LEFT: For an instrument to be
boutique, it should be in some
way personal. MIDDLE: Mike Sabre
builds basses with passion.
This is his new Dominique
Di Piazza Signature Model.
Photo courtesy of mike-sabre.
com RIGHT: Looking at Bas Wittenberg’s
1-string doubleneck,
it’s hard not to smile and
immediately feel the fun he
had building it. It’s unique and
dead-on target! Photo courtesy
of bas-extravaganza.nl
Reading PG’s “Staff Picks” in the
January 2013 issue, I stopped and
pondered the question of the month:
“What’s your favorite bass line of all time?”
It seems like a simple question, but the
moment I tried to answer it, I hit a wall,
ricocheting through different decades of my
musical passions and life while pondering
the many people I’ve played with and all
those who’ve inspired me.
Because I couldn’t come up with a short
answer, I thought I’d tackle a simpler question:
“What’s my favorite bass of all time?”
It took me half an hour to name the 10
models that have impressed me most, and
I’m still unable to reduce the list to one or
two. In fact, rarely did I think any of these
was perfect for me, as each bass had its benefits
and drawbacks.
Perhaps you’ve reached a similar conclusion.
This realization drives some bassists to
start building their own “perfect” vision of a
bass (and maybe make it a business). Others
are motivated to look for a luthier who can
fulfill their dream.
In the “early days,” potential bass customers
drooled over the gear their heroes
played, yet most often ended up with an
instrument from the limited selection at
the local shop. Though the choice was
narrow, you were always able to touch
and hear an instrument before you took
it home.
At the time you read this, odds are
you’ve already cruised through pages of
printed reviews, articles, and ads, or an
equivalent amount of material online. The
number of bass models and makers has
increased so much that no one knows them
all. And today, “knowing” means seeing
pictures and maybe getting an audio sample.
Many instruments are simply not available
for you to demo in person. So how can you
find your dream machine?
If you’re a regular reader, you know
PG focuses on high-end gear for the huge
custom and boutique market. The truth is,
this really isn’t a “market,” so we can skip all
those “check your budget” and “ask yourself
this or that” kinds of questions you find in
a typical buyer’s guide. It’s difficult to draw
a line between “custom” and “boutique,” as
the distinction isn’t entirely clear.
For example, nowadays all of the bigger
brands carry a custom line where instruments
can be built to order by choosing
some special finishes, a couple of options,
or simply get a famous name on the headstock.
The focus is on distinctive visual
elements, but fundamentally these are still
series instruments that simply bear the
custom tag.
So, as an experienced player with some
particular needs, you might turn to boutique
builders for your instrument. But are
boutique instruments really any different or
just pricier?
The French word boutique originally
just meant a small store, but it was later
used for little shops—often linked to fashion—
run by very specialized experts. In
our world, boutique can be described as a
low-volume production of high-end customizable
instruments that are individually
tailored for a specific client.
The definition is not as clear as it
sounds because for some, putting a grade
AAA+ top on a Jazz-bass clone qualifies it
as a boutique instrument. Another story
goes that a luthier was once given around
$20,000 to make a beautiful, exclusive
bass. He took his regular $6,000 model
and added a diamond worth $14,000. The
result might be a nice collectors’ item, but
is a lost investment for the bass world.
Because of the price, everyone would call it
“boutique,” but I’d lean toward “custom.”
For an instrument to be boutique, it
should be in some way personal, whether
it’s in the string-spacing, shape, choice of
hardware, or even where you want your
volume knob. Boutique is the personal
business, which often means pricey, but
not necessarily so. It’s a concept that ideally
offers some individual, unique selling point,
where as a buyer you get part of a philosophy
and passion.
Heiko Hoepfinger is a German
physicist and long-time bassist, classical
guitarist, and motorcycle enthusiast. His
work on fuel cells for the European orbital
glider Hermes got him deeply into modern
materials and physical acoustics, and
led him to form BassLab (basslab.de)—a
manufacturer of monocoque guitars and basses. You can
reach him at
chefchen@basslab.de..