Sharkfin. Attempt on an ergonomic bass

[Karl Wicklund]

Dang, I usually have some hesitation about “organic” shaped instruments. Nothing philosophical, just the traditionalist reflex coming out. Anyway, though, I really like this. Beautiful! I love it when my reflexive reactions are challenged.

[Beate Ritzert]

Beate,
I really admire what you've done here. I'm curious about the final weight. It looks to be exceptionally comfortable and well balanced.

It is indeed very comfortable, especially while sitting a lot more comfortable compared to its sibling (the Primavera). And i like the fanned frets on that bass very much. Weight is 3.2 kg.

Some things i need to change: i adjusted the strings to run exactly over the poles of the PU, which results in a string spacing of only 50 mm and an uneven distribution across the fingerboard. I also noticed that i could use short scale strings if the bridge was mounted a few (>8) mm toward the neck. Now i am forced to use medium scale strings which are even more rare than short scale strings. That's a concern only for the E string, of course.

I am not quite sure but i think increasing the spacing by 2.5 mm and mounting the D-A-E bridges differently and moving the pickup sideward by the available 0.5 mm. I am still a bit hesitating to do so because the bass plays really comfortable, and the spacing between adjacent strings is identical to m 5 string bass.