I was coming back from a shop up in Northern CT. that was repairing an amp head. As an afterthought I decided to stop into Guitar Center...for grins and giggles. I was browsing the bass section and stumbled, much by accident, over this used instrument.
The tag was printed: Pavel Tzack custom bass. I had never heard of the company never played one. So I pulled it down and played it for a good hour...unbelievable. Plays beautifully, I threw every technique at it and it responded by producing beautiful tone and clarity complementing everything I was doing. People walked and/or stopped by gave appreciation. I was like who is this company? Then I noticed this on the headstock.
That name I had heard of but couldn't place it. Written underneath the control cavity cover was complete detail of the instrument, make, serial number and (here's the big one) phone number of the builder. I jumped on my cell and called.
Pavel picked up the phone and the conversation we had was more than interesting. He handbuilt this bass for Randy Coven, (wrote for Guitar Player Magazine played with Yngwie Malmsteen and ton of other prominent musicians). At the 12th fret the name "Coven" is inlaid in mother of pearl. Here is a stock shot that I found I compared the figuring of the wood and found a match.
My next question was... who traded this in? They didn't have a definitive answer. Maybe this person had no idea what they had before trading it.
Here are more shots and that is a kahler tremolo system.
