{"id":63,"date":"2026-03-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/?post_type=bass&p=63"},"modified":"2026-09-13T08:46:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T08:46:35","slug":"this-hybrid-chestnut-8-string-bass-by-may-custom-basses-is-stunning","status":"publish","type":"bass","link":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/?bass=this-hybrid-chestnut-8-string-bass-by-may-custom-basses-is-stunning","title":{"rendered":"This Hybrid Chestnut 8-String Bass by May Custom Basses Is Stunning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"May<\/p>\n

This week, we\u2019re featuring another jaw-dropping piece of playable art by luthier Shawn May. The big, beautiful DCSM8MS Origin model is a custom eight-string bass that features a multi-scale neck. But before you can count the strings, you\u2019re surely taken in by the colorful finish. <\/p>\n

May used some highly figured chestnut for the top, back, pickup cover, and 12th-fret inlay. The wood was stabilized by Tobias Caspar, whose process makes softer woods more durable and easier to work with. <\/p>\n

\u201cHybrid stabilized wood is stabilized wood where the large voids have been filled with a casting resin to create a solid billet of material that can be easily bookmatched with a band saw,\u201d Caspar writes on his website<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnder vacuum, dyed resin is pulled into the wood fibers as opposed to your standard rub-in dye,\u201d May says of the swirling bursts of color. \u201cCool thing about it is that it leaves a lot of the existing artifacts in the wood, so you end up with a lot of contrast rather than a single wash of color.\u201d<\/p>\n

May crafted the bass with neck-through construction. The massive neck is a combination of maple and roasted flame maple, while the body has a roasted flame maple core and maple layers just beneath the chestnut. Its roasted flame maple fretboard holds 26 frets for even more<\/em> range, and illuminated side dots light up in color-cycled octaves. <\/p>\n

The pickup cover houses three Ulyate split-coil pickups, matched to a Lusithand Devices 800BM 4-band preamp. Hardware includes a GraphTech scalloped nut, Hipshot Ultralite tuners, and Guyker GB111 roller bridges. <\/p>\n

As you can imagine, this bass is not light. May shares that it is 13.4 pounds, adding that he\u2019s \u201cnot surprised.\u201d But whether or not you play an extended-range bass, you have to admire the sheer beauty of this beast.<\/p>\n

May Custom Basses DCSM8MS Origin Photos:<\/h2>\n
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This week, we\u2019re featuring another jaw-dropping piece of playable art by luthier Shawn May. The big, beautiful DCSM8MS Origin model is a custom eight-string bass that features a multi-scale neck. But before you can count\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":854,"template":"","meta":[],"builder":[],"class_list":["post-63","bass","type-bass","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/bass\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/bass"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/bass"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"builder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fbuilder&post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}