 Removable Neck Bass
So, Lemur Music in Southern California is working on a removable neck bass. It's being designed with traveling bassists in mind. I had the pleasure of playing the prototype bass with an orchestra I performed with in France. I'm still in high school, so they weren't super prestigious concerts or anything, but it was in Europe, which was effing awesome.
Any bassist that has traveled knows that the airlines are quite the nuisance. My orchestra's tour in France didn't start and stop in the same city, so renting a bass in France would have been a huge nuisance. I called the airlines to see if they would take my bass, but apparently now they won't let you take a bass no matter what because of its size. So I went to Lemur music for help, and they told me about their prototype removable neck bass.
The bass was one of their Catalina series basses that the neck had snapped off of. Where the neck is set onto the body, there is a aluminum pivot on the edge close to the fingerboard. Then, their is a screw hole through the neck going into the body so that when you tighten it it makes the neck pivot about the fulcrum. It works kind of like a tremolo on electric fretted instruments, but instead of pivoting the bridge and bridge nut, it pivots the fingerboard and head nut. So when you tighten the screw, it pulls back the head and raises the fingerboard.
After a little practice, it took me only a few minutes to assemble or disassemble the bass.
The box they made for the bass had a corrugated plastic shell, with a wooden frame. It held up very nice even with the airline's handling. The box had velcro-on wheels, so you could take them in another bag with you so they wouldn't get ripped of and lost when the airline was handling the bass.
The bass sound didn't suffer because of the removable neck. I've played the Catalina bass as its standard model, and the removable neck version sounded about the same. It kept its sustain, volume, tone, and playability.
Altogether, it's a very good bass and I'd recommend it to anyone who can't afford to buy a bass in the place they are performing.
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