NAMM 2011 – Aquilina Bass Guitars from France

January 16, 2011 – Sebastien Aquilina talks about his beautifully hand-crafted basses at Winter NAMM

French Luthier Sebastien Aquilina designs and builds custom “works of art” bass guitars that play and sound as beautiful as they look. His impeccable craftsmanship and choice of premium appointments creates a synergy with alder, mahogany, poplar, maple, sycamore and exotic woods in fine musical instruments in the French tradition. There are 3 basic Aguilina models to choose from and all can be customized to your taste.

Sebastien’s basses are truly special both visually and aurally. They are handcrafted 100% by his hands and he creates about 20 instruments per year. I had a chance to play several models (several times, couldn’t keep my hands off) and when I was in his booth everyone who stopped in was drooling over them. The instruments are much lighter than they look, balance nicely and are a dream to play.

	Shelby	Db Richard Bona
Scale	870 mm (34.25 inches)	870 mm (34.25 inches)
Neck	Neck thru, sycamore/ash, carbon renforced, 24 frets	Neck thru, sycamore/ash, carbon renforced, 24 frets
Fret board	Indian Rosewood, vintage thin frets	Indian Rosewood, vintage thin frets
Body	Top: sycamore, back: alder	Top: sycamore, back: mahogany
Pickups	Delano humbucker SBC split to single coil by push/pull volume	Delano humbucker SBC split to single coil by push/pull volume
Electronics	Preamp: E‐pro BTB, volume, blend, master tone, bass and treble boost	Preamp: E‐pro BTB, volume, blend, master tone, bass and treble boost
Bridge	Hipshot	Hipshot
Machine heads	Gotho	Gotho

 

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