You can hear him play his own basses and talk about his craft.
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Carl Thompson
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
You can hear him play his own basses and talk about his craft.
For lack of a better word, I Carl Thompson basses as idiosyncratic. They certainly seem to be expertly crafted, but the tone does not make a strong impression on me.
Having recently owned one of Carl’s basses, they have a lot going for them.
I feel Carl’s tonal pallet in his basses are for those of an upright player. He doesn’t build 34” scale basses so makes you choose between 32” or 36” (I believe he will do 38” too). The bass I owned was a 36” scale 4. Unreal craftsmanship! Who builds with solid wood nuts, cavity covers, and manages to put a nice piece of tone wood (like ebony) under the bridge? Heck even the truss rod cover is wood!
CTs basses achieve an organic sound like no other bass in my opinion. But you either like it or you don’t. It’s that simple.
Have you had the chance of playing one yet Dr. Cheese? Always love your threads and videos! Keep gruvin’ man!
I feel Carl’s tonal pallet in his basses are for those of an upright player. He doesn’t build 34” scale basses so makes you choose between 32” or 36” (I believe he will do 38” too). The bass I owned was a 36” scale 4. Unreal craftsmanship! Who builds with solid wood nuts, cavity covers, and manages to put a nice piece of tone wood (like ebony) under the bridge? Heck even the truss rod cover is wood!
CTs basses achieve an organic sound like no other bass in my opinion. But you either like it or you don’t. It’s that simple.
Have you had the chance of playing one yet Dr. Cheese? Always love your threads and videos! Keep gruvin’ man!
I think I may have seen a Carl Thompson once, but never played one. I would not doubt that actually playing one would be great.Having recently owned one of Carl’s basses, they have a lot going for them.
I feel Carl’s tonal pallet in his basses are for those of an upright player. He doesn’t build 34” scale basses so makes you choose between 32” or 36” (I believe he will do 38” too). The bass I owned was a 36” scale 4. Unreal craftsmanship! Who builds with solid wood nuts, cavity covers, and manages to put a nice piece of tone wood (like ebony) under the bridge? Heck even the truss rod cover is wood!
CTs basses achieve an organic sound like no other bass in my opinion. But you either like it or you don’t. It’s that simple.
Have you had the chance of playing one yet Dr. Cheese? Always love your threads and videos! Keep gruvin’ man!
I missed out on a CT fretless once at $650. The store would only lay away for 30 days and I couldn't get the money together that quickly. This was in the days before I had a MasterCard 
Memory of course is not a good judge of anything but at the time it was the nicest playing bass I had ever put my hands on and sounded incredible.
Memory of course is not a good judge of anything but at the time it was the nicest playing bass I had ever put my hands on and sounded incredible.
I think I would have danced the pole to get $650 for a Carl Thompson...I missed out on a CT fretless once at $650. The store would only lay away for 30 days and I couldn't get the money together that quickly. This was in the days before I had a MasterCard
Memory of course is not a good judge of anything but at the time it was the nicest playing bass I had ever put my hands on and sounded incredible.
I would have broken the pole trying!I think I would have danced the pole to get $650 for a Carl Thompson...
I missed out on a CT fretless once at $650. The store would only lay away for 30 days and I couldn't get the money together that quickly. This was in the days before I had a MasterCard
Memory of course is not a good judge of anything but at the time it was the nicest playing bass I had ever put my hands on and sounded incredible.
Had a similar experience with a Ritter for $1600.
CT's basses are beautiful and I get the feeling from his social media presence that he is, uh, enjoying his old age.
My buddy owns a CT and the first impression I had when I first got to play it was that I was floored by how light it was. CT basses look kind of big and heavy and with all the dark woods I just expected it to be a tank, but it's one of the lightest full-scale basses I've ever played. Of course, it played beautifully and had that distinct tone, and the attention to detail in its construction is simply remarkable.
I sure want to try one someday. Does Carl Thompson make active instruments? I think all of the ones I have seen are passive.
I got to play one of his basses that belonged to a guy whom I recorded, and while they're not my thing, they are extremely well-built. It was a 5-string bass and if I recall correctly, it was an active one. The neck was very thin front to back (a little too thin for my taste).
I love the tone of CT basses, they have a ton of character
I had the same experience. From the look you might think they are heavy and clunky.
I got a chance to play one and found it to be one of the lightest, best playing basses I ever picked up. I never plugged it in to see how it sounded amplified, but it was a great acoustic experience none the less.
It was at a music store and already sold when I saw it. I think the guy that bought is was out trying to scrape up the cash needed...too early in the day to drum it up on the pole yet.
Many of them use EMG pickups so they are active.
Cool, my number one fretless has an EMG pickup but a passive tone control. My old Guild Pilot V was like that too.
Wow! I had no idea the man was a beret wearing jazz cat!
He’s kind of like Les Paul, a monster musician who is also a major innovator of instrument design.
I can’t get over the way they look, it’s just so off putting to me.
Actually, that's what so appealing to me. I'm a fender guy and these are one of the few boutiques I'd embrace without hesitation. The wood is beautiful, the construction impeccable, the sound wonderfully warm, woody and organic. Aesthetically, they're almost gothic looking. One of the few top-of-the-line basses I'd play without thinking " I really shouldn't be playing this, it's too ostentatious, too flashy, too good for a guy like me". Just beautiful.
