Mark Bass Kilimanjaro 5 Richard Bona Bass

NO COMPROMISE!

Kilimanjaro bass comes from the strong collaboration between Richard Bona and Marco De Virgiliis who, with this amazing instrument as well, have respected the main principle they share: they don’t accept compromises!

Richard is one the most appreciated and respected musicians worldwide and since the very beginning on this project he said he would have never put his name (and his fingers as well) on an instrument not delivering the highest quality standard, so Marco and his team used all their experience to create an instrument satisfying the highest lute manufacturing standards and all his business knowledge to offer such a great instrument at very competitive price.

DESIGN
It hasn’t been easy designing such a pleasant shaped instrument, really ergonomic and balanced even though it’s quite far from a standard design any bass player is familiar with. On the Kilimanjaro bass we wanted an original design that we improved together with Richard until we came to the final result satisfying 100% Richard, Marco and any bass player who had the chance to try the very first samples we made.

Starting from the body shape with the smoothed back for those playing while seated holding bass in a classical style position (a pretty trendy fashion between bass players), then the lower cutaway designed to offer maximum access until the last fret, the ultra refinished and comfortable neck letting super low action settings, the innovative headstock designed step by step with Richard where we used a single neck/headstock wood block with a 7° angle not needing any strings retainer on it.

WOODS
BODY:  we’ve chosen a two pieces swamp ash body with a selected AAAA solid flame maple top and a binding line between the body and top to enhance its beauty, using the same maple and binding on the matching headstock. The control cavity cover is made with swamp ash as well.
NECK:  canadian maple with quarter cut and two graphite bars for maximun stability and dual action truss rod adjustable on the headstock.
FRETBOARD: Flame maple, 34" scale, 24 ultra carefully refinished frets and black GraphTech nut.

HARDWARE
Hipshot-1/2” Ultralite USA Black machine heads, super light and ultra precise with a 20:1 ratio for fast and perfect tuning.
Hipshot KickAss Black bridge with brass saddles and adjustable strings distance from 17.7 mm to 20 mm, so you can customize the space between strings as you prefer.

 
PICKUPS
On this Hi End version we’ve chosen Bartolini MK4CBC(4string) and MK5CBC(5 string) neck and bridge pickups, perfectly matched with the Markbass electronic to get a really focused and dynamic tone.
We also offer as optional the handmade ebony ramp perfectly matched with the pick ups profile.

ELECTRONIC
All Marco’s and Markbass experience on bass TONE has been condensed on this outstanding electronic circuit, simple, intuitive and effective even on extreme settings. Controls are VOLUME/VOLUME/TONE (with an active/passive switch on Tone) letting an incredible pickups blending capability compared to a regular Blend control and with active BASS/MID/TREBLE…so you’re not gonna have resounding bass or blowing treble. The frequency values have been chosen to offer a wide range of tones that you can use on any setting. The TONE control (working also in the passive mode) has been defined by Richard as the “G Point” because of its accurate efficacy letting to move from smooth and warm tones to bright and hi-fi ones, everything in a one of a kind “sensual” way.

We’re really proud of this amazing instrument, a lute manufacturing bass we designed putting all our passion and experience.
The result has been the creation of an authentic jewel that pushed us into creating a standard version as well.

The MB INSTRUMENT PRE featured on our basses is available also separately to be installed on your instrument.
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