![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.notreble.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Matt-Pollock-Microtonal-Six-String-Bass-Featured.jpg?resize=1200%2C630&ssl=1\")
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I love to see when bassists bring their vision into reality, and this week we\u2019re featuring just that. Matt Pollock<\/strong> shared his microtonal bass guitar with us, which he devised and put together with some help.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been into exploring microtonal tunings for roughly a decade, and up until this bass I have either been refretting cheap instruments myself, using software to retune MIDI instruments, utilizing high partials on brass instruments, putting standard instruments in alternate tunings, and other methods that don\u2019t involve having a professionally-built instrument,\u201d Pollock explains. \u201cThis was a big step up for me and was so worth it \u2013 having a quality instrument that allows you to explore a different harmonic world is just awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n The bass is, essentially, an ESP LTD B206-SM with a custom neck made by David Powell of Tonedevil guitars. As such, it has an ash body, spalted maple top, and ESP-designed humbuckers. The magic is in Powell\u2019s handiwork, because the mahogany neck holds a rosewood fingerboard with an incredible 62 frets. <\/p>\n Powell gave us the deep dive on why such a thing exists. <\/p>\n \u201cThis bass is in a tuning called 31-equal divisions of the octave (also known as 31-tone equal temperament aka 31-TET), which divides an octave into 31 equally spaced notes rather than 12,\u201d Pollock tells us. \u201cThis is why it has 62 frets instead of 24 (31\u00d72 instead of 12\u00d72). Even though it seems like a random choice of a number, musicians and theorists have been interested in this specific tuning since at least the 16th century (maybe even earlier). As some readers may know, on fixed pitch instruments in 12-TET (piano, guitar, etc) the major thirds are about 14 cents high from how we would naturally tune them by ear to be totally beatless (a \u2018pure\u2019 major third). Essentially, major thirds on these instruments are a little out of tune. This is a historical compromise in tuning that is baked into 12-TET (and was hotly debated a few centuries ago but is now just part of the way we do business). In 31-TET, major thirds are less than 1 cent away from a pure major third, so they are much more in tune.\u201d<\/p>\n Hear the microtonal bass in action in Pollock\u2019s \u201cSeptimal River Blues\u201d:<\/p>\n In essence, this tuning lets you perfectly intonate your intervals, but it also gives you the freedom to create more complex sounds. <\/p>\n \u201cSo essentially in 31-TET you have better all around intonation of chords, but you also have a bunch of other really interesting and out-there sounding harmonies available,\u201d Pollock adds. \u201cFor example, you have a \u2018neutral\u2019 2nd that is about 150 cents (right between a half step and a whole step) which is a very important sound in many Arabic musical traditions, a harmonic 7th interval of 967 cents that is almost a perfect version of the 7th overtone (the really low minor seventh that barbershop quartets use when they lock in a dominant 7th chord \u2013 it has a really interesting train-like sound), and the diesis (which is the name for smallest step in 31-TET, about 39 cents). There are many more possibilities, as well as the vast possibilities of modulation, mixing different modes, and playing around with the fact that you can recreate standard 12-TET sounding music but can then introduce new pitches into an otherwise familiar musical landscape. I could go on but don\u2019t want to totally bore those who don\u2019t find this interesting. The short of it is that \u2018alternate\u2019 tunings (as in, any tuning that\u2019s not 12-TET) are fascinating and have a ton of practical value. We\u2019re not just a bunch of weirdos kicking around abstract ideas \u2013 there\u2019s a small but growing world of really excellent music being made using different tuning systems.\u201d<\/p>\n Pollock used the bass to write a piece for the 9th Microtonal Guitar Competition and won first place. Check out \u201cMoss Study,\u201d which borders between dreamy and hair-raising. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\t\t <\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\t\t <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I love to see when bassists bring their vision into reality, and this week we\u2019re featuring just that. Matt Pollock shared his microtonal bass guitar with us, which he devised and put together with some\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":902,"template":"","meta":[],"builder":[],"class_list":["post-94","bass","type-bass","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/bass\/94","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\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"builder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassoftheweek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fbuilder&post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.notreble.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Matt-Pollock-Microtonal-Six-String-Bass-1000x667.jpg\")
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