ELRICK BASS GUITARS: Exclusive Distribution for Spain and Portugal. Of course we ship worldwide
Rob Elrick is a Chicago based luthier who has been building high end basses for no less than 30 years ever since he opened his shop in Chicago back in 1992.
From first day until today Elrick Basses remains a one man shop, meaning he takes care of the whole building process. Elrick’s approach to bass building is a very traditional one. Check out this video of Rob handcarving his basses:
Rob Elrick only uses the best tonewoods and parts to build his fantastic instruments. You’ll find some jaw dropping exotic tops, custom made Bartolini USA pickups and electronics, top drawer Hipshot bridges and tuners, etc. Combined with his master craftsman skills, this makes for some of the best basses in the world, period. All things considered, we think that the prices are actually very good for such instruments. Remember, these are 100% USA handmade basses with some of the best woods and parts available in the world.
There are several series on offer. Limited Edition and Master Series are showcase grade instruments that are true works of art but at a price point that is beyond many player’s budget. Then there’s the Gold and Platinum Series which we think are the most interesting. That’s why we have focused on these to series for our first in stock Elrick basses. There’s also a more affordable Standard Series that consists of instruments made in a very good factory in the Czech Republic to Rob’s specs and you are probably familiar with Cort’s licensed instruments that have put some of Rob’s expertise in the hands of beginners and tight budget buyers. For the time being we will be concentrating on the Gold and Platinum series.
GOLD SERIES e-volution 5 Exotic Ebony Top
As the name implies, this bass belongs in the Gold Series. It features a bolt on neck and has a very alive acoustic sound, something we believe is fundamental in order to get a great sound when you plug the bass to a nice amp.
This bass has a swamp ash body and sports a really amazing selected exotic ebony top. The neck is made from hardrock maple and there’s a beautiful slab of first grade ebony for the fingerboard that sports 24 perfectly shaped and crowned frets, allowing for low action with no buzz.
US made Elrick basses feature a zero fret and this has two important advantages: first of all, the sound of open or fretted strings is more consistent, but even more important is the fact that this allows for perfect intonation in the first positions, something that some basses with a less than perfectly cut nut suffer from. The zero fret removes that problem because the string sits at the exact height over that fret.
Top quality USA Hipshot parts are used for the hardware and in this case we get a Style B bridge with 19mm spacing. Tuners are Ultralite and these help control head diving issues.
Regarding electronics, custom USA Bartolini pickups are used as well as Bartolini electronics. These are not your standard Bartolini units but custom made to Rob’s specs meaning they are the perfect match for his instruments.
As you can see in the pictures, these are basses that are true eye catchers and while we love that, we feel that the two most important aspects when it comes to stringed instruments are comfort and sound. Fortunately all custom made Elrick basses score high in those departments. We truly believe that only when you get a non restricted playing experience you can pull the best sound out of an instrument. Elrick achieves perfect playability using familiar dimensions such as 34” scale, 47mm nut and 18mm spacing at the bridge. Weight plays an important role here and this bass weighs in at just 3.8kg. Amazing. Balance is perfect and there’s no neck diving which is pretty impressive considering this is a very light bass. Proves that when the design is right, things make sense. We can feel that Rob has spent many a night designing the body shape as well as the neck in order to come up with basses that play beautifully. No matter what technique you want to play on this bass, it always delivers.
The modern C shape of the neck means you can play this bass for hours without feeling left hand fatigue.
When you plug the bass to a reference amp in passive mode you get a really flat type of sound that doesn't boost any frequencies at all. This is asolutely perfect for recording as it will allow you to add EQ and processing afterwards. Switch to active mode (with the EQ set flat) and you get a more open sound with added high end detail but in a very subtle manner. This is what is usually referred at as HiFi sound but the good news is that this more modern character is not overpowering at all. Of course you can use the 3 band EQ to take the sound to a completely different place as there's a lot of scope here. Treble is really crystal clear, Bass is incredibly powerful and Midrange is super verstile because you can choose the frequency (250-500-800Hz). Lots of possibilties here but all the sounds you can pull from this bass are top class.
After all it is the sum of all parts that creates a particular sound and we feel that Rob Elrick is like a good cook who knows how to blend the best ingredients.
We just love the way this bass sounds, how expressive it is, the huge dynamic range, the totally noise free operation, the playability, the balance and top it all, the looks. It’s a winner.
The low B is remarkably good too. it is strong, clear and best of all, it sounds completely integrated in the other strings (same tonality). That’s not easy to get so when we find a bass that nails it (like this one), we like to give the builder the due credit for it.
All things considered, we feel that the price is surprisingly good for a USA made custom 100% handmade instrument that is the result of a lot of research and hard work.
Custom hardcase included in the price.