- Mar 22, 2000
- 1,156
- 86
- 46
- Disclosures
- owner: J. Kennedy Guitar Repair, Guitar tech for Walk the Moon
Ok so this morning I had most of my basses on the ground floor of the house and decided to take a few quick pics and start this tribute thread to my friend, mentor, and one heck of a forward thinking luthier Matt Friedman. While he's not building any more, I'm happy so say that I own a LOAD of his basses, several of the highest level of lutherie I've ever seen. I have 6 fully function Acacias, and two other ones that are in various states of disrepair. Ok, so here's a pic then a brief description of each....
From left to right:
-4-string fretless custom with lane poors and an Aguilar OBP-3, rosewood t/b, padouk core, wenge/padouk/rosewood neck. This bass was started by Matt and finished by me with Matt performing the final fingerboard leveling and nut install in '03. One of the last basses Matt worked on.
-5-string Padouk Custom T/B mahogany core, wenge/padouk/mahogany neck, Bartolinis with a U-retro pre-amp. Built in '94 with electronics and tuner upgrades done by me this year.
-5-string Custom Burled Redwood T/B, Fanned frets (34"-35") with mahogany core, wenge/ebony/mahogany neck with Snakewood fingerboard. Carved Brazilian Rosewood bridge, Bart MM + soapbar PUs, with a U-retro pre-amp. The bass also has a custom hipshot D-tuner on the E string and and standard D-tuner on the B-string.
-5-string Custom Burled birdseye pink ivory topped/ AAAA quilted maple back, Fanned frets (34"-35") with Flamed Pink ivory block inlays angled to match the fanning, Jatoba/purpleheart/maple neck, mahogany core, Aero PUs cased in pink ivory (covers are book matched to each other!), Audere 4-band pre-amp, custom hipshot D-tuner on the E string and and standard D-tuner on the B-string. It also has a Pink ivory bridge and a pink ivory truss rod cover/ramp. the section between the pickups is also raised to the height of the pickups al a a willis ramp. Signed by Les claypool on the back of the headstock, Stanley Clarke on the front. On top of all that there is a flamed pink ivory and ebony smiley face inlaid into the back of the bass (see my avatar for a pic). This bass was featured on the first page of the bass section of the 2001-2002 miller/freeman guitar and bass buyers guide. This is the bass that will be pried out of my cold dead hands
-10-string Custom, tulip wood top/Padouk back, zebrawood core, wenge/koa/purpleheart neck, quad coil bart PUs, Lane Poor 2x1 Pre-amp, custom made tulipwood bridge with bridge tuning gears for the octave strings. this is a freight train of a bass!
-4-string GLB/Gruv Bass, dropped top Quilted maple top, Ash back. Wenge/purpleheart/bubinga neck, and the Mecca of no longer produced hardware: Lane Poor Jazz pick ups, and a 2-tek bridge. Within the next week it'll have a LP 1x1 pre-amp installed as well
Also in the collection, but not pictured, are the single GRUV 3-string with a wenge/padouk neck and ash body (tuned BEA) and a 4-string Custom with macassar ebony T/B.
So now everybody else show your Acacias!
From left to right:
-4-string fretless custom with lane poors and an Aguilar OBP-3, rosewood t/b, padouk core, wenge/padouk/rosewood neck. This bass was started by Matt and finished by me with Matt performing the final fingerboard leveling and nut install in '03. One of the last basses Matt worked on.
-5-string Padouk Custom T/B mahogany core, wenge/padouk/mahogany neck, Bartolinis with a U-retro pre-amp. Built in '94 with electronics and tuner upgrades done by me this year.
-5-string Custom Burled Redwood T/B, Fanned frets (34"-35") with mahogany core, wenge/ebony/mahogany neck with Snakewood fingerboard. Carved Brazilian Rosewood bridge, Bart MM + soapbar PUs, with a U-retro pre-amp. The bass also has a custom hipshot D-tuner on the E string and and standard D-tuner on the B-string.
-5-string Custom Burled birdseye pink ivory topped/ AAAA quilted maple back, Fanned frets (34"-35") with Flamed Pink ivory block inlays angled to match the fanning, Jatoba/purpleheart/maple neck, mahogany core, Aero PUs cased in pink ivory (covers are book matched to each other!), Audere 4-band pre-amp, custom hipshot D-tuner on the E string and and standard D-tuner on the B-string. It also has a Pink ivory bridge and a pink ivory truss rod cover/ramp. the section between the pickups is also raised to the height of the pickups al a a willis ramp. Signed by Les claypool on the back of the headstock, Stanley Clarke on the front. On top of all that there is a flamed pink ivory and ebony smiley face inlaid into the back of the bass (see my avatar for a pic). This bass was featured on the first page of the bass section of the 2001-2002 miller/freeman guitar and bass buyers guide. This is the bass that will be pried out of my cold dead hands
-10-string Custom, tulip wood top/Padouk back, zebrawood core, wenge/koa/purpleheart neck, quad coil bart PUs, Lane Poor 2x1 Pre-amp, custom made tulipwood bridge with bridge tuning gears for the octave strings. this is a freight train of a bass!
-4-string GLB/Gruv Bass, dropped top Quilted maple top, Ash back. Wenge/purpleheart/bubinga neck, and the Mecca of no longer produced hardware: Lane Poor Jazz pick ups, and a 2-tek bridge. Within the next week it'll have a LP 1x1 pre-amp installed as well
Also in the collection, but not pictured, are the single GRUV 3-string with a wenge/padouk neck and ash body (tuned BEA) and a 4-string Custom with macassar ebony T/B.
So now everybody else show your Acacias!
(as long as it's to me 
)
