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Merlos Trium Bass 4 string

This bass is a collaboration between Doctorbass and Merlos guitars.
Doctorbass handles all the orders for this model exclusively worldwide

Now, this is a real Game Changer. The name Trium means Trio in Greek and in this case we think it’s perfect because this instrument consists of 3 parts.

José Merlos is a master luthier based in Monovar-Alicante (Spain). He’s been building basses for quite a few years and has produced more than 200 top quality instruments. His instruments share many specs with some of the top notch basses in the world such as selected tonewoods, painstakingly attention to detail, etc., but there’s something that makes his stand on his own: Merlos builds his own pickups and circuit boards and these are among the best we’ve ever heard. This allows the luthier to fit the exact type of pickups and electronics for each model, and this new Trium model is no exception.

As you can see it is a headless instrument with a clean and cool design, perfect playability, perfectly balanced and a with a great sound. The special bit comes from the fact that both wings can be detached in about 5 seconds and stored along with the neck thru body neck in a really convenient little gigbag that measures just 103cm x 21cm x15cm (long, deep, wide).

This will allow you to travel with a true professional bass around the world. There’s no other bass like this. Take it with you on the plane and forget about nightmares regarding checking a bass as normal bagage. At the same time, it is incredibly easy to move around if you move on the subway, bike or motorbike.

Sure, there have been small basses for decades such as Steinberger’s XL2 and many copies. The problem is that these basses were easy to carry around but they were really not comfortable to play due to the lack of wings. Playing seated was not an option and playing standing presented to major problems:
Your right arm would hurt after a few minutes because the bodiless design meant that your right forearm would never be comfortable.
The strap button would usually be located over the 19th fret or more, moving the bass away from you and making really uncomfortable to reach the first frets which after all is where we play the most.

Other models like Steinberger XM2 or Status basses did have wings and were thus more comfortable to play but then they would not be so easy to carry around.

That’s why the Trium Bass is a gamechager: one you get to the gig/rehearsal room/ studio all you need to do is slide the wings and attach them to the body using just one large screw and you are good to go. The whole process takes less than 10 seconds. Once you’ve finished the gig all you have to do is reverse the process (again 10 seconds) and you can move freely with a small padded gig bag that’s about the same size as a tenor saxophone. Isn’t this wonderful?

The whole wing system is machined from aircraft aluminium and it feels really solid and positive. The bottom wing is where all the magic happens because Merlos has created a really smart system that simply connects the pickups to the electronics using 6 plates. What’s more, the pickups use a fast connection method so you could replace them in the future for different Merlos pickups and you won’t won’t even need a soldering iron.

When we were co-designing the Trium Model with José Merlos we settled on the best specs for this model.
These are:
Neck through body made from 3 pieces of hard rock maple with carbon fiber rods and two way truss rod.
Maple fingerboard with 24 medium sized frets
Soft C neck
Matt finish throughout (very organic feel)
Zero fret (improves intonation and delivers great tone)
Swamp ash wings with flamed maple top
Individual bridges for the best acoustic resonance
Merlos ceramic hum buckers wired in parallel and 100% noise free
Merlos 3 band Active-Passive electronics. Completely shielded, again 100% noise free. Boost/cut is +/- 14 dB in all 3 bands. Bass is set at 40Hz, Mids at 450Hz and Treble 8kHz. Passive Tone in Passive mode (0.33 microfarad condenser for that trademark “Jaco” sound when completely rolled off.
Battery compartment uses magnets so it can be replaced without tools.

Weight is medium low (3.9kg in the case of this 4 string) so you can use it in long sessions, but the real good news is that balance is absolutely perfect. You can put the bass on your lap without a strap and move your hands away from it and it will stay in place. Now, not many basses do this. We are firm believers in ergonomics because a bass that balances so good will free your hands to play and will be far more comfortable than a bass that tends to neck dive.

The Trium model  is available in 4, 5 and 6 string versions as well as fretted and fretless.

To sum up: it is the only true professional bass that can be carried away in a really small gig bag and can be mounted back in less than 10 seconds, offering perfect playability and balance and of course it sounds absolutely wonderful. Order it today and you won’t look back, believe us.