Starry Night

Jon inlaid the moon on this bass in white Mother of Pearl. It visually balances the body inlay without going overboard. The figuring in this particular piece suggests the craters and "seas" of the moon.

The double star inlays at the twelfth fret are also done in white Mother of Pearl. These echo the Abalone stars around the filter controls on the body.

The Abalone inlays on this bass are just wild! Each one is cut and inlaid by hand. The swirling figure of the shell goes very well with the swirling figure of the Coco Bolo. We are also really fond of this combination of Abalone ovals with Mother of Pearl custom inlays. They compliment the light and dark alternating grain of Coco Bolo.

When Mary ordered this bass for Dave, Susan pulled the files from the basses we made for Phil Lesh so they could review the features of those basses and design something unique for this project. One of the early basses we made for Phil had stars inlaid on the body and the knobs clustered around them. Since this bass was not going to have the number of controls that Phil's bass had, we adapted the stars to radiate from the filter controls.
When the bass was in final assembly, we decided to add the Abalone caps to our standard knobs.

Kris does a mighty fine job of not only selecting the wood, but also positioning it well when the opportunity arises. In this view of the Omega cutout, you can see how the grain of the Coco Bolo reinforces the shape of the carving. Combined with the neat swirls eminating from the bridge, as if the tree knew it was growing for this unique bass. This instrument also demonstrates a particular resonant quality. Normally Coco Bolo offers its complex dark and bright tone, and this wood is especially responsive.