Ernie Ball Music Man, is displaying its Caprice and Cutlass Passive Basses at the 2016 Summer NAMM Show. The all-new Caprice and Cutlass basses are Ernie Ball Music Man’s first fully passive basses – offering players a more classic bass sound with pure tone and no coloration before amplification.
These new instruments, both newcomers to the brand’s iconic bass line, are influenced by the vintage stylings of Ernie Ball Music Man’s recently introduced StingRay and Cutlass electric guitars, combining a familiar and classic design with modern playability and the innovative award-winning engineering the company is known for. Under the direction of Ernie Ball CEO Sterling Ball, the engineering team compared and contrasted a variety of the most sought-after pickups in passive basses, and hand-wound dozens of prototypes until they found the exact tone they were searching for. Each bass features a top-loading chrome-plated steel bridge plate with vintage nickel-plated hollow steel saddles, complemented by a newly designed oversized headstock with the familiar 3+1 tuner arrangement.
The Caprice is a bold new statement in passive design. This workhorse bass is capable of blending two distinct humbucking pickup voicings (inline and offset), offering a variety of tones suitable for any musical environment. The alder body’s offset design provides a body shape that is comfortable and balanced, along with a slim neck profile. This bass has a 34-inch-scale neck with 7.5-inch radius, maple or rosewood fingerboard, ultra-light satin polyurethane finish, and Schaller BM tuning hardware. The Caprice is available with a high gloss polyester finish in black, ivory white, diamond blue and heritage tobacco burst.
The Cutlass bass features rich, vintage tone surrounded by streamlined, modern appointments for ultimate comfort and playabilty. The Cutlass's many great features include a split-coil humbucking design for that big, round bottom-end tone, a comfortable "C"-shaped neck carve and a lightweight contoured alder body. This bass has a 34-inch-scale neck with 7.5-inch radius, maple or rosewood fingerboard, ultra-light satin polyurethane finish, and Schaller BM tuning hardware. The Cutlass bass is available in black, white, diamond blue and heritage tobacco burst.
Pre-ordering for both Caprice and Cutlass Passive Basses begins July 1, 2016, at street prices of $1649.00 (Caprice Passive bass) and $1699.00 (Cutlass Passive bass).
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