Shark guitars

[gtirard]

It's a guitar company, but they may eventually make basses too - who knows?

I've never seen so many innovative features in a single instrument, it seems that they re-thought everything from the tuners to the bridge, including the frets, pickups and electronics… It's amazing.

I never thought that my basses had so many problems that needed to be fixed

Would you like to see some of theses innovative features come to the bass world?

 

[pingvuiini]

Wow! Dweezil has certainly ’matured’.

Cool features and innovations. For sure here.

Something I would like to see is an offset designed instrument that is somehow able to be fully convertible to lefty. This concept would obviously be easier for symmetrically designed instruments like a Steinberger popsicle or Hofner Beatle Bass. But if this could somehow be done with offset instruments that would greatly lessen my envy and jealousy and probably greatly increase my GAS.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

The wheel continues to be reinvented.
But if Dweezil digs it..its gotta be cool.

 

[bdplaid]

I think it's an answer to the problem of poorly made instruments. The fret and nut adjustments in particular.

 

[mikeynets]

Very cool. Bass applications — quick swap flats and rounds, quick swap pickups, quick swap fretless, scale length, etc.

If nothing else, local shops having something like this on hand and a collection of pickups for demos would be cool.

The fret system is very interesting as well. Were they attached magnetically?

 

[crazycloud]

I've never seen so many innovative features in a single instrument, it seems that they re-thought everything from the tuners to the bridge, including the frets, pickups and electronics… It's amazing.

The majority of guitar and bass buyers are very traditional, so it might sell a bit for a while, but most will go back to old and boring shortly thereafter. It's happened too many times already.

 

[MVE]

I really like the pop-off neck.

I would get a bass with one if it was otherwise more traditional looking.

I have machine screw inserts in one of my necks just for that reason. I put a guitar capo on the neck so the strings don’t go everywhere, remove the screws and fold it in half for flying. It works well, but would love a click-in system.

 

[Diddywah]

Cool and very inventive.
But I'm guessing $$$$$
Pickup swap is very interesting
Neck swap/off is good for traveling
Swap to fretless is interesting, but not useable on stage. In Studio though...

Dweezil looks alot like his father

 

[Fierzzaga]

The majority of guitar and bass buyers are very traditional, so it might sell a bit for a while, but most will go back to old and boring shortly thereafter. It's happened too many times already.

I think what they have developed looks amazing! So many cool things for people to experiment and customize, I love it.

As for the idea that the majority of buyers are traditional, sure, I get that notion. I do feel that there is space for more than just tradition, however. This may not replace what we all know and have become used to, but it could augment that and open up the space to a whole new group of musicians. I've seen many discussion on this site about how 'young people don't want to play in bands anymore' and I really think this could be a game changer.

We have the innovations we have because historically, the economics haven't made sense to shake things up too much past the sandbox walls; It's been more about business and not addressing actual need. People say "if it don't make money then it don't make sense" and I feel that has dictated more than anything else why we have what we have. Many of the decisions made in the bass guitar space were made for economic and manufacturing reasons above anything else.

We'll see how this takes off, but I do think that it can happen with a company that is focused on innovation and improving things to meet the needs of players rather than throwing things out because they think it's the next trend or will make $$$ for the shareholders and the venture capitalists.
I love seeing this and hope they gain traction and expand to our side.

TLDR; Innovation can thrive if it's done for the right reasons, and it doesn't have to mean the death of traditional craftsmanship.

 

[gtirard]

I think I've seen pop-off necks before in traveler basses, but the fact that the instruments stays in tune when you put the neck back is very impressive.

I'm not sure I would use the pickup swap, but I like that you can compensate the output level for in single coil (I don't think I've ever seen this before?)

The system to adjust the frets is super clever, but for me it's a solution to a problem that never existed.

Last, I like that they improved pretty much all aspects of an electric guitar, and it's great that you can build your custom instrument, so you can select only the options you need.

 

[brianrost]

BTW, the answer to the question “does this change guitars forever?” is NO in the sense that it will not become the new norm. History is full of technological advances in guitar construction that were total flops. Metal necks, interchangeable fingerboards, interchangeable pickups, “robot” tuners, onboard autotune, onboard synthesizer or organ, folding guitars and these Rics:

 

[blastoff]

weight?

 

[Smooth_bass88]

I mean, it's guitars. who cares? if they made basses, I'd check it out but, noooooo

 

[Avigdor]

Thanks for posting this - I'd have missed that. So many great eangineering solutions, I love it. That bridge will be VERY interesting. Each player might only use a subset of the available features, but the possibilites are useful. These will never be the instruments I take into a dive bar gig, I reckon' they'll want looking after. Electrical contacts will need to be protected, the tolerances on the swapable parts will need good long term stability - quite a challenge all around. But one could explore microtonal replacement fret sets for different keys - I could see a one of my classical necks being upgraded with that...

Features for Bass I'd love to see are probably rarer - the builtin effects sound great for a cover gig where you need versatility, but then you'll run into the usability limitations of the front knobs. I'd probably still prefer my effects box with a good usb interface programmable on a computer at home.

So after drooling and thinking for a while, I'll really want a bridge like that, and then think carefully about needs vs wants. On bass I'd want a special edition without the whammy features.

 

[Alper Yilmaz]

I know the guys quite well. The lead guy in the company is a well-known rock guitarist in Turkey and they design and manufacture their instruments in Antalya, Turkey, a coastal town on the Mediterranean.

Their movable neck design as well as tremolo arms are second to none. And they have great prospect in instrument and parts design.

I play in the trio of one of their endorsers, Cenk Erdogan, who is a fantastic guitar player, mostly fretless.

During conversations with Cem, the owner of the firm, we talked about some bass designs as well; yet they are primarily focusing on guitars for the time being.

We’ll see…

 

[monsterthompson]

Interesting stuff. I’m not sure how much I’d use any of the features and options but I’m impressed.

 

[GrooveCaptain]

Wow! Unbelievable stuff. What a great company. Some of the features probably aren't too practically useful, like the built in effects, and pickup swapping, but all the things you can do with that bridge, nut, neck joint, and frets are unbelievable and highly useful.
Really hope they get into making basses

 

[gtirard]

If they ever make a bass, the ability to swap between a fretted and fretless necks with the same body would be attractive.

 

[blastoff]

weight?

(replying to myself) honestly im curious how heavy that thing is. even if every fastener is Ti, there's two screws per fret plus any associated bracketry, all that quick release stuff, a couple yards of copper...i like the color though!

 

[Kubicki Fan]

It's a guitar company, but they may eventually make basses too - who knows?

I've never seen so many innovative features in a single instrument, it seems that they re-thought everything from the tuners to the bridge, including the frets, pickups and electronics… It's amazing.

I never thought that my basses had so many problems that needed to be fixed

Would you like to see some of theses innovative features come to the bass world?

Where does the buckle rash go?

I can see that taking this sucker to a local tech is not an option.

IMO: Impressive innovation on many fronts.