Good to see some very kewl basses from denmark. Another reason to want to move there! Lol. I esp like the look of the doublecut reptile posted.
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Show your Mørch basses
- Thread starter BASSDROID
- Start date
Boombass76
Commercial User
OK. I am no longer a Mørch bass owner, but I played this one for a while:
Sorry for the crappy quality of the pic...
In a craftsman perspective this bass is second to none! Neck-through, double truss rod, 35", 24 frets, ebony board, etc. And it could be set with a super-low action with no buzzing.
In fact, it began life as a lined fretless and only with the MM humbucker pickup. Then, at one point, I decided to try something new and had Johnny put frets and the additional neck PU in the bass as well as the new version of his hand-made preamp (3-band boost/cut instead of the 'old' 2-band boost only).
The result was just not entirely what I was after... Since the bass was not exactly cheap in the first place and I had spent quite an amount on the 'upgrades', I decided to make a final investment and has the bridge PU and an on/off switch installed.
BTW, the two single-coil looking PU's are really splitable stacked humbuckers.
It's a VERY versatile bass:
- Master vol
- Pan between the MM and the neck PU
- On/Off bridge PU
- Switch for flicking between humbucker/single-coil on the stacked PUs
- 3-way switch for the MM (serial parallel, single-coil)
- 3-band EQ (cut/boost)
Still, I never got the exact sound I was looking for, but I don't blame the bass as such. Later, I found that I prefer bolt-on basses and maple or rosewood boards.
Eventually, I sold it and to make the story complete, the new owner actually had Johnny convert it to... a fretless!
Even though this bass never did the trick for me, there is no doubt in my mind that Johnny Mørch is right up there with Roger Sadowsky, Vinnie Fodera, Michael Tobias, Ken Smith, Jimmy (Alleva-Coppolo), Christian Celinder, etc. (I have owned/own basses made by all these amazing luthiers) Like them, he is equally craftsman and artist!
Sorry for the crappy quality of the pic...
In a craftsman perspective this bass is second to none! Neck-through, double truss rod, 35", 24 frets, ebony board, etc. And it could be set with a super-low action with no buzzing.
In fact, it began life as a lined fretless and only with the MM humbucker pickup. Then, at one point, I decided to try something new and had Johnny put frets and the additional neck PU in the bass as well as the new version of his hand-made preamp (3-band boost/cut instead of the 'old' 2-band boost only).
The result was just not entirely what I was after... Since the bass was not exactly cheap in the first place and I had spent quite an amount on the 'upgrades', I decided to make a final investment and has the bridge PU and an on/off switch installed.
BTW, the two single-coil looking PU's are really splitable stacked humbuckers.
It's a VERY versatile bass:
- Master vol
- Pan between the MM and the neck PU
- On/Off bridge PU
- Switch for flicking between humbucker/single-coil on the stacked PUs
- 3-way switch for the MM (serial parallel, single-coil)
- 3-band EQ (cut/boost)
Still, I never got the exact sound I was looking for, but I don't blame the bass as such. Later, I found that I prefer bolt-on basses and maple or rosewood boards.
Eventually, I sold it and to make the story complete, the new owner actually had Johnny convert it to... a fretless!
Even though this bass never did the trick for me, there is no doubt in my mind that Johnny Mørch is right up there with Roger Sadowsky, Vinnie Fodera, Michael Tobias, Ken Smith, Jimmy (Alleva-Coppolo), Christian Celinder, etc. (I have owned/own basses made by all these amazing luthiers) Like them, he is equally craftsman and artist!
Awesome basses guys!
I've seen several pictures and testimonial from Michael Friis about Johnny's basses. Do any of you know where I might hear some of Michael's work? Who is he playing with these days?
I've seen several pictures and testimonial from Michael Friis about Johnny's basses. Do any of you know where I might hear some of Michael's work? Who is he playing with these days?
Hi
After a long gas time, thanks Mikkel-S read on talkbass,
I got this great Danish bass made ​​in 70ees by Mr. Johnny Mørch.
M400 was a standard at the time... I think now he only makes custom instruments.
I put pictures here Mørch M400 - a set on Flickr
There is the classic Croll design, 7-ply neck-through, Mørch pickups, passive/active electronics, Schaller bridge and tuners.
I am not sure of the woods but I think the body is solid mahogany, the neck mahogany/rosewood, and ebony fingerboard.
