Spector’s Using Some Obscure Wood in Their New Helium Basses

Spector’s booth was one that I didn’t get an opportunity to visit at NAMM, but I wish I had, because they had their new Helium basses there. Apparently some mad genius was tasked with making a light bass, 7 lbs 12 oz in this case, because they got pretty creative with the wood choices.

The top of this neck through the body instruments wings are carved from quarter sawn sycamore obtained from salvaged logs of trees which have blown down in our local forests near Woodstock NY. The back of the body wings is reclaimed redwood that was originally harvested in California between 75 and 100 years ago and used for the construction of water tanks which are sited on top of office buildings in NYC. They have been filled with the purest NYC drinking water for all those years which continuously permeates the redwood. This soaking with the water helps to wash out all of the sugar in the cells of the wood so that it dries more completely and in a similar way to the method used traditionally for curing violin wood in Europe.

As a guitarist who has recently moved back to playing a lot of bass, the idea of a floating bass that makes your voice an octave higher is pretty appealing, or if not floating then at least light as hell. Sure I’ve seen basses lighter than 7 pounds, but usually at the expense of tone. Spector rounded out the design with an aluminum bridge with brass saddles, and the design is a neck-thru. No word yet about when these basses will be showing up in stores.

Source: Premier Guitar