Recently, I was able to check Consider the Source on their Hybrid Acoustic/Electric tour. While catching up with bassist John Ferrara, he told me about a bass he got to try by luthier Dan Mangrum of Mangrum Basses. As it turns out, the bass builder picked Ferrara’s brain for what he calls the “Echo”.
“This is a completely hand-carved 5 string hollow body bass tuned E to C with a natural Danish oil finish. I started designing and building this bass with bassist John Ferrara from Consider The Source in mind since they released their new acoustic/electric hybrid album Hybrid Vol. 1: Such As A Mule. So I got in touch with him and asked ‘hypothetically if you got a hollow body bass what exactly would you want?’ Long story short I got her finished in time to make it to their show in Asheville, North Carolina with bass in hand for John to try out. It plays and sounds just as good as it looks.”
The bass’s body is crafted from bookmatched sapele mahogany and a bookmatched quilted maple burl top. Its maple neck is fitted with an ebony fingerboard with bass side dot inlays. The darkness of the fingerboard is complemented with black palm control knobs, which control a host of parameters.
“[It’s] loaded with a ton of electronics including two Aguilar pickups, an Aguilar OBP-3 preamp, a Bartolini magnetic/piezo dual buffer/preamp, my own custom made piezo pickup hidden under the bridge, 6 knobs, a switch, and two 9-volt batteries,” Mangrum explains.
Finally, hardware includes Gotoh Res-o-lite tuners and a Schaller bridge. Check out more on the Mangrum Basses Instagram page.
