Luthier Marek Dabek of Stradi Basses has been wowing us for years, and this week we’ve got another jaw-dropper. David Sutkin shared his new Stradi Apollo Symphony Bass that is an evolution of the standard Stradi model. The bassist and NYC bassist worked closely on the details of the design for over a year, says Dabek.
The luthier kindly gave us a full rundown on the collaboration:
“[We] spent countless hours choosing specific, select woods, design concepts, and details like aesthetics, electronics, pickup positions, bridge types, etc. all with a focus to create a very special instrument with great functionality and a unique, individual character. Ultimately, the level of satisfaction from the first designs to the final build left us both feeling that we’ve designed something truly unique and special.
I love to work with people like David – people that inspire me to push my own boundaries for example asking if I can create black frets to contrast the pale moon ebony fingerboard? I love these challenges and I was extremely happy with the results. The frets now have now the same specific black dull shine similar to dark, gunmetal.
Another challenge was to create the option to route separate, individual signals to allow each of the 4 strings to run independently through different effects chains but still have the ability to use the bass traditionally when needed. As a result, we ended up with a 4-coil pickup custom built for us by Humless Pickups. Using two stereo Y cables, we can run separate, individual string signals through any desired effects chains or use a standard mono cable that turns the bass signal back to a traditional, operational setting. The wiring was quite a challenge as well. I wanted to go as simple as possible with a passive setup and just one switch to change the operational mode using a common quad volume pot and tone pot, this functionality gave me pure satisfaction!
The bass has a solid construction with a deeply roasted flamed oak body and beautiful book-matched piece of roasted flamed ash for the top and a thin line of contrasting maple in-between. The top carving brings even more elegance to the ash as it enhances the beautiful flaming that corresponds nicely with the natural wood grain. The neck is made with 3 pieces of purpleheart with roasted oak linings between. A big thanks to Mr. Adrian Maruszczyk for his help getting us such a beautiful piece of pale moon ebony for us to use for the fingerboard! for side position markers I used crushed jasper stone in a nice marine blue color, surrounded by pure silver outlines.
The bridge is a saddle-less construction design by Ray Ross, fitted on ebony support to accommodate it to the carved top design. The tuners used are Gotoh Res-O-Lites with the added addition of a Hipshot Xtender equipped with a double-stop lever so the low string can go down from E to D and even drop C. Aurora black string finish the aesthetic beautifully.”
