The Jordan Electric Upright Bass

A new look, a familiar feel

Leading bass players who admired my violin and cello designs had been asking me for years,"When are you going to make a bass?" At the NAMM show in January of 2003, I told them to stop by next year and see the new bass. Having committed to complete this project in a year, I started refining some sketches that had been made on speculation over the years. Using visual aspects of the new cello design of 2003 and the tuners behind the bridge headless concept of the violin design, gave this bass design a distinctive look. I like to design instruments that are different and eyecatching even to the casual observer, and immediately recognizable as Jordan instruments to the astute observer.
I have several gifted bassists as repair customers and I've asked for their input over the years as to what features they'd like to see in an electric upright bass. In addition to being an amateur performing electric cellist myself, I double on upright bass and have a nice acoustic upright that was used a a model in the development of this electric upright bass. It was critical to me that any new design should have the exact feel of a fine acoustic instrument on the bass upper bout where a player leans into the bass. To me, this could only be done in carved wood rather than the removable attachments used by many other makers. In years of playing upright bass, I've thought long and hard about what functional limitations encountered in an acoustic upright bass I could remove in a new electric design. This drive towards perfection causes me to continually consider what could  and should be done, that hasn't been done yet. First, in an electric upright bass, there's no practical need for a body on the treble side of the neck. With the removal of the body on the treble side of the neck and by eliminating  the heel from the treble side of the neck, the thumb can remain behind the neck (if desired) avoiding the need to switch to thumb position over the body. The low A extention to what would otherwise be the low B string started out as an addition to my acoustic upright bass when a piano player pointed out that the piano went lower than a bass, even with a low B string. I originally converted my upright just to show that piano player that a bass could go as low as a piano, but playing with horns often allows me to make use of the low Bb an octave lower than would otherwise be possible. This striking new design while visually asymmetrical  maintains standard upright bass geometry in its contact points. 

• Designed and built by John Jordan, a recognized violin maker.
• Use of precision geared tuning machines ensures excellent tuning stability.
• Available with telescoping endpin or adjustable tripod stand (or both).
• Innovative half-heel allows both easy upper position access and conventional reference point.
  
• All normal contact points as well as standard upright bass geometry and proportion are maintained allowing any upright bass transducer system to be used and the solidbody design ensures no feedback even at stage volume.

The JORDAN ELECTRIC UPRIGHT BASS standard four string features maple neck thru body finished in a solid opaque color of your choice and a Barbera Standard transducer bridge.                                                                                                               $5,000.

See options below to determine the price of an instrument with options as preferred.

Pearlescent or metallic finishes - add $60
Heavily flamed maple with transparent finish - add $1,200
Exotic hardwood body - add $1,200 & up
Holoflash, or other custom finish - add $320 & up
Harlequin color shifting finishes - add $580
Gold plated metal hardware - add $100
Custom Inlays - quoted individually
  

RMC Transducer Bridge with Polydrive Preamp (when installed on 4 & 5 String basses) - add $400
(Note: The RMC System is standard on 6 string basses, but is an optional upgrade on 4 & 5 string basses.)
Alternative Transducers, Internal and external preamplifiers - Quoted individually

Hard cases or padded bags - Quoted individually

Maison TASSET sprl   Bd. Piercot, 31-b
4000 Liege BELGIUM Tel.# (00 32) (0) 4 223 43 47
Email: info@tasset.com (for Belgian customers, and any other French speaking or continental European customers)  
 

U.S.A. DEALERS

Electric Violin Shop   5314 Highway 55, Suite 102   Durham NC 27713   (866) 900-8400 Email: info@ElectricViolinShop.com
Elderly Instruments   1100 N. Washington    Lansing, MI 48906   (517) 372-7890
Fiddle Center   300 East Main St. (Rt 9)   East Brookfield, MA 01515   (866) 490-0054 Email: info@fiddlecenter.com
Groth Music  8056 Nicollet Ave. So.   Bloomington, MN 55420 (800) 969-4772  Email: strings@yahoo.com
Gryphon Stringed Instruments   211 Lambert Ave.   Palo Alto, CA 94306  (888) 493-2131
Phillip Injeian Violin Shop  905 Penn Ave.   Pittsburgh, PA 15222  (800)553-8742 Email: pinjeian@fyi.net
Singing Strings Music   49 Shaker Road    Belmont, NH 03220   (603) 267-7186  Email: llleeellleee1@yahoo.com
Thomas Metzler Violin Shop   604 S. Central Ave.  Glendale, CA 91204  (818) 246-0278