Class of 2025
B.S. in Mathematics, B.S. in Physics
Preliminary sketches for my electric bass were made back in 2019-–I had set out to build it during COVID. I quickly realized how expensive it would be, so I pushed it off indefinitely. Thanks to the Benenson Family, I was able to finally start cutting, gluing, soldering, and assembling the bass of my dreams. I am calling it the “Polar Bass,” since on its side, the body and headstock look like two polar bears smiling at one another.
The bass has a cedar body with an African mahogany neck and an ebony fingerboard. I especially enjoyed sanding and cutting the cedar, which uncovered this beautiful pink wave that flows down the rim of the body. I owe most of my hard skills to three resources: Building Electric Guitars (Martin Koch, 2001), Electric Guitar & Bass Design (Leonardo Lospennato, 2010), and Crimson Custom Guitars’ instructional videos. After many hours at the chalkboard, I bought from three online suppliers and eight local stores and am proud to have bought nothing from Amazon. I learned so much from talking to local luthiers around town, and I even got to meet with the CEO of Gibson.
My bass hero is Jaco Pastorius, whose rich and buttery tone I sought to capture. No piece of hardware alone can replicate any musician’s sound, and especially not Jaco’s. My vision was to develop a well defined sound equipped with restricted electronics, such that the bass would have only a few characteristic tones. In the style of Jaco, my bass is fretless with a sole bridge pickup: a vintage Fender Jazz pickup I bought used in Nashville. It has a volume knob and a somewhat unorthodox tone switch—it offers three discrete levels of brightness via three different capacitors (instead of a continuous knob attached to only one).
Inserting an onboard effect was my innovative leap of faith. Jaco commonly used a chorus-like delay pedal, and I have embedded a chorus effect that emulates that of the Juno-60, the classic ‘80s Roland synthesizer. This pedal has two preset buttons for a less intense or a more intense option, which was ideal for limiting controls. The effect duplicates an input and offsets the copy by milliseconds, which makes a modulated but fuller sound, like a chorus of basses. Internally wiring effects has always fascinated me. It’s accessible, portable, and creates a sound pairing that is integral to the instrument.
I logged well over 100 hours on the project, but unfortunately it’s around 90% complete. I knew neither how long it would take nor how many new skills I would have to learn. I figured I knew lutherie from my books, but I had no context until I got to work and made some cuts. This project never would have come to fruition if it were not for the Benenson Family, and I am eternally grateful. The “Polar Bass” was one of the most challenging and rewarding learning experiences of my life, and I will forever be grateful for their generosity.