Meridian Aural II 5 String Bass Overview
Meridian basses are completely handmade in Avezzano, Italy, by luthier Davide Cardone.
These are basses that have been designed from scratch following some really artistic lines. Davide studied arts in Italy and you can tell that just by looking at the perfect proportions of his instruments. We also love the fact that these are original designs and not just another copy of famous "boutique" basses, if you know what we mean.
As you can see there's a certain modern design to these basses but the use of quality tonewoods anchors them within the fine tradition of Italian lutherie. We love this perfect blend of form and function.
We love the fact that all Meridian basses include some information about the year that the wood for the body and/or neck was cut. This averages 35 years and of course the wood has been drying ever since so as you can expect this makes for exceptionally stable instruments. Davide is also a firm believer in thin finish. If the finish is too thick or if it is thin but too many layers are applied, he feels that the wood cannot vibrate freely, resulting in a slightly muffled tone.
The combination of light woods that have been drying for years plus just the right amount of layers of thin coat plus light hardware make for basses that feel strong, are vibrant and of course can be played for hours with no fatigue.
The icing on the cake is the neck which is slim and ultra comfortable.
This model is named Aural II and it is a Meridian original design.
Meridian basses are completely handmade in Avezzano, Italy, by luthier Davide Cardone.
These are basses that have been designed from scratch following some really artistic lines. Davide studied arts in Italy and you can tell that just by looking at the perfect proportions of his instruments. We also love the fact that these are original designs and not just another copy of famous "boutique" basses, if you know what we mean.
As you can see there's a certain modern design to these basses but the use of quality tonewoods anchors them within the fine tradition of Italian lutherie. We love this perfect blend of form and function.
We love the fact that all Meridian basses include some information about the year that the wood for the body and/or neck was cut. This averages 35 years and of course the wood has been drying ever since so as you can expect this makes for exceptionally stable instruments. Davide is also a firm believer in thin finish. If the finish is too thick or if it is thin but too many layers are applied, he feels that the wood cannot vibrate freely, resulting in a slightly muffled tone.
The combination of light woods that have been drying for years plus just the right amount of layers of thin coat plus light hardware make for basses that feel strong, are vibrant and of course can be played for hours with no fatigue.
The icing on the cake is the neck which is slim and ultra comfortable.
This model is named Aural II and it is a Meridian original design.
Instrument Specifications
- Body: Bahia Walnut
- Top: Old Italian Walnut
- Neck: Hard Rock Maple (1986)
- Fretboard: Makassar Ebony, 16" radius, 24 frets
- Frets: Sintoms Medium
- Pickups: Delano Times Square
- Tuners: Hipshot
- Bridge: ETS with variable string spacing
- Preamp: John East Uni-Pre 2 Pickup 5 Knob
- - Features: Volume, Balance, High, High Boost, Mid Sweep, Mid, Low, Active/passive switch, passive tone, Coil selector switch (Series/Single/Parallel)
- Totally independent active and passive signal paths guarantee completely smooth blend when set to active.
- Custom designed pots allow optimal placement of all controls within active and passive signal paths.
- Class A FET input stages for great sound quality, with two gain trim preset adjustments for each pickup.
- Operational response of Bass Control can be set internally at both the lower and upper ends of the bass spectrum.
- Treble Control with internally adjustable frequency voicing, plus Bright as a pull switch.
- Mid Control with Frequency Sweep
- Other Features: Aluminum stripes side dot, body thickness of 38mm, Fret zero, Carbon fiber nut
- Bridge spacing-18.5
- Nut width-45mm or 1.77"
- Scale length-34"
- Weight-8.12lbs
