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Show us your Martin Keith Basses

77stingray

77stingray

Supporting Member
Oct 6, 2010
1,634
1,786
Atlanta
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Skjold Artist
#1
I just received my first Martin Keith Bass. It is a 32" scale semi-Hollow body with both piezo and magnetic pickups. I know there are more TB'ers with Martin Keith basses, because I've seen them from time to time. I would love to see the pictures and specs posted in one place and also encourage some sound clips if you have them! Martin is making Hollow body, Semi-hollow body, and solid body basses (and nice acoustic guitars as well). I will post some sound clips in a week or so! Here is my build thread
Martin Keith Elfin Semi-Hollow Body Build
and Martins Website Martin Keith Guitars
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#2
I am on my way out the door (in a minute, anyway) so I'll post more later, but.............. how did you use my back yard to make these photos? :jawdrop: :p

Here's my Elfin 5 fretless. I bought this from Martin at the 2010 NAMM Show; this bass was featured in a review in the June 2010 issue of Bass Player. :bassist:

Elfin-Front-1200_9122.jpg

Photograph Copyright © Jeffrey P. Scott 2010 All rights reserved.

Spruce top, walnut body, ziricote fingerboard, Martin's special sauce passive harness with Citron pickups.
 
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#7
That's ziricote. I asked Martin for the same on the fretted Elfin 5 he made for me in 2011. Yes, passive harnesses (VPT). The tone control has a pull switch to change the operation of the pan control. When pushed down the pan works as expected, going from on Citron humbucking pickup to the other. When pulled up, the pan goes from the two outer coils to the two inner coils of the pickups, in the middle being all four coils.

Here's the fretted Elfin 5. Birdseye maple top, walnut body.

Full-Front-1200-0318.jpg

Photograph Copyright © Jeffrey P. Scott 2011 All rights reserved.

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Photograph Copyright © Jeffrey P. Scott 2011 All rights reserved.

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Photograph Copyright © Jeffrey P. Scott 2011 All rights reserved.

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Photograph Copyright © SAW 2010 All rights reserved.

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Photograph Copyright © SAW 2011 All rights reserved.
 
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#9
smperry said:
I'm in Yosemite National Park right now. Will post my five basses when I can. :D
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Were are you at, exactly? High country? April is our favorite time to go there! :thumbsup: I made these photographs on a couple of trips, in April 1998 (IIRC), and in April 1990 (this view was at the suggestion of Bruce Barnbaum; this is an area most folks don't venture out to!).

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Bridal Veil Fountain. Photograph Copyright © Jeffrey P. Scott 1998 All rights reserved.

Yosemite Valley From Granite Shelf-1200_1444.jpg

The Valley. Photograph Copyright © Jeffrey P. Scott 1990 All rights reserved.
 
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#11
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I need some better pictures. The last one shows the Luminlay side dots after they were activated with the LED flashlight (included).

I've used this bass with all of my bands, from hard rock to classic rock/R&B to pop/blues/country. So versatile!

Specs: alder body, pearl red finish (glows nicely under stage light), maple neck and board, 34.5" scale, Aguilar OBP-1 preamp, passive tone control, Nordstrand reverse P-bass pickup (neck), Nordstrand Music Man pickup (bridge), push/pull switches for active/passive, and series/parallel (the MM pickup).
 
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#16
MAJOR METAL said:
I don't own one of Martin's basses, though I've met him and he's a class act guy. Immensely talented.
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I bought an Elfin second-hand that unfortunately had some strange setup issues that I could not figure out (I had thought it was a twisted neck). He offered to take a look at it, and ended up giving it a fret dressing at no cost to me other than paying for the shipping; and I only had to ship the neck and the bridge (lower shipping cost). The neck and bridge came back...I bolted them back on...and the bass played so effortlessly! That level of customer service, which is far beyond what should be expected, is what won me over. "Class act" and "immensely talented" are definitely words I would use to express my experience with him as well.

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#18
I keep wanting to buy my dad a Martin Keith guitar, since he's a guitarist and his name is Martin Keith (he goes by M. Keith or just the middle name Keith, but still). Our last name is ALSO the name of a guitar company, albeit not really a known or prestigious one. Fun!
 
#19
Ok, I've never owned a Martin Keith bass and I'm not a super huge fan of singlecut basses, but that bass that he's holding on his website on the ABOUT page has got to be one of the single, most beautiful instruments I've ever seen! That bass is just gorgeous! It doesn't look like any of the other MK models. Anyone know anything about that bass?
 
#20
pbass6811 said:
Ok, I've never owned a Martin Keith bass and I'm not a super huge fan of singlecut basses, but that bass that he's holding on his website on the ABOUT page has got to be one of the single, most beautiful instruments I've ever seen! That bass is just gorgeous! It doesn't look like any of the other MK models. Anyone know anything about that bass?
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No idea, but I'd venture to guess that it's probably an early model he built for himself.
 

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