The Artist basses were designed to primarily give a sound and tone similar to that of an upright bass, but feel and play like a regular electric bass. The first Artist I made was in 1995, it has changed a bit since then! Depending on what sort of strings are used the bass behaves differently. Nylon tapewound strings give the bass the upright sound, flatwound strings a more acoustic fretless tone and roundwounds a very organic electric fretless. A magnetic pickup can also be added to give more variation in tone.
As standard the bass has a laminated mahogany and wenge or mahogany and black veneer neck with a mahogany headstock scarf joint, wenge accent. There is a choice of fretboard, african ebony, macassar ebony, ziricote, kingwood, to name a few. The Headstock veneer matches the body top and finish, front and back, with a black veneer between.
The body is mahogany, chambered, with a drop top, a large choice of woods available. Black top edge binding. An optional sound hole can be routed into the upper bout. The pickup is a piezo transducer mounted beneath the saddle but there is the option for the body to be routed for a single magnetic pickup. The bridge is rosewood and mounted in a recess.
A volume and tone control as standard but there is the option for a 2 or 3 band eq.
A very versatile instrument.
Instrument Name | Shuker Artist Bass |
Neck | |
---|---|
Construction | Bolt on Neck, 4, 5 or 6 string |
Scale Length | 33″, 34″ or 35″ scale |
Fret Amount | 24 frets / fretless |
Fret Type | Two way truss and carbon fibre reinforcement |
Inlays | Position dots / inlay options and ledsmm |
Headstock | Matching headstock facings front and rearmm |
Nut Type | Composite nut and saddle |
Neck Woods | 5 or 7 piece laminate, mahogany / black veneer. |
Fretboard Wood | Ebonies, maples, rosewoods, composite fingerboards |
Truss Rod | Two way truss and carbon fibre reinforcement |
Body | |
Body Top | Mastergrade figured wood facings |
Body Woods | Mahogany chambered body |
Finish | |
Neck Finish | |
Body Finish | Natural / Gloss finishes |
Body Stain | Natural tones |
Hardware | |
Tuners | Gotoh, Schaller, Hipshot tuners |
Bridge | Rosewood bridge |
Pickups | Optional magnetic pickup – custom wound, EMG, Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio |
Switching | |
Electronics | headway transducer pickup and preamp, 2 or 3 band eq – Shuker, EMG, Seymour Duncan, East UK |
Hardware | Chrome, black or gold hardware |