Woody's RUMBLEKAT -- design choices?

[henryjurstin13]

Allen Woody, and his signature bass - the Rumblekat. I'm hoping that someone here might've known a bit more about his design choices. I wouldn't think that he would sign on to this bass just for monetary/record deal reasons... but, who knows. He favored short-scales with Mule, so the scale length makes sense. Woody played lots of Gibson stuff, so the Epiphone makes sense to me. He was a big fan of McCartney, so this bass kinda makes sense -- but, then again it doesn't. It's not very hollow, so it's not really got the Hofner vibe. I've seen him play more of the EB basses, so I would've assumed he would've gone with the f-holes in more of a EB-2 vibe -- or smaller body for the vibe of an EB-0. He was a big fan of Felix Pappalardi, who played an EB1, so the pickup layout kinda makes sense.

Just hoping someone might have more insight to why/how the design came to be. If I were given a chance to hang with Warren, this would be topic #1, and #2 would be releasing more footage of classic trio Mule!

 

[RomanS]

My number one question would be why he went with tacky gold hardware, rather than nickel or chrome? That's the sole reason that kept me from buying one of these basses (and while I'm not adverse to some modding fun, I'm not keen on replacing tuners, bridge, pickups right away).

 

[P. Aaron]

I'm guessing he's chasing 2 things; one is what feels right in his hands and guessing he mostly does original music, the tones necessary to make that music. It's likely that simple.
Many of us obsess endlessly about gear (at times, I'm no exception) looks and then feel & tone. Prior to the Ibanez revolution of the late 70's, early 80's, we had to deal with limited choices of instruments and ways to improve them.

These days, the menu is wider than a Mississippi with factory choices. Some just find something from the rack that works & don't think much beyond that.