UPS brought me a new toy today. A mahogany bodied, mahogany topped, white wenge fingerboard Skjold bass. When I received my redwood topped fretless bass from Pete early this year, I thought it was the best looking, and then the best playing, and sounding bass I'd ever picked up. (O.K. The Benavente's play really, really nice) But for me the Skjold just seemed to fit better. And the new electronics that Pete has make it an absolutely amazing fretless bass.
So... I ordered a fretted bass to go with the fretless. Now... I really like my Benavente 51P. It's mahogany, with ebony board, and it sounds great. However it's 34" scale, and my fretless is 35" scale. I really want my fretted and fretless to have the same scale length, so I don't run into intonation problems based on muscle memory. Since I liked my Mahogany bodied Bennie so much.. I knew that's what I wanted for the body. Pete showed me some woods for the top, and for some reason I jsut really liked this Pomelli figured Mahogany so we decided to use that for the top. Then instead of ebony for the fingerboard, Pete thought the white wenge would really go well... not just with the looks, but tonally as well.
Well... I opened the case after it arrived and was completely blown away... the bass looks amazing. It is actually better looking than my redwood fretless. The pics of my fretless make it look really good... but everyone that has seen the pics first, and then seen the bass.... all say it looks better in person. WELL.... I can guarantee this bass looks better in person than any pics I could ever take of it... but I tried. I quickly went into the other room here at my office (where my band rehearses) plugged it into my rig with both the Schroeder 1210, and 21012... and was blown away... Set flat, this bass has the most remarkable tone... it was just what I wanted.... super low end that is so tight and defined and punchy... it will knock you clear into next month. The top is sharp but not brittle, or annoying....The slap/pop stuff just sounded amazing. Most of what I do is fingerstyle stuff... and it is just HUGE!!! but not muddy. From there Pete's electronics are amazing and will take this bass wherever you want to go tonally.
Well.... tomorrow I'll put it to it's real test... in a band setting. That's what really counts. And then we've got 72 hours of studio time starting Friday. So between now and then I've got to spend a lot of time with the bass.
Enough talk... it doesn't exist unless there are pics.... here's a few. Oh... At my request Pete did a little inlay thing for me at the 12th fret. Pete did it freehand and it came out just as he and I discussed. I'm sure some will think it's a little cheesy... but I like it!!
The pic's are all thumbnailed... click'em to enlarge.
So... I ordered a fretted bass to go with the fretless. Now... I really like my Benavente 51P. It's mahogany, with ebony board, and it sounds great. However it's 34" scale, and my fretless is 35" scale. I really want my fretted and fretless to have the same scale length, so I don't run into intonation problems based on muscle memory. Since I liked my Mahogany bodied Bennie so much.. I knew that's what I wanted for the body. Pete showed me some woods for the top, and for some reason I jsut really liked this Pomelli figured Mahogany so we decided to use that for the top. Then instead of ebony for the fingerboard, Pete thought the white wenge would really go well... not just with the looks, but tonally as well.
Well... I opened the case after it arrived and was completely blown away... the bass looks amazing. It is actually better looking than my redwood fretless. The pics of my fretless make it look really good... but everyone that has seen the pics first, and then seen the bass.... all say it looks better in person. WELL.... I can guarantee this bass looks better in person than any pics I could ever take of it... but I tried. I quickly went into the other room here at my office (where my band rehearses) plugged it into my rig with both the Schroeder 1210, and 21012... and was blown away... Set flat, this bass has the most remarkable tone... it was just what I wanted.... super low end that is so tight and defined and punchy... it will knock you clear into next month. The top is sharp but not brittle, or annoying....The slap/pop stuff just sounded amazing. Most of what I do is fingerstyle stuff... and it is just HUGE!!! but not muddy. From there Pete's electronics are amazing and will take this bass wherever you want to go tonally.
Well.... tomorrow I'll put it to it's real test... in a band setting. That's what really counts. And then we've got 72 hours of studio time starting Friday. So between now and then I've got to spend a lot of time with the bass.
Enough talk... it doesn't exist unless there are pics.... here's a few. Oh... At my request Pete did a little inlay thing for me at the 12th fret. Pete did it freehand and it came out just as he and I discussed. I'm sure some will think it's a little cheesy... but I like it!!
The pic's are all thumbnailed... click'em to enlarge.
