6 Recent Wyn Basses

All of the basses I’m building these days are to fill custom orders. Since I can’t seem to get far enough ahead to list any new basses for sale on the site, I thought I would at least include pictures of the last group of six that I finished in June.

First is a 5-string with a highly figured Pomelle Bubinga top, a thick Wenge tone layer, African Mahogany body core and a Figured Bubinga back. The neck is made with four layers of Eastern Hard Rock Maple and three layers of Wenge with a Maccassar Ebony fret board. Nordstrand Fatstack pickups, Aguilar OBP-3 Preamp, Hipshot hardware and Rosewood knobs. This guitar has a HUGE but very defined sound and went to a great Chicago player.

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The next two photos are of a Flamed Koa 6-string with a Wenge tone layer, African Mahogany core and Koa back. The neck is comprised of 7 layers – a two piece tapering Wenge core, three Padauk stripes and two Wenge outer rails. The fretboard is highly figured Cocobolo. Nordstrand Fatstacks, Hipshot hardware, Aguilar pre, and Tigerwood knobs!!!

This bass was custom made for Bill Dickens. He asked to have Ebony ramps installed, a paper thin neck, super low string action and a very high pickup setting. If you’re familiar with Bill’s amazing lightning fast playing, you can quickly see that every nuance in a basses set up is going to be critically important. I struggled to get everything to his liking, but eventually I feel I pretty much did and of course when you work with demanding players, you always learn a ton!! All good and the bass has an extremely dynamic and yet bell clear tone.

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I capped the back of the head stock with Flamed Koa for no particular reason other than I’d never done that before and I thought that Bill would appreciate it. (I like it!!)

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Next we have a Ziricote topped 5 string. I’ve decided that Ziricote, like Wenge is pure magic. Wenge produces great mids and super lows with attitude and focus. Ziricote produces great clarity across all frequencies with a sweet purity in the highs. You put these two woods together and you have a pretty great chance of ending up with a very musical sounding bass. The first time I used this combination was on Abraham Laboriel’s 6 string. The California player that ordered this bass wanted to get as close to what I had done for Abraham as possible. The neck is a 7 lamination neck with two taper cores of Wenge, Padauk stripes and outer rails of Bubinga. Figured Cocobolo fretboard. Sweet!!

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The next Cocobolo 6-string bass went to the Canadian Jon Laws, Drake’s Bassist. The top is comprised of heartwood (reddish) and sap wood, (whitish). The sap wood is the newest growth to the outside of the tree, the heartwood, older growth in the tree’s center. I love to find this combination (somewhat rare) when I can as it graphically redefines the shape of the guitar. Cocobolo is also a great tone wood and is fairly even across all frequencies. A full Wenge neck with Padauk stripes. This bass knocked down my neighbors garage before Jon got it. It had to go to Canada for the safety of all Americans!!!

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This Cocobolo 5-string went to David “Bassman” Celestin in New York, Ashanti’s bassist and one of our newest Wyn players. There’s that Wenge and Padauk 7 lamination neck again!! I seem to have a pattern going here!! With the Wenge tone layer on the body, this bass has that same HUGE authoritative sound.

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And finally the last three photos are of Eric “Pikfunk” Smith’s Ziricote bass. We worked together over a number of months to get the look that Eric was going for. His main request was that he wanted a visual flow to go uninterrupted from one end of the bass to the other. I ended up doing several unusual things to his guitar to achieve this look.

First, the guitar is a neck thru like all my basses, but I laminated Ziricote onto the front of the neck as it passes through the body. I basically built a mosaic of woods that connected in design from the top wing to the middle to the bottom wing. They look like one continuous board, but believe me, they’re not. Then I cut the fret board out of a matching Ziricote board maintaining the light streak on the upper side of the neck. I cut a truss rod cover out of Ziricote and I had a headstock cap out of Ziricote. But then I looked at the guitar and decided it needed an accent. A patch of red. I mean common you guys, you can overdose on Ziricote ya know!! So I found a Cocobolo piece that maintained the light pattern but then went to red. To me it just made the rest of the bass pop!

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Eric also requested that I carve the base of the bass in a way that supported the Ziricote grain patterns. And with a thick tone layer of Wenge right under the Ziricote top, it provided a nice dark textured grain to go with the top. Eric liked it so much that he very nicely explained to me that if I ever made anyone else a bass that looked anything like his, he would come down and kill me!!! So you guys heard it first here!! Don’t anybody ask for a bass that looks just like this one!!