He is arguably one of the best luthiers in the world, having specialized in electric basses.
After founding and running his own company "Tobias" for some years, he decided to sell it to Gibson in the early 90's. After a brief collaboration with Gibson, he ended up making a completely new brand that would allow him to further develop his ideas and developments in the world of bass. This company is called MTD (Michael Tobias Design).
There are two series: the MTD American (made in USA, obviously), and the more affordable series of basses crafted in Korea. These are not your usual Korean basses though. All the experiece in instrument design and components selection from Michael Tobias himself went into the development of these basses.
Some common specs in all these basses are:
24 frets (with a zero fret)
Buzz Feiten tuning system
19mm string spacing at bridge
4 string basses are 34" scale and 5 string basses are 35" to improve the low B performance.
This is the Saratoga model.
It comes with two USA Bartolini pickups and a clever preamp. controls are: Volume, Balance, Stacked Bass & Treble + 3 way miniswitch that controls the midrange behaviour (slap/fingerstyle/flat)
Bridge and tuners are by Hipshot for low weight and great performance. The one piece neck is bolted to the body, but a special shape gives the feel of a neck though neck.
