Drake M-10 Semi-hollow in MINT condition.
This bass is hand-made by Andrew Drake (Iowa). Roasted, quarter-sawn maple neck (one-piece, bolt-on) with 33" scale, Richlite fingerboard. Body is Basswood with a beautifully figured Myrtle top. The flame is nice, but it's all of the articulated, vertical figuring that make this a truly special piece, IMO. It's hard to capture this on an iPhone, so I took a lot of snaps to try to show this off. The finish that Andrew applies is rich, warm, and flawless. Fretwork is impeccable. It's a gorgeous and sustainably built bass that uses no endangered trees.
The bass weighs right at 7 lbs and is nicely balanced, especially given the medium scale and the Hipshot Ultralight tuners. Standing or sitting, this bass is a pleasure to play. I have it strung with some nice LaBella tapewound strings. The tension is a bit lower than a long-scale, and the bass is very responsive and even across the fingerboard. You'll want to play it for hours.
The pickups are TV Jones Thunder'Blades, paired with VVT passive controls; this setup sounds amazing and is really versatile. Despite how it may first appear, this is not your grandpas's EB2 by any means. With the tone rolled up, you get in some nice Hofner violin bass territory. Roll both pups up and roll back the tone about halfway or more, and you unleash some seriously thunderous low mids. Roll off the bridge pup, and you get some nice upright sounds. Solo the bridge, roll off the tone, and you get some really nice burp. Dig in, you can emulate a fretless quite nicely. It responds really well to light slapping too, believe it or not. The T'blades with passive electronics are definitely the right way to go here.
The case is not original. These are shipped, I believe, with a gig bag. The case is generic to accommodate the odd shape - maybe Road Runner? It's adequate, but not a road-worthy case, per se.
I recently replaced the neck pickup, which had a grounding problem. I contacted TV Jones directly just to ask them for advice. They had me send them the pickup to assess the problem, and they graciously sent me a new replacement for free! The Drake has never been gigged and is kept in a temp & humidity controlled space. I would prefer to not ship this instrument, but I am open to the idea. As you can tell, I am quite taken with this bass. Unfortunately, I have one too many basses now and can't give this one enough attention. I am willing to meet you halfway within a 2 hour radius, which covers most of the Northeast from Philly to Portland, from my strategic location in Springfield, MA. Thanks for checking it out. Cheers, John
This bass is hand-made by Andrew Drake (Iowa). Roasted, quarter-sawn maple neck (one-piece, bolt-on) with 33" scale, Richlite fingerboard. Body is Basswood with a beautifully figured Myrtle top. The flame is nice, but it's all of the articulated, vertical figuring that make this a truly special piece, IMO. It's hard to capture this on an iPhone, so I took a lot of snaps to try to show this off. The finish that Andrew applies is rich, warm, and flawless. Fretwork is impeccable. It's a gorgeous and sustainably built bass that uses no endangered trees.
The bass weighs right at 7 lbs and is nicely balanced, especially given the medium scale and the Hipshot Ultralight tuners. Standing or sitting, this bass is a pleasure to play. I have it strung with some nice LaBella tapewound strings. The tension is a bit lower than a long-scale, and the bass is very responsive and even across the fingerboard. You'll want to play it for hours.
The pickups are TV Jones Thunder'Blades, paired with VVT passive controls; this setup sounds amazing and is really versatile. Despite how it may first appear, this is not your grandpas's EB2 by any means. With the tone rolled up, you get in some nice Hofner violin bass territory. Roll both pups up and roll back the tone about halfway or more, and you unleash some seriously thunderous low mids. Roll off the bridge pup, and you get some nice upright sounds. Solo the bridge, roll off the tone, and you get some really nice burp. Dig in, you can emulate a fretless quite nicely. It responds really well to light slapping too, believe it or not. The T'blades with passive electronics are definitely the right way to go here.
The case is not original. These are shipped, I believe, with a gig bag. The case is generic to accommodate the odd shape - maybe Road Runner? It's adequate, but not a road-worthy case, per se.
I recently replaced the neck pickup, which had a grounding problem. I contacted TV Jones directly just to ask them for advice. They had me send them the pickup to assess the problem, and they graciously sent me a new replacement for free! The Drake has never been gigged and is kept in a temp & humidity controlled space. I would prefer to not ship this instrument, but I am open to the idea. As you can tell, I am quite taken with this bass. Unfortunately, I have one too many basses now and can't give this one enough attention. I am willing to meet you halfway within a 2 hour radius, which covers most of the Northeast from Philly to Portland, from my strategic location in Springfield, MA. Thanks for checking it out. Cheers, John
