Up for sale here is a beautiful, handcrafted in America Michael Tobias Design 5-string 535 bass. I'm the first and only owner and kept it in a climate controlled room in it's case. It has the special 10 year anniversary logo inlay on the headstock (check the photos up top). It's hand signed #1514, looks and plays like the day it was born.
The body is American Ash with a deep cherry sunburst Maple Burl top with Strap Lok-compatible strap buttons. The finish is a catalyzed acrylic urethane satin that looks and feels a lot like oil but is many times harder without building great thickness. This allows the bass to breathe, sounding more wooden. The body and neck are ergonomically carved to allow comfortable access to the extended scale bass.
The neck and board is Wenge, which adds compression and focus to the speaking voice of the bass) 35" scale bolt-on with 21 frets (plus a zero fret).
The pickups and active electronics are a proprietary design for MTD made by Bill Bartolini. The controls are: master volume and a pan pot, treble, mid, bass cut and boost, with center click (from neck to bridge). The three position switch selects the mid range cut and boost point. Down is lower mids, center is middle and up is upper mids. When the mid pot is at center click, the switch has minimal effect. This EQ has 2 batteries and is a +/- 9 volt system. There is great variety in the settings of the EQ. The basses can be made to sound very traditional by cutting the mids all the way at 1000 (switch in top position), and boosting the bass and treble to 10 with the blend pot at center. This offers a great slap tone. Boosting the mids at 250 ( switch in lower position), with bass at 10 and treble at 9-10 with the blend pot on the bridge pick up gives the early Bartolini TCT tone. This offers a very percussive finger tone. These are just suggestions. The tone will vary depending on the rig and technique used.
The bridge and tuners are custom manufactured for MTD and the American model by Hipshot. MTD uses the Buzz Feiten Tuning System for all hand made US basses. This revolutionary tuning system enhances tuning dramatically, allowing the player greater freedom of expression.
Included is the original hardshell locking case.
For more details, check out
Michael Tobias Design - MTD
