London-based bass player and composer Michele Tacchi suffered a back injury in 2018, meaning playing a heavy bass was no longer an option. Tacchi built himself a much, much lighter custom fretless bass modeled after his own Fender Precision Bass to compensate for the injury, which he named LaBassa. The bass was built alongside luthiers Jack Gornati, Giuseppe Lamperti and Marco Bartoccioni, electrician Maurizio Belloli, and Italian artist Valeria Demolli.
Now you too can have LaBassa o your recordings thanks to the vast sample library Tacchi built named SampleMi. SampleMi is a Kontakt instrument designed with Francesco Vocaturo and given art by Stefano Belloli. SampleMi is available for free download here, though if you do choose to pay, all proceeds will be donated to:
- ShareTheMeal, which is an initiative of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Each year, WFP reaches more than 86 million people with food assistance in around 83 countries. WFP is 100% voluntarily funded, so every donation counts.
- EMERGENCY, which provides free, high-quality healthcare to victims of war, poverty and landmines, alongside building hospitals and training local medical staff. Founded in 1994, EMERGENCY has treated over 11 million people in 18 different countries and currently operates in Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Italy, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Uganda.
- Help Musicians, which is an independent UK charity for professional musicians of all genres, from starting out through to retirement. We help at times of crisis, but also at times of opportunity, giving people the extra support they need at a crucial stage that could make or break their career.
