The Lowdown

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This week we sat down with Geo Kitta from Guiildaxe Guitars. Geo began his life journey as a musician in 1966 when he bought a (new) Japanese bass for $40 using paper route money from Woolworths Dept Store in Omaha Nebraska. He suffered through learning how to play on a bass with strings high off the fretboard and no real understanding that it could be adjusted better. He couldn't afford an amp but finally got one, a Heathkit that he and his dad built. An artist from birth - Geo loved the music around him then and wanted "in" as so many '60s kids did, expanding his creativity into music. Art degrees from the Kansas City Art Institute (BFA) and School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA) kept him busy investigating and making art but all the while playing bass in various bands in Omaha, KC and Chicago. Geo moved to the Bay Area in 1990 and continued to make art and play music. In 2013, he decided to combine his love of art and music by starting Gildaxe, which initially focused on custom art finishes incorporating the ancient craft of gilding (gold leaf, silver leaf, copper leaf and variegated leaf) and more recently designing my own unique custom bass guitars. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bestbassgear/message

This week we sat down with Pamela and Leigh from Fanny's House of Music. If you know Fanny's House of Music, you know it's more than a music store: it's a mission. They're excited to announce the next phase of that mission is Fanny's School of Music. Their current building limits the number of students they can serve and programs they can offer. So they formed a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and are launching a capital campaign to build a separate building for Fanny's School of Music. In addition to tripling the number of students they can serve, the new building will enable them to provide music therapy offices and a community space for group lessons, workshops, and live performances. Like Fanny's House of Music, Fanny's School of Music will be a place where everyone can feel comfortable exploring and growing, especially women and girls. For more information and to learn how you can help, visit fannysschoolofmusic.org. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bestbassgear/message

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This week, we sat down with Richard Doner. He's one half of a part-time father-son charitable enterprise called Doner Designs. They build themed guitars to benefit major national charities. Their most recent project is a 'Back to the Future' inspired Time Machine bass. Past projects have raised thousands of dollars for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, The Make-A-Wish Foundation, The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and The United Services Organizations (USO). Links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donerdesigns/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donerdesigns/ Website: www.donerdesigns.org --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bestbassgear/message

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This episode Frankie and I sat down with Marc Ryan from No If Customs. He started building in 2005, in his 3rd floor apartment in Boulder. ========================== Here's his story: "I just wanted to see if I could pull it off. I had basic woodworking skills, but in my 30 years of playing, I had never tackled much more than a repaint. I had a 50 hour a week job as a systems engineer, so this was definitely a free time project. I had no formal training but had made friends with a couple luthiers around the country. Thankfully, they gave me some great advice and were never against talking shop. I had minimal tools (Dremel, hand files/chisels/saws and a drill) but I had a lot of drive. My drive comes from that sense of accomplishment at the end of a project. Even if that project came with some hard-learned lessons, I had completed it. I had done it and knew how to make the next one better. My first two basses were built at the same time. Different shapes, different woods, different preamps; lots of challenges for myself. The process was very crude, but that was expected, given my environment and the tools that I had to work with. My brain's choice of woods was mostly purpleheart, wenge and bubinga, meaning that I broke probably eighty coping blades and burned out at least two drills. I broke screws because I didn't have pilot holes big enough for the denser woods. I had many moments of discouragement. There were days I could barely move my arms or use my hands and I asked myself what was I doing? I had two hundred hours invested, was this worth it? I pushed on and when I finished my first two and finally got to play them, it was such a rush. They looked, felt, played and sounded exactly how I wanted them to and I had made them from nothing. I intended on just building myself a bass in the style that I wanted but after showing the first couple off to friends and forums, I was asked if I was interested in selling them. I was even asked to sell them in a local store (which I did.) I had different friends wanting a build and the word spread. I am currently working on a couple of personal projects and have plans of launching the shop again in 2022." Marc noifcustoms@hotmail.com ======================== --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bestbassgear/message

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This week we sat down with Jon from Jon Maghini Guitars. We discussed a wide range of topics from what it's like working from home and knowing who your customer is before you build your brand. We had a blast! Here's a personal note from Jon: ================================================================== Hi All! Drawing from my years of experience both working on and playing vintage instruments I set out to design models which capture the look and feel of guitars from a by gone era. Over the past couple of decades, I have learned it is best for me to keep things simple. I prefer to build with my own two hands using tools and machinery that would have seen use during the golden age of electric guitar construction in cities like Fullerton or Kalamazoo. I prefer to use sustainable woods and sometimes old growth stock when I can find it. I love the look and feel of lacquer finishes so that is my standard. Mixing most of my colors by eye I can get pretty close to those favored colors of the 50's and 60's. Flakes and bursts are also an option. All my guitars feature some level of distressing of the finish and hardware, no two are alike! All my handmade pickups are scatter wound and flash potted. Wax potting is standard,lacquer is available as an option. In addition to my own line, I also offer pickups by Gemini and a few other select fine makers... Most of my instruments are built as stock, but I also build to order and that all starts with a conversation, so feel free to get in touch. Contact. https://www.maghiniguitars.com https://www.instagram.com/maghini_guitars/ https://www.facebook.com/maghiniguitars jon@maghiniguitars.com ================================================================ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bestbassgear/message

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In this episode, Frankie and Eric were joined by Joe Sheldon and Eli Martin from Prana Custom Guitars! Sitting down with us from their shop in Lancaster County / Central PA. Joe and Eli are custom bass and guitar designers and builders since 2014. You can check out more about them here: https://www.facebook.com/Prana-Custom-Guitars-1852375491646644 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNMfptS-UgjFnpJ4Cr1bTdw --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bestbassgear/message

Player. Artist. And genuinely one of the most interesting people we've met! Born in Los Angeles into a musical family, Alan Deremo has had a long and varied career as a bass player and more recently as a producer and composer as well. His touring and recording credits include stints with Colin Hay (Men at Work), Belinda Carlisle, Nathaniel Rateliff, John Denver, the Captain and Tennille, Tony Hawk's Boom Boom Huck Jam, Glenn Frey, Dave Alvin, Eric Marienthal, Vince Gill and Amy Grant, Glenn Branca, Jesse Colin Young, and many others. His scoring work has appeared on CBS Sports, ESPN, Fuel TV, Sierra Club Films and elsewhere. Alan has produced over a dozen independent album releases over the last few years. During the pandemic Alan has stayed busy with various studio projects, contributing bass tracks to projects by artists from all over the world as well as working on ongoing production assignments. The most recent of those is Illuminations from Nashville artist Sean Della Croce, due for release in late February on the Pasadena/Concord label. In addition to all of the above, Alan has been an inveterate tinkerer from an early age, progressing from hacking up his first bass (a 60's Teisco) to extensive modification and building and finishing at least half dozen instruments in recent years. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bestbassgear/message

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In this episode Frankie and Eric sit down with Ed Garnero. Bass player. Bass maker. Seismologist. Educator. Artist. Ed has been building basses from scratch since around 2015. Having gigged professionally for over 40 years, he was more recently driven to build his own out of curiosity as well as a dream of a specific feel and sound -- a rich and versatile sonic spectrum from an instrument in which the player feels the vibrations fully. During the day he is a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, teaching and researching seismology, geophysics, and geological sciences. As a seismologist who studies seismic waves from earthquakes, Ed has been pursuing tuned resonance channels within the body and neck to "liven" as well as lighten instruments. That, combined with exploring local and sustainable woods, is at the core of his designs. Recently he has been moving towards an open source philosophy, and will be freely giving away his design plans. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bestbassgear/message