Epiphone Jack Casady Bass in Metallic Gold

Deep, articulate tone and classic semi-hollowbody style are the hallmarks of the Epiphone Jack Casady Signature Bass. The maple body, mahogany center block, set maple neck, and rosewood fretboard conspire to create a sweet-playing bass you won't want to put down. Has a single low-impedance JCB-1 humbucker with VariTone control, as well as traditional volume and tone knobs. Pearloid trapezoid fingerboard inlays, body binding, and Jack's signature across the headstock set it apart.

Jack Casady, electric rock bass player extraordinaire, worked closely with Gibson and Epiphone to create this tasty signature model. It's a long-scale, hollowbody electric bass constructed loosely around his vintage 1972 Gibson Les Paul Signature bass, discovered in a New York instrument shop in the mid '80s. Starting from there, Jack spent a lot of energy working with a pickup designer from Epiphone putting together a new humbucker to reside in his signature model. Together they nailed down a passive pickup and control section that delivered tone so pure and natural it'll give you goose bumps. The pickup is a special low-impedance model (the JCB-1), which produces a bass sound high impedance pickups and active electronics can't match.

The controls -- a volume, tone, and versatile VariTone knob -- produce enough variation for any situation. The bass has a unique and high-quality transformer with a 3-way impedance selector which eliminates the need for active circuitry while giving the low-impedance signal from the pickup a boost. The pickup impedance selector (VariTone) allows for sounds from clear and clean with acoustic vibe to deep, round, and growling rock authority.

The body construction is unique, too. It's not a true semi-hollow or hollow body, but a hybrid that combines the best from both designs. Under the bridge is a mahogany center block that adds sustain and helps to fight feedback. This construction allows the top to vibrate freely, giving the bass guitar a more natural, woody tone.

Here's what Epiphone have to say about the Jack Casady Signature Bass

The Jack Casady Signature Bass was designed by Casady in collaboration with Epiphone and is the culmination of years of experimentation by the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna bassist to find an instrument with superb, balanced electric tone and the response of an acoustic bass.

Casady is one of the rare rock bassists known by both fans and players for his signature tone. And like The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and The Beatles' Paul McCartney, Casady became a bass player after years of study on other instruments. "My first teacher was a big band guitarist named Harry Vorhees. Later on I took from a number of guitarists; one was Bill Harris who was the guitarist for the Clovers," Casady told Epiphone.com. "He had studied with a guy who studied with Andres Segovia"

Looking for the Holy Grail of Bass Tone

"When I first started playing, I ran across a short scale semi-hollow bass," said Casady "Despite lacking some low end, I really enjoyed the semi-hollow nature of that bass and over the years tried to capture that characteristic." Casady did find a rare Les Paul bass that came close to the sound he was seeking. "In 1985, I was living in New York and happened to stop in a music store one day and saw a goldtop, full scale semi-hollow Les Paul bass," Casady recalled. "I loved the bass but found the pickup to be deficient."

Casady approached Epiphone with his ideas and with help from our Epiphone luthiers, Casady fulfilled a life-long dream by designing the perfect electric bass.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Body maple
• Top maple
• Neck mahogany
• Neck Joint Set
• Machine Heads Classic Style 19:1 ratio
• Truss Rod Adjustable
• Scale Length 34”
• Fingerboard rosewood
• Fingerboard Radius 12”
• Pickup JCB-1 Low-Impedance Humbucker
• Controls Master Volume, Master Tone, 3-Position Tone Switch
• Bridge 3-Point Adjustable
• Nut 1.6535”
• Hardware Nickel
• Color Metallic Gold (MG), ebony (EB)
• Typical Weight (+/- 5%) 8.1 lbs