Dunable Guitars Announces the JM Bass

Los Angeles, CA (November 13, 2017) -- High On Fire are inarguably one of the most influential bands in the history of heavy music. Their bass player, Jeff Matz, is a master and visionary in the unending pursuit of perfect tone. We at Dunable Guitars rely on the feedback from experienced players like Jeff to create the perfect tools for making heavy, loud music. After working together on a couple custom builds over the years, we decided it was time that we create a new bass, from the ground up, designed to Jeff’s exact specs. Basically, what would be his dream instrument, fit for both tracking a High On Fire record, as well as touring on it for years to come.

In our opinion, Jeff has done the research and development necessary to know what will work and what won’t. He is an avid collector and tinkerer and has tried infinite combinations of gear, so he knows what he likes, and what sounds good. We also went to our good friend Alex Avedissian, of Avedissian Pickups, to create the perfect pickup set, the “Silver Machine” set. The Silver Machine Bass pickups are single coils with the middle being RW/RP. Calibrated for a balanced output, the Silver Machine pickups are wound for a strong punch with a tight and full low end while retaining plenty of bite for cutting overdriven tone. Jeff says, “After much experimentation, we arrived at a single coil set that delivers the cutting tone I’m after, with a big, punchy bottom end and sweet, creamy mids. These pickups deliver crisp, open clean tones, and absolutely crushing overdriven sounds.” The bridge and neck pickup placement is based on one of Jeff's favorites, a pre-1974 4001 bass, and the middle is that of a P style pickup. This combined with the 35' scale, you have a powerful, yet smooth playing and sounding instrument. We spent a great deal of 2017 planning and protoyping this bass, and we all think it is the best bass we have ever played. Extremely lightweight, and with the 35” scale, even tuning down to C standard as Jeff does, you get a nice and tight string tension, which equals strong resonance, and beautiful sustain.

Body and Neck

• 35″ scale length
• Maple Neck
• Maple fingerboard with black binding
• Roasted Swamp Ash body
• Flame Maple top
• Flame Maple headcap
• Bone nut
• Jumbo frets

Finish

• Nitrocellulose laquer satin finish
• Charcoal stain top and fingerboard, black back and sides

Hardware

• Chrome finish
• Hipshot Ultralite Clover tuning keys
• Hipshot A Style bridge (brass saddles)
• Dunlop strap locks
• Ships in hardshell case

Electronics

• Individual volume controls for each pickup (500k)
• Master tone control (500k, .22 orange drop capacitor)
• 5-way rotary pickup selector
• Mono and stereo output jacks
• Tone control is also a push-pull, which engages the bridge pickup in any switch position on the mono jack, and turns on streo mode for the stereo jack
• Avedissian “Silver Machine” pickup set
• Bridge: 10.5k output with ceramic magnets
• Middle: 10.5k output a ceramic/alnico combination (RW/RP)
• Neck: 10.5k output with alnico magnets

Preorders start now and end January 2, 2018. After that, we will not make any more of these basses.

For more information:
Dunable Guitars