The sound is very useful and sustain powerful with rich low frequencies
After a long gas time, thanks Mikkel-S read on talkbass,
I got this great Danish bass made ​​in 70ees by Mr. Johnny Mørch.M400 was a standard at the time... I think now he only makes custom instruments.
I put pictures here Mørch M400 - a set on Flickr
There is the classic Croll design, 7-ply neck-through, Mørch pickups, passive/active electronics, Schaller bridge and tuners.
I am not sure of the woods but I think the body is solid mahogany, the neck mahogany/rosewood, and ebony fingerboard.
The sound is very useful and sustain powerful with rich low frequencies
Michael is probably on the top of any Danish artist's or producer's wish list when they want to assemble a studio recording team or a live backing group - he has played on hundreds of albums, mainly within pop/jazz/blues. You should be able to find some Sebastian albums where he has laid down the bass lines.
He is also a permanent member of several musical groups, currently it looks like he plays mostly with Polkageist, a folk/pop band.
I've seen him live on many occasions, maybe the best concert was a very small one with Perry Stenbäk on guitar and Klaus Menzer on drums - man, those guys can play
I had a good chat with Michael after the show, he's a really cool guy who always has time to talk about music.
Thanks Basdyret! I was able to find the following examples. Man, what a great tone. Michael is indeed a phenomenal bass player and musician! I understand he is the one who introduced Jaco to Johnny.
YouTube - ‪Sebastian - Sommerfuglen‬‏
YouTube - ‪Sebastian - Sørøver Jenny‬‏
YouTube - ‪Sebastian - Gøgleren‬‏
And nanookanono, very beautiful bass; thanks for posting it! Hopefully more Mørch owners will find this thread.
YouTube - ‪Sebastian - Sommerfuglen‬‏
YouTube - ‪Sebastian - Sørøver Jenny‬‏
YouTube - ‪Sebastian - Gøgleren‬‏
And nanookanono, very beautiful bass; thanks for posting it! Hopefully more Mørch owners will find this thread.
Nice Kasper!
The curl was the first Mørch I tried and fell in love with. That would have been around 1997. I was visiting Copenhagen and my friends there took me to a bass shop in town. They had a lot of nice instruments, and quite a few Mørch and Celinder basses. I spent a lot of time there with a Mørch 5 string curl very similar to yours and was completely blown away by it's beauty and fantastic sound. I took a Mørch brochure and promised myself that I would buy one when I got the chance.
Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the shop, but I do remember that it was on the ground floor in the downtown shopping district and they had a white double bass flight case on the sidewalk that they were using as a sign. In fact, I rented that very same case to fly back to the USA with a double bass I had just purchased in Prague.
If anyone can remember the name of that shop, I'd be interested to know.
The curl was the first Mørch I tried and fell in love with. That would have been around 1997. I was visiting Copenhagen and my friends there took me to a bass shop in town. They had a lot of nice instruments, and quite a few Mørch and Celinder basses. I spent a lot of time there with a Mørch 5 string curl very similar to yours and was completely blown away by it's beauty and fantastic sound. I took a Mørch brochure and promised myself that I would buy one when I got the chance.
Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the shop, but I do remember that it was on the ground floor in the downtown shopping district and they had a white double bass flight case on the sidewalk that they were using as a sign. In fact, I rented that very same case to fly back to the USA with a double bass I had just purchased in Prague.
If anyone can remember the name of that shop, I'd be interested to know.
Bassdroid, I think it was Christian Celinder's shop. It closed down not too long after your visit. A shame, but I think the high rent costs did them in.
There's no real bass shop in Denmark anymore :-(
There's no real bass shop in Denmark anymore :-(
Thombas - Yes - Swamp Ash and the rest is hard Maple... It IS hard hitting.... Actually a little dark in the tone to my taste. These Rock Man PU's lives up to their name - and although the tone actually is very versatile - I generally miss some highs. I will call Mørch some day to explore possibilities ....
Would love to hear your Rob-Allen
Would love to hear your Rob-Allen
It'll be interesting to hear what Johnny comes up with, if it's a p/u solution or a pre-amp tweak.
I can send you a couple of new clips of the RA in "action" shortly, it's appearing on 2 different cds, which are in the process of being mixed these days. Otherwise, we could arrange a gear GTG, and I could get to try your Mørch
IDK, But having visited Denmark on several occasions, I can say that country, along with the rest of Scandinavia, is full of smoking babes. So much so, that I suspect a genetic experiment. (Marlboro seems to be the smoke of choice)
