTA RED
For more than a decade M Basses has been on the forefront of the custom bass guitar industry. Work-ing closely with many of the world’s best players, Jon Maghini has refi ned his model line to offer some of the fi nest hand crafted bass guitars available. With a growing demand for his work lead times can vary, please feel free to contact the shop for further details.
152 Bemis StTerryville, [email protected]
M BASSES
39
ML T5 ML 54P M4V ML JT524
Mike LullCustom Guitars
www.mikelull.com
In 1975 Mike Lull opened his fi rst shop The Guitar Works doing repairs of all kinds on guitars and basses of all brands. In 1995 Mike decided to expand his business into building high end custom guitars and basses under the name “Mike Lull Custom Guitars”. Since then Mike’s reputation has fl ourished to the extreme as one of the premier custom bass and guitar builders in the world!
13240 NE 20th St.Bellevue, WA 98005
BASS BUILDER #1 > MIKE LULL
40 BASS BUILDER #1 >
MarleauxBass Guitarswww.marleaux-bass.com
Gerald Marleaux took up the guitar at the age of 9, then made the wise switch to bass at the ago of 12. He soon found that there were no decent basses in his home town, so he acquired some wood from a local carpenter and made his fi rst bass, a fretless 4 that he says “turned out very well”. For the next 10 years he honed his skills, was mentored by bass viol maker Emmo Koch anf apprenticed with a furniture company, all the while making small num-bers of instruments, mostly for friends. 1990 marks year one for Marleaux Bass Guitars, and to this date over 1,800 basses have left the Marleaux workshop.
Sägemüllerstrasse 37D- 38678 Clausthal-ZellerfeldGermany0049 (0)532381747
DIVA 5 STRING VOTAN DELUXE 5STRING CONSAT CUSTOM 6STRING
MARLEAUX BASS GUITARS
42 BASS BUILDER #1 > SKJOLD DESIGN GUITARS
Skjold DesignGuitars LLC www.skjolddesign.com
OFFSET WHALEBACK OFFSET 92 SKJOLDSLAYER LION'S PRIDE
In 1992 Pete Skjold designed his fi rst bass guitar. It was a six string made for his professional playing needs by Chris Pearne. By 1996 Pete dove into bass building wholeheartedly and began training himself in the art of woodworking and production. By 1999 Pete had several prototypes that were fi nished and was fully committed to making a full fl edge move to building full time. in 2003 Skjold Design Guitars was offi cially opened and has continued to fl ourish and grow with each passing year.
36728 US HWY 36 Warsaw OHIO, [email protected]
44 BASS BUILDER #1 >
Ruppert Musical Instrumentswww.rmi.lu
Finest tools for the working musician manufacturing in Germany and using only best brand components Ruppert Musical Instruments aims at delivering the working musician products of unbeatable build and sound quality. With our top-of-the-range preamps with sophisticated signal routing to support you, you’ll be prepared for anything, whether you’re live on stage in front of a crowd of thousands, or playing to a hand-ful of people in a studio recording session.
20a Rue de BascharageL-4995 SchouweilerLuxembourgR.C.S. Luxembourg: B 147607TVA: LU 23516830
RUPPERT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS S.A.
ACOUSWITCH IQ DI BASSWITCH IQ DI
46 BASS BUILDER #1 >
Glockenklangwww.glockenklang.de
Glockenklang was founded by Udo Klempt-Giessing, owner and mastermind in 1979. The fi rst bass equip-ment called “Bugatti” was introduced on the Frank-furt Musik Messe in 1988. Since then Glockenklang has been known as a manufacturer of high quality bass gear. Our actual amps are the Passenger, Soul II, Heart-Rock II, Bass Art Classic preamp and head and the Blue Soul head.
Eimterstraße 14732049 [email protected]
BASS ART CLASSIC PREAMP BASS ART CLASSIC TOP BLUE SOUL1C HR II FRONTAL
GLOCKENKLANG
47
48 BASS BUILDER #1 >
Index ofAdvertisers
INDEX
Alembic ...........................................................................................................................................................4Alleva Coppolo ........................................................................................................................................5Ansir ....................................................................................................................................................................6Aries ..................................................................................................................................................................7Benincaso .....................................................................................................................................................9Birdsong Guitars ...................................................................................................................................14BL Design .....................................................................................................................................................11Bottom Wave ...........................................................................................................................................13Brubaker ........................................................................................................................................................3Chicago Bass Club ..............................................................................................................................45Delgado Guitars ...................................................................................................................................16Devon Guitars ..........................................................................................................................................15DP Custom Guitars ............................................................................................................................17Drake Custom Bass .........................................................................................................................18Elrick ...................................................................................................................................................................1F bass ...............................................................................................................................................................CFodera ..............................................................................................................................................................23Garz Guitars & Basses ...................................................................................................................19Glockenlang ..............................................................................................................................................46Hilton ................................................................................................................................................................27Holcomb Guitars ...................................................................................................................................29Jerzy Drozd Basses ...........................................................................................................................31Kenneth Lawrence Instruments ..........................................................................................32 Kinal ..................................................................................................................................................................33Le Fay ..............................................................................................................................................................35LedBelli Bass Guitars .....................................................................................................................37Luthiers Access Group ....................................................................................................................47 M Basses .......................................................................................................................................................38Marleaux Bass Guitars ...................................................................................................................40Mike Lull Custom Guitars ..........................................................................................................39Ruppert Musical Instruments ................................................................................................44Skjold Design Guitars ......................................................................................................................42The Bass Place ......................................................................................................................................41Zakrzewski Basses .............................................................................................................................43
FoderaCover StoryGetting Out of the Way
Collector's CornerAnthony Wellington,Teacher, Player, Collector
A Brief History of
Boutique Bass Guitars
Your Style, Your Bass
$9.99 US